Center—The center’s first responsibility is to make a good snap to the person who is going to kick the football. Then he blocks the man in the off-gap—no one there, blocks man over him. As an example, if we have a right-footed kicker, the center will block to his left, as illustrated in [Figure 88]. If the kicker is left-footed, the center would block to his right.
Quarterback—The quarterback acts as if he is going to receive a hand-back pass from his center. However, he takes a wider leg spread than usual in order to permit the center to pass the ball directly through the quarterback’s legs to his left halfback ([Figure 88]). His blocking rule is to block the on-gap, i.e., the right gap for a right-footed kicker, as illustrated in [Figure 88], and the left gap for a left-footed kicker.
Right Halfback—He has no blocking assignment as he covers the quick kick immediately.
Fullback—He will move over to his right slightly, and his assignment is to block the first man who shows outside of our offensive right end. He will step up to meet him, giving the kicker adequate room to kick the ball.
Left Halfback or Kicker—He lines up a little deeper than usual and moves over about a foot to his right. When the kicker catches the football, he will rock his weight back to his right foot, leaving his left foot in place, and pivoting his body to the right. He then takes a step with his left foot in about a 45 degree angle to the sideline, and at the same time he will drop the ball (pointing straight down the field) and kick the ball trying to make contact with it over the arch of his right foot. After he hits the football, he legswings toward the goal line. This action will make the ball go end-over-end and cause it to continue rolling toward the goal line upon hitting the ground.
The quick kick must come as a complete surprise to the defense or it will not be effective. If the defense knows you are going to quick kick, it will be more effective to employ spread punt and kick the football. You would get better protection and coverage from spread formation, though the element of surprise is not present.
OUR PUNT RETURN
We have never done what I would consider an outstanding job of returning our opposition’s punts. One reason for this is that it is awfully easy to overlook this particular phase of the kicking game. I am planning to devote more time on punt returns from now on.
We feel about punt returns about the same as we do pass defense—you must either rush or return, and it is difficult to accomplish both at the same time. Therefore, we try to do one or the other, depending upon the game situation.
We use a punt return to our left and one to our right, and a return up the middle to keep the kicking team honest. All of these returns have proven satisfactory from time to time.