A new mad scientist of football

read about this guy a few years ago and his philosophy of not punting and onside kicking after scores. He bases these decisions on analytics and stats. And NFL folks have been picking his brain.
Now he's got another idea to unveil this fall.

The highly successful high school coach who never punts has another radical idea

I can understand seldom punting and the onside kicks. Not sure about the lateral style. Especially at high school. It will take a lot of discipline.

 

Love this guy's philosophy. I've always thought teams are way too willing to punt the ball away and should be more daring with onside kicks. And more laterals would be fun too. Unlike baseball's sabermetric revolution--which made the game more boring to watch--these are ideas that would make the sport more entertaining if they caught on.

 

I've made the baseball argument here. Watching guys strike out and walk sucks.

 

One big advantage that isn't mentioned often with this guy is I bet players absolutely love doing this stuff. Backyard football. So imagine how much more effort he gets from his players.

Not a huge consideration I suppose as you go up the ladder, but a really big deal in high school.

 

It helps to execute out-of-the-box football concepts when you have superior athletes.

Pulaski Academy is a private school competing against mostly public schools, with few residency restrictions. Central Arkansas has some good athletes, but the talent pool is obviously thinner than Texas or Florida, and PA has the pick of what there is. (This is not a new problem in lots of states where privates and publics mix.)

At your average school with a bunch of slow, small and um, non-athletic kids, no coach is ever going for it on fourth-and-11 unless it's out of desperation at the end.

 

Punting in football is very overrated. An interception is deemed as a disaster but no one shrugs when a ball is punted.

 

You try stuff like that you'd better win.