W
e first want to thank the AFCA Thomas call; Identifying the nearest No.
Punt and
Summer Manual Committee for ask-
ing us to write this article. We hope that we
can give a brief glimpse into how we orga-
C ov er at nize and practice the punt and cover
aspect of our special teams.
Adams State
Philosophy
C ol le g e
Here at Adams State, we want to get our
best athletes on the field for each of our
positions. We feel that in order to be suc-
cessful, we must win the special teams
aspect of each game. This is not a time to
have athletes not ready to compete on the
field. We will first show our punt scheme,
and then show what we look for in each
position on the field.
Scheme
We utilize a slot formation, which
encompasses three phases. First, and
probably most important, is the protection
of the punt, where the wings, tackles,
guards and center will take three kick steps
and press out. They will engage the defen-
sive opponent with their hands. The bullets
will release down field defeating the oppo-
nent’s attempt to block and squeeze the
punt returner.
The second phase is covering the punt.
Each player should release outside having
a five-yard horizontal spacing between
each other. We want the covering players
to be aware of their surroundings and keep
the returner to their inside. The long snap-
per and personal protector control the mid -
dle of the field and can run directly at the
returner.
The final phase is squeezing the ball
carrier. We want to keep shoulders square
and keep the returner on our inside shoul-
der as we start to squeeze. If the returner
runs toward you, you hold your lane and
leverage. If the returner runs away from
you continue to squeeze and close down
your lane. We want multiple tacklers on the
returner.
Responsibilities/Alignment
Punter: Get punt away, heels at 15
yards.
Snapper: Perfect snap, listen to per-
sonal protector. He will take you to the
nearest No. 4.
Personal Protector: Identify front,
count the number of men on each side of
the center i.e.: 4-4 (Diagram 1), 5-3
(Diagram 2).
Set blocking Scheme: Rachelle or
4 for the snapper. Girl’s names takes
snapper to the left, boy’s names takes
snapper to the right. Overload call if
needed vs. a 5-3 sending both personal
protector and snapper to the same side.
Block other No. 4 if not an overload,
heels at six yards.
Wing: Set width of pocket, block No. 1,
no closer than six inches, no farther than a
foot width from tackle. Three to four feet
deep off the tackle’s butt.
Tackle: Set front of pocket help with
width of pocket, block No. 2. No closer than
six inches, no farther than a foot away from
the guard. Tackle’s front foot line up with
guard’s front foot. Don’t let the tackles line
up off the guard’s back foot, because you
will not have enough men on the line of
scrimmage.
Guard: Set front of pocket, block No. 3.
No closer than six inches, no farther than a
foot from the snapper. Guard should line up
with front in line with the snapper’s heel.
Bullets: Fight thru blocker, squeeze
punt returner. Middle of the field, bullets
line up inside the numbers. If it is a hash
punt, bullet to the field, split the difference
between hash and numbers. Bullet to the
sideline, stay at inside of the numbers.
Diagram 1: 4x4 Rachelle
Diagram 2: 5x3 Rachelle
Selection
Long Snappers: The most important
key of the punting game is having a snap-
per that can effectively execute three
areas: snap, protect, and run and cover the
punt. What we want out of our long snap-
per is a 15-yard snap that averages .75
from movement of the snap to the punter’s
hands. Along with each snap, he must be
able to get depth for punt protection pur-
poses, and then cover down the field.
Personal Protector: Must be a smart
and athletic individual. He is the captain of
the punt team. He must be able to identify
various fronts and adjust the punt protec-
tion accordingly. He must be a good
enough athlete to react to stunts and not
get blown back into the punter. He sets the
front of the protection pocket for the punter.
Bullets: Fast, physical and tough ath-
letes. Bullets must be able to fight through
the opponent’s block and get to the return-
er. Must be a good tackler.
Wings: Good athletes that have the
ability to kick a vertical line, have good
vision and smarts in picking up twisting and
stunting opponents. Wings have to be
strong enough not to get bent into the
punter by the opponent. He sets the side of
the punter’s protective pocket, and must be
good tacklers.
Tackle: Slightly bigger athlete than the
wings but needs to be athletic enough to
stay on the inside hip of the wing. Will need
to be able press out attacking opponents to
start to create the front of the punter’s pro-
tective pocket. Must be able to run and
cover and be a sure tackler.
Guards: Needs to be physically able to
handle bigger opponents and able to pick
up inside twists and stunts from linemen to
linebackers. Creates the front of the pro-
tection pocket for the punter. Must be able
to run and cover and be a sure tackler.
Drills: Punt and cover is the first special
team we practice during our spring practice.
The first thing we do is line the whole team
up every five yards going east to west. Every
coach is involved in this drill and has a line
of players to watch. Each person in line is
separated by about five yards.
We put them in a right-side stance with
their left foot up, right foot back at a little
more than a heel-to-toe stagger. Their feet
should be no closer or wider than shoulder
width apart. We make sure the back is
straight, knees are bent and butt is down
like an offensive lineman’s two-point
stance. We make them keep their inside
hand up in ready to strike position to help
with any inside moves.
Then we give the command for one kick
step with a recovery of the front foot. The
whole team will cross the field kick stepping
with the right foot. We turn them around
and change into a left side stance, with the
right foot up and left foot back in a little
Jeff Williams was an all-RMAC and all-
region punter for Adams State in 2002.
more than a heel to toe stagger, and the
right hand up in a ready position.
Coaching Points: Do not let them rise
up out of their stance when kicking back.
Make sure the back is straight and not
leaning forward. Do not let them drop their
inside hand. Watch for the feet coming
together, either closer than shoulder width
or breaking the heel to toe relationship.
From one kick step on command, we go
to three kick steps then hold. So on each
command, our players will take three kick
steps in a row, then settle back into a start-
ing position. Again, we will do this across
the field kicking with the right foot and
come back across the field kicking with the
left foot. The coaches will watch and cor-
rect them before mention coaching points.
During spring drills we will run four to
five punt teams so this is a great drill to
teach a large amount of players and to
evaluate the best personnell for the guard,
tackle and wing position. Due to depth
issues at our level, we have also found that
training everyone at first helps us in the
learning curve when we have to dig deep
into back-ups due to injury.
In our next practice session, we divide up
each area of punt and cover special teams.
We have two coaches for each position.
Bullets: We first practice on getting off
press opponent by going against a station-
ary figure working hand fighting tech-
niques, foot fires and getting hips through.
Against a double team, we practice working
through the weaker opponent using the
same technique as against press. Against
an off opponent, we work releases, foot
fires and directional cuts down the field. We
progress to using a scout defender for live
action, watching for technique errors.
Snappers and Punters: Working snaps
and punts relationship. Snapper’s work
snapping to the punter ’s hip, right hip if the
punter is right footed and left hip if the
punter is left footed, then getting depth of at
least two yards. He needs to get the ball
back to the punter in at least .75 seconds.
We will add live bodies to block when we
feel our snappers are ready.
The punter is working to keep head
down, dropping the ball flat working for the
perfect punt. Getting the ball off in 2.2 sec-
onds and having 4.5 seconds hang time.
We progress with our punters by working in
directional punts.
Wings, Tackles, Guards and
Personal Protector
We split up into right and left sides with a
coach working each position. We start with
our three kick steps, one kick step on com-
mand. Then we progress to three kick steps
on one command. Again, we watch for our
previous mentioned coaching points.
Our next progression is three kick steps
and press out. As soon as we hit our third
kick step and have engaged the opponent,
we press the opponent out forming the
pocket for the punter. We work this on air
until our players exhibit the correct tech-
nique. We add in a scout team punt rush to
give a live body to hit.
We make our wings, tackles and
guards call out and point to identify their
responsibility. Watch their technique so
they don’t revert back to old ways as soon
as there is a live body to hit. Make sure
they’re not lunging at their responsibility
and their butt is down and their base and
stagger are correct.
Team Drills
Our first team drill is a cover drill. We
line up cones spaced five yards apart, 15
yards down field. Each cone correlates
with our wings, tackles, guards, snapper
and personal protector (Diagram 3). On
the snap, the front seven will take their
three kick steps and press out and run to
their designated cone. The bullets will run
directly at the returner. When at the
cones, they break down and wait for a
whistle to return to the line of scrimmage.
Next, we add a scout team to drill, work-
ing different fronts and twists. On the
snap, the front seven will block their
responsibility using correct technique
then release to their cones.
Diagram 3
Using a scout team and cones, the next
progression that we will work is our punt
lanes and then squeezing the returner
(Diagram 4). On the snap, the front seven
will block their responsibility using correct
technique then release to their cones. They
will break down at the cone then, on the
whistle, they will run to a stationary return-
er practicing squeezing their lanes to the
returner. Next we don’t stop our front seven
at the cones but we do make sure that
when they release and start to cover that
they run over their designated cone.
Diagram 4
We then add a return man that will run in
a direction given to him by a coach, and
watch the fit and lanes of our cover team.
We watch the lanes to the direction of the
return to make sure they do not squeeze
down and keep their five yards of separa-
tion. We also check that the lanes away
from the return side do squeeze and close
down on the returner.
Our last progression is using a full scout
team with different punt block and punt
return schemes. This is a game speed drill
that will test every position and many differ-
ent scenarios that our punt and cover team
will be competing against. Our coaches
make sure that we focus on fundamentals
and will stop a drill any time that our play-
ers have a break down in their techniques.
We will always make sure that we are tech-
nically and fundamentally sound first and
foremost.

AFCA Districts
District 1 District 6
Division I-A: Sun Belt Conference, Central Florida Division I-A: Big Twelve Conference
Division I-AA: Atlantic 10 Conference, Ivy League, Metro Division I-AA: None
Atlantic Athletic Conference, Hofstra Division II, Division III: Minnesota, Wisconsin, North
Division II, Division III: New York, Vermont, New Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska
Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut. District 7
Division I-A: Conference USA, Mid-American
District 2 Conference
Division I-A: Big East Conference, Navy, Connecticut Division I-AA: Southland Conference
Division I-AA: Patriot League, Northeast Conference Division II, Division III: Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma,
Division II, Division III: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kansas and Missouri
Delaware and West Virginia
District 8
District 3 Division I-A: Western Athletic Conference, Mountain
Division I-A: Atlantic Coast Conference West Conference
Division I-AA: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Division I-AA: Big Sky Conference, Southern Utah
Southern Conference, Charleston Southern, Liberty, Elon Division II, Division III: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,
Division II, Division III: Maryland, Virginia, North Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana
Carolina, South Carolina, and District of Columbia
District 9
District 4 Division I-A: Pacific 10 Conference
Division I-A: Southeastern Conference Division I-AA: Cal Poly-SLO, St. Mary’s
Division I-AA: Ohio Valley Conference, Southwestern Division II, Division III: Washington, Oregon, California,
Athletic Conference, Samford, Western Kentucky, Hawaii, Alaska
Division II, Division III: Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia Louisiana and Florida

District 5
Division I-A: Big Ten Conference, Notre Dame
Division I-AA: Pioneer Football League, Gateway
Conference
Division II, Division III: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and TM
Michigan