Prep Football Special Teams

Some people are prone to dismissing high school special teams as a side note but they do so at their own expense. Football is a game of execution and that applies across the spectrum of positions including special teams. A botched punt return or punt can quickly smack a team with pain if not points so let's a closer look at special teams in the prep football world.

First, what are football special teams? It's basically an auxiliary group of players (sometimes composed of players from offense and or defense) that take the field in between offensive/defensive sets. This occurs on a few occasions. The first and most prominent is during the punt and punt return. At the beginning of the game, one team kicks the ball to the other to determine field position. The kicker is usually separate from special teams but everyone else on the field is considered special teams. During the punt return, each side has different responsibilities. For the kicking team, the special team players line up behind the ball (cannot cross plane of ball until it is kicked) and race down the field to try and tackle the receiving team's player with the ball. There are different strategies for this but the general rules requires that you be pretty crazy since you're running full speed down field and potentially smacking into oncoming offensive special team players running full speed to impede your process. It's a game of high school football chicken and the craziest man wins.

On the receiving side, it's a little more structured but not much. The typical set up is a wedge formation where you special team players form an arrow to cut through the oncoming defensive players and allow a passage for your player with the ball to run behind. It's a look back to old World War I strategies and that's probably because it still works. You're trying to break their line and get the ball through. You can't short change a special teams placement as a coach since there can be some scoring done there. If the punt returner breaks through, it can quickly turn into a ran back touch down. That's no way to start a defensive set and you never want to depend on your kicker to bring down the runner which brings us to our next point...who typically plays on high school football special teams?

Only the biggest high school sports programs can fully fill a separate special teams roster separately from the offense and/defense and it might not make sense to anyway. Let's face it...running backs are running backs for a reason. They are fast, quick, and hard to bring down. This is exactly the attributes you want to see in a punt returner especially if it means a quick 6 points can be gained. There's a lot of open field in a punt return and running backs who are used to small slots in the line love to see all that open grass. It's a dangerous combination. You'll typically see defensive 1st and 2nd string players on the kicking team and 1st and 2nd string offensive lineman on the receiving side. This goes for the other common time of seeing special team players which is during a field goal kick. With most high school football programs, the defensive and offensive players will remain on the field for field goals since their roles are pretty similar (blocking and rushing the kicker). Special teams done right can quickly throw points on the board at the high school level so put some thought into it or be ready for the consequences.

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