THE PUNT AND punt return teams probably get the most work of all special-teams units. The return unit has the best chance of changing the tone of the game. When your team blocks a punt, has a long return or scores a return touchdown, the momentum swings in favor of your team.
Then there are the times when the tone changes in favor of the other team — when there is a fumble on the catch, your return team “falls asleep” and allows a first down on a fake or the return man doesn’t catch the punt.
Make It A Priority
So, what can you do to prevent bad things from happening to your punt return teams? Practice. Practice. Practice.
Punt returns can be practiced before the season ever gets going. Let your players know this part of the game will be practiced every day.
Return men should practice catching 25 to 30 punts each day.
Secure The Ball
Punt returns start with properly catching the ball. The ultimate goal should always be not to fumble or muff the kick. Emphasize controlling the ball. Why give the ball back after your defense has done its job? You can come up with the neatest, most extravagant return schemes imaginable, but none will work if your guys don’t catch the ball.
Return Alignment
There are some things that can be done to maximize your team’s chances for a nice return. Our alignment for returns almost never changes, whether we are going for a block or a return. This allows us not to tip our hand.
Our returns are simple and don’t leave much for the imagination, but for our purpose, getting our offense on the field — they work just fine. It’d be nice to have a return for touchdown, but the primary goal is to cleanly field the punt and gain possession of the football.
Situational Returns
We use a safe return, for situations when there’s a high probability of a fake punt.
Right and left wall returns are used when facing a punter with good directional control. A double wall is for those times when you come up against an erratic punter.
The safe return is primarily used when a fake is anticipated. All linemen are covered and can be kept at the line of scrimmage as long as possible. Your linemen should stay with their man down the field while trying to impede the cover team’s pursuit.
The wall returns are basic returns. We have two of our players going away from the return side for two reasons:
1. High school punters don’t always put the ball where we want it, and we don’t want to run too far east and west to get into the wall. Basically, it’s a little added protection for our return men.
2. Maybe we can hold a couple of their cover men from quick recognition of our intentions, therefore slowing down their pursuit.
The double wall return is used when we know that our opponent’s punter is very erratic. With two walls set up, we have sufficient protection either way. Our return men have landmarks on the field that tell them which way to go.