Building a championship football team

by Paul W. Bryant

OUR SPREAD PUNT FORMATION

Before discussing the techniques of our spread punt, I would like to tell you how we adopted it. I related previously that Tennessee defeated my 1946 Kentucky team with a punt return. In 1947 a number of teams hurt us badly by returning our punts. In 1948 the University of Mississippi ran back punts for 258 yards and two touchdowns.

Our Mississippi game bothered me a great deal. At the time we were using only the tight punt formation. I was searching for another type of formation which would give us better coverage. I had never used the spread punt, but we had played against Tulane and Vanderbilt, both of whom had employed spread punt. Woody Woodard, while at Southern Methodist University, had an exceptionally fine punting game, and I was considering changing to his system. However, while coming back from Chicago one weekend with “Scrappy” Moore of the University of Chattanooga, he sold me on trying the spread punt. He gave me his spread punt blocking rules. I adopted them, and since 1949 we have used the spread punt formation. The results have been very favorable as far as we are concerned. As an illustration, we made a study of our punting game and we found that during the season we went for eight games without having our punts returned one inch. For the entire season our punts were returned only one and four-tenths yards. During our 1950 season, the average yards returned per game from our punts was four-tenths of a yard, and we recovered five mishandled punts. The following season our opponents returned our punts for an average of one and four-tenths yards per punt, and we recovered three mishandled punts. Since we tie our kicking game in with our defensive game very closely, you can see that spread punt coverage has been much more satisfactory for us than the tight punt formation and coverage which we employed prior to 1949. I shall discuss our spread punt coverage shortly.

Spread Punt Line Splits

The main advantage of using spread punt formation is that the defensive team has a difficult time holding up your coverage. A team can cover its punt much wider. If a team can spread its men across the field as they are covering a kick, it is very hard for the receiving team to return the ball for a sizeable gain.

The splits in our offensive line are determined largely by the size of the men. We want our guards to be split about one and one-half yards from the center. These splits also will be determined by the physical size of our backfield men whom we place in the gaps to each side of the center, two yards deep. If the back is a small man, then the guard will cut down his split to approximately one yard. Conversely, if the back is a large person, the guard can widen his split to approximately one and one-half yards. Our tackles will split from their guards one and one-half to two yards. Each tackle must be able to block the second man outside of his guard. Our ends can split out as far as they wish, providing they can block back all the way to the tackle if a situation arises warranting it. The ends usually split out about two yards, as illustrated in [Figure 85].

Our up-backs line up in the seams between the guard and center, about two yards deep, as was explained previously. The personal protector will line up five yards deep, and will be on the right side for a right-footed kicker, and on the left side for a left-footed kicker. His depth will be 13 yards. The type of spread punt we employ is illustrated in [Figure 85].

Figure 85

Spread Punt Blocking Rules

We do not believe a defensive lineman will ever get a straight run at the spot where the kicker’s foot meets the football if our players occupy their proper positions, unless the defensive man comes from the outside of our protection. For this reason, we feel it is not necessary for our players to block for more than a second before going down under the punt. Our players are instructed to count, “One thousand and three,” then release downfield covering the kick.

The rules which our players use in protecting our punter apply to the blocking of any man who is within one yard of the line of scrimmage. We do not feel an opposing player can block a kick if he is more than one yard off the line of scrimmage, even though we do not block him. Our spread punt blocking rules are as follows:

Center—The center should make a perfect pass to the kicker, snap up his head quickly, and cover the kick immediately. We do not want him to block anyone.

Guards—Our guards will block the first man to their outside, and they must keep their inside foot stationary. If a guard steps laterally with his inside foot as he blocks, he will leave a hole through which a defensive man can sprint and block the kick. After he has blocked the first man to his outside for a period of one second, which I explained above, he covers the kick downfield.

Tackles—If there are two men lined up between the tackle and his adjacent guard, he will block to his inside. If there are not two men between his position and his adjacent guard, he will block the first man to his outside. After he has blocked for one second, he will cover the kick.

Ends—Each end will block the first man to his outside, unless there are two defensive men between him and his adjacent tackle. If there are two men between his guard and tackle, he will block the first man to his inside.

Up-Backs—The up-backs block anyone coming over their territory between the guard and center. If no one comes through their territory, they delay slightly and cover the kick.

Personal Protector—He looks up and down the line for the most dangerous man to the kicker, and then blocks him as he rushes.

These spread punt blocking rules apply to any defense and provide the most protection at the spot where the ball will be kicked. The basic principle for the linemen in carrying out their assignments is never to move the inside foot. If the lineman makes contact with the defensive man and throws him off-balance, then he can cover the kick immediately. The up-backs take a good stance with a wide base and uncoil at anyone coming through the inside gaps. The personal protector can use any type of block he wishes, but we prefer the butt block or the cross-body block when protecting the kicker.

Spread Punt Coverage

We want the first man down under the punt to dive at the safety man’s Adam’s apple, really “unloading” on him if possible. He may leave his feet if necessary in order to accomplish his objective. For illustrative purposes, [Figure 86], let’s assume that our center is the first man down under the punt. We want him to try to beat the football down the field, and tackle the safety man high when he touches it, or force the safety man to fair catch the football. We want our guards to go down and assume positions indicated in [Figure 86]. Our left end and right tackle will go down and set up five yards outside of the safety man, and five yards away from him. We set our right end out about 10 yards, and he is our “sprinter.” His assignment is to sprint straight for the safety man, and force the safety to fumble the ball, if possible. His line of direction has a second purpose, too. Since he is in an excellent position to catch the football should the punter fake the punt and pass, the defense must adjust to him and cannot merely permit him to run a diagonal course downfield every time we have a punting situation. If the defense continuously ignores him and doesn’t adjust to him when he covers punts, sooner or later we are going to hit him with the pass for a sizeable gain.

It is not possible for a coach to get the type of coverage on kicks, as illustrated in [Figure 86], unless he stresses the fact to his players that it is extremely important for them to spread out in order to maintain proper positions in “spreading the net” for the receiver. They must sprint at top speed in covering kicks. We do not want our left end and right tackle to make any tackles in our punt coverage, as they merely turn the runner into the other men. We want our six men to go down and get set in a football position three yards from the football and then guard the safety man. In assuming a good football position, we mean a position in which the player’s eyes are on the safety man, his tail is down, back straight, and his feet apart. If we have six men down on the safety man, guarding him, he will have no place to run. We want to drive the safety man back and forth, searching for a place to turn upfield, and then we’ll move in on him. We refer to this as our One-Six Formation. We want our up-backs to go downfield and take the positions of linebackers behind our six-man coverage, as illustrated in [Figure 86]. They must be in a position to defend against the return up the middle. We want our personal protector and punter to take halfback positions to the outside behind the one-six-two coverage formation ([Figure 86]).

Figure 86

We spend a great deal of time giving our players practice in executing their assignments on blocking and covering from spread punt formation. I can assure you that merely talking about their assignments and responsibilities will not obtain the desired results. I think we do a good job of covering punts simply because we work on this important phase of the kicking game so much.

As I mentioned previously, we do our kicking work last, not setting a definite time limit on it. When our players are covering punts, we blow a whistle and everyone stops. We want to find the players in their proper positions when covering the kick. If they are not covering to our satisfaction, we merely do it over and over again until we get the type of coverage we want. The boys actually put the pressure on each other to get perfect coverage, consequently we generally spend about 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes covering punts.