OUR ON-SIDE (SHORT) KICK
The on-side kick, i.e., legal short kick, is one of the best weapons a team can have when you must gain possession of the ball after a touchdown. We work on the on-side kick, practicing it every week. If an on-side kick helps us to win one football game, then it is well worth all the time we have spent on it.
Previously I mentioned our 1955 game with Rice where we were behind 12-0, with three minutes remaining to play in the game. We scored on a running play, kicked the extra point, and with the score 12-7 we still needed a touchdown to win the football game. Having rehearsed the on-side kick during the week, as we lined up for the kick-off, we knew our strategy would be a short kick. We recovered the ball successfully on the on-side kick, then scored with a long pass, and converted the point-after-touchdown, making the score 14-12. Rice attempted to get back into the game by passing as time was running out. We intercepted a pass, scored again, and won the game 20-12. You can see why we are firm believers in the on-side kick.
[Figure 95] illustrates our on-side kick to the left. We line up in our regular kick-off alignment. When the kicker approaches the ball, instead of driving through with the toe of his kicking shoe, he kicks the football with his instep. He merely tries to get a piece of the ball, sort of punching it left or right so we can go down and cover it quickly. The end, tackle and center ([Figure 95]) do not try to recover the ball, but try to wedge in front of it and wall off the area so the men on the receiving team cannot get possession of the football. Our halfback comes down fast and his assignment is to recover the football (behind the wall). When we kick the ball to the left, as illustrated in [Figure 95], the quarterback will swing in behind the halfback in the event he misses recovering the ball and the opposition is trying to advance the kick-off.
Figure 95
We also try an on-side kick down the middle with the tackles and guards (see [Figure 95]) forming a wall in front of the kicker, who tries to recover the football.
When we try an on-side kick to our right, the principles are the same with our end, guard and tackle forming the wall while the right halfback tries to recover the ball.