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YOUR BALANCE
Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?
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Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?


Oct 21, 2019, 10:31 PM

It used to be an almost sacred coaching rule that the return man planted his heels on the 10 and if the punt was over his head he signaled fair catch ... but let the ball go.

Almost all of the time a kick like that will carom into the end zone for a touchback and come out to the 20.

Worst case, it gets downed at the two yard line instead of fair caught at the 5. Is that worth the risk of a muffed catch?

What Kendrick attempted Saturday was kind of crazy. Nothing good could have come from it. It almost cost us a TD.

We saw Sammy Watkins do the same thing up at Maryland a few years ago, giving up a Score.

Just curious. When did it become a thing to routinely field punts inside the 10?

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Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing.


Oct 21, 2019, 10:33 PM

Especially since our M.O. seems to be to neither try to block the punt nor try to get a big return.

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"All those 'Fire Brownell' guys can kiss it." -Joseph Girard III

"Everybody needs to know that Coach Brownell is arguably the best coach to come through Clemson." -PJ Hall


Re: Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing.


Oct 21, 2019, 11:37 PM

Agreed Judge. I comment on this every week and I wish I understood why we do it.

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^^^^ this ^^^^^ this right here is what makes me want to


Oct 22, 2019, 3:06 AM [ in reply to Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing. ]

scratch my eyes out ..

we barely make an effort to block a punt - we let the gunners go free ......

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null


Re: Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing.


Oct 22, 2019, 9:52 AM [ in reply to Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing. ]

I've thought that for the last few years that our philosophy on punts has been to just fair catch them or let them land and get downed. Who cares where our offense starts? The 20 or 30 or 40 is all the same. The 5 or the 10 is about the same. If someone kicks a sand wedge that stop on the 1, you tip your hat to them then give the ball to ETN or Gallman. Most of the time a punt like that (inside the 10) will get to the endzone for a touchback.

Fielding a punt is fraught with danger. Limiting it to a fair catch removes some of that danger, since the kid can concentrate on catching it without being worried about where to run or getting hit. Muffed punts can kill you almost as much as a pick-six.

I feel like our coaches have told the punt returners "Unless it's just a horrible punt that you can run forward and field on the fly, just fair catch it." We simply don't usually need the extra field position a 3 or 5 yd punt return would buy us, and the chances of you breaking a big return just aren't worth you getting hurt or muffing the punt. Just catch it and let's get the offense on the field.

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I think this is a poor philosophy overall though


Oct 22, 2019, 10:35 AM

There's plenty of evidence that our offense isn't unstoppable. When you frequently lose 10-20 yards on every punt exchange it becomes a very big deal over the course of the game. That can easily be 100+ hidden yards for the other team. A lot of people ignore those yards, but they DO count. We are consistently bad in the field position game.

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Re: I think this is a poor philosophy overall though


Oct 22, 2019, 10:41 AM

You're right if we do get stopped then have to punt and our punter is 15-20 yards shorter than theirs.

I'm not sure that my description is accurate, but I can see how such the philosophy can evolve. Given how many muffed punts happen because of a hard fast hit right as the ball is caught, or because the return man takes his eyes off the ball because he's trying to run before he catches it.

But certainly inside the 10, you gotta just let it roll, even fair catching it there does help. Just wave it off then run away or block a coverage guy to keep him from downing it before it gets to the end zone. If they down it, golf clap for the punter and coverage team.

Muffing it inside the 10 is far worse than bad field position for the offense.

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Yeah i don't know what our goal is on punt returns


Oct 22, 2019, 10:32 AM [ in reply to Great question! I’ve wondered the same thing. ]

As you said, it doesn't seem like we make much of an effort to block the punt or set up good returns.

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Re: Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?


Oct 22, 2019, 12:09 AM

I may be mistaken , but I think I've seen DK get "coached up " for fielding a punt or letting one go down there .

It seems like it's a matter of ###### if you do or ###### if you don't to the uninformed observer .

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Re: Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?


Oct 22, 2019, 12:09 AM

I may be mistaken , but I think I've seen DK get "coached up " for fielding a punt or letting one go down there .

It seems like it's a matter of ###### if you do or ###### if you don't to the uninformed observer .

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Re: Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?


Oct 22, 2019, 10:00 AM

Wasn't he coached up so much that he was replaced as punt returner for the remainder of the game?

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Re: Fielding punts over your head inside the 10 yard line. WHY?


Oct 22, 2019, 2:59 AM

He fielded one a couple of games ago inside the 10 that he just caught like a pass over his head. Game wasn’t in question but still.... This questionable practice is by no means limited to us either.

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Because that's why


Oct 22, 2019, 9:21 AM

You have a 18-21 year old kid playing a game and he thinks he has a chance to make a difference based on something he sees or thinks he sees. It is going to happen occasionally.

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Yup. Very confident athlete that wants to make a big play


Oct 22, 2019, 9:55 AM

For his team

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Re: Yup. Very confident athlete that wants to make a big play


Oct 22, 2019, 10:23 AM

I’m not just talking about the Kendrick situation (which was egregious) ... I’m asking about what appears to have become an accepted philosophy to fair catch punts inside the 10 on a routine basis.

In days past, it was considered a huge error to fair catch a punt inside the 10 ... you just weren’t supposed to do it. Ever.

Now we do it all the time.

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I should say confident players


Oct 22, 2019, 10:30 AM

I don’t agree with it either. Especially at Clemson. We have had way too many muffed punts the past 5 years

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I wouldn't be surprised if there's data to support fielding


Oct 22, 2019, 10:31 AM [ in reply to Re: Yup. Very confident athlete that wants to make a big play ]

punts around the 8 or 9 yard line. I frequently see high punts fielded in the 7-9 yard line area. I would imagine coaches really don't want to start in that 1-3 yard line area because those frequently result in really, really conservative play calling and lots of 3-and-outs.

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Re: I wouldn't be surprised if there's data to support fielding


Oct 22, 2019, 12:58 PM

I agree about the data. Maybe that’s current thinking.

I feel sure that coaches in the past felt differently though.

I’d love to see what data says about the percentage of punts that hit inside the 10 and don’t become touchbacks.

If the ball gets downed on the 1 yard line the I totally agree that in hindsight, fair catching it at the 8 was the better choice.

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How many times?***


Oct 22, 2019, 3:21 PM [ in reply to Re: Yup. Very confident athlete that wants to make a big play ]



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Geville Tiger on Clemson football , "Dabo's only problem is he has to deal with turd fans questioning every move he makes.”


How many times have we fielded a punt inside the 10 yd line?


Oct 23, 2019, 3:18 PM

Is that the question?

I’d say almost every time we’ve had the opportunity.

We do not seem to just let balls go any more when we have the chance to fair catch them at the 10 yard line or less.

That’s my obaervation anyway.

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Agreed***


Oct 22, 2019, 10:32 AM [ in reply to Because that's why ]



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Yeah that was a pretty big mistake


Oct 22, 2019, 10:27 AM

I'm fine with guys fielding the really high punts a couple yards inside the 10 because those can often be downed near the goal line if they aren't fielded, but trying to catch one over your shoulder at the ~5 is just a bad mistake that needs to be fixed. As you said, there's really no upside to fielding it and it's very dangerous to do so.

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Simple


Oct 22, 2019, 3:19 PM

The player is trying to do too much.

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Geville Tiger on Clemson football , "Dabo's only problem is he has to deal with turd fans questioning every move he makes.”


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