The Kickoff Can Kick Off Big Things

The play can be as basic as a wedge or as gadgety as the “beehive.” But regardless of whether a kickoff return is a simple or intricate play, it can set the tone or change the momentum of a football game.

“Think about the momentum it can change,” said Mike Giddings, Newport Harbor Coach. “A kickoff return after a touchdown is a big play. It’s darn important. There’s nothing more demoralizing than working hard on offense, getting a touchdown and then--whamo--they return the kick.”

Harry Schmidt, special teams coach at Edison, claims an opening kickoff can set the tone for a ballgame.

“I always tell our players that I hope we only run a kickoff return once in a game, so let’s try and score,” Schmidt said. “When we played El Modena (a 14-0 loss), I knew we were in big trouble when we didn’t hit a soul on the (opening) kickoff. We didn’t hit anyone the remainder of the game.”

Marijon Ancich, who has won 197 games at St. Paul and Tustin high schools, is considered an expert on special-teams play. Many of those victories, Ancich believes, can be directly credited to the play of his special teams.

Ancich: “I can honestly say that through the years our special teams were the strongest point of our teams. They were pride units. The best athletes weren’t always on the field on kickoff teams, but they were some of our most dedicated players.”

A kickoff lasts about 15 seconds but can produce plenty of action. Many times, the play looks about as orderly as a riot. Strategy? The average fan will swear there’s more confusion than cohesiveness.

The rules for a kickoff are simple. Five players on the return team must line up between the 45- and 50-yard lines. The opposing team cannot cross the 40-yard line until the ball is kicked. Once the ball is in the air, almost anything goes.

The majority of Orange County high school teams use two basic plays on the kickoff return: the wedge or the picket. The formations look relatively simple when scribbled on a chalkboard, but executing the play is another story.

Teams will generally line up with the mandatory five players at midfield, two others 10 yards behind, two more 10 yards behind them and two stationed near the goal line to receive the kick.

The success of the wedge depends on the players between the 45- and 50-yard lines, known as the “up men,” who form a triangular shield at about the 25-yard line. The same strategy applies to the back blockers, who will form another wedge with the idle return man at about the 15-yard line.

Ideally, the return man will field the ball near his goal line, run up the center of the field through the first wedge, begin to angle through the second wedge and find nothing but daylight on the way to the end zone.

Of course, the opposing team has different intentions. Kickoff teams generally have a special-team player known as the “kamikaze” or “sword,” whose job is to pierce the wedge.

The strategy is simple. He judges the depth of the kick, races to the point where the “up men” are forming a wedge and hurls his body into the blockers to break the shield before it forms.

“So many teams use the wedge because it takes a minimal amount of practice time, it’s effective and it’s easy to learn,” Schmidt said. “If everybody is blocking somebody, the wedge should get a team to the 25-yard line most of the time.”

The picket involves seven players. The five front men will line up with two back blockers, usually at five-yard intervals outside either hash mark, depending on which side of the field the ball has been kicked to. The returner attempts to run along the sideline.

Both formations have limitations. The blockers are moving backward in the wedge and become easier targets to hit. The picket limits the area of the field that a returner has to work with.

Schmidt, in his 18th year as a high school coach, favors a crossing pattern that employs the angle blocking of the picket and avoids the back-pedaling of the wedge.

“The front blockers go back only 10 yards and then sprint across the opposite side of the field to make their blocks,” Schmidt said. “The whole idea of the cross is to keep the players going forward, so that when they do make their blocks, they have the momentum going their way. When you’re going backward, you’re going to get knocked down easier.”

As in every other phase of football, the art of returning a kickoff has its share of gadget plays. The beehive is the most popular.

In the beehive, the kick-return team forms a circle near the 15-yard line, breaks the circle and then it’s up to the opposing team to figure out who has the ball.

“It doesn’t really work too well, because the blocking scheme is destroyed with every player in the circle,” Schmidt said.

Another gadget involves a pass. A kickoff return team is allowed to throw passes, as long as they are not forward. The play is considered a lateral and works best out of a picket formation. The returner attracts defenders to one side of the field and then throws a quick pass to the other side.

The onside kick is almost predictable, but there are even gadget plays for the kickoff team.

Fountain Valley, attempting to erase a 24-0 deficit against Edison last week, used a trick play for an onside kick called, “The Watermelon.”

“We lined up the kicker with five players on each side,” said Guy Carrozzo, special-teams coach. “The front players were instructed to block everybody within two yards of the ball, and our kicker would recover the ball after it rolled 10 yards.

“The kicker was told to hit his top cleat on the edge of the ball to give it a good roll straight ahead. It’s supposed to roll end over end like a watermelon.

“The play looks like it’s going in slow motion because the ball is rolling so slowly. The return team is so busy watching the ball, that they’re fair game for our blockers. It’s a great play that Ancich developed at St. Paul.”

Carrozzo forgot one little detail. The ball failed to roll the mandatory 10 yards and Fountain Valley was penalized.

“It’s one thing to chart out plays on the chalkboard,” Carrozzo said. “But it’s another thing trying to make them work.”