Arkansas Coach Punts Traditional Game Plan

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=892888

Creative - and a possible recruit at Tech.


Jeff Fedotin
Special to Rivals High
Kevin Kelley decided to flip football convention on its head after Pulaski (Ark.) Academy's second game of the 2007 season.
Never a fan of taking his offense off the field, the coach became miffed when his Bruins punted away to Pine Bluff (Ark.) Dollarway High only to see Pulaski allow an 80-yard touchdown on the return.
"That was stupid," Kelley said. "We should've gone for it."
As a result, his 2008 team did not punt during 14 games. Such an unorthodox strategy may seem like lunacy, but it was successful: Pulaski won the 5A state title on Dec. 6.
Kelley's team only punted twice in 2007 − once as an act of sportsmanship to prevent running up the score − and never after that Dollarway game.
Kelley has reasons to go for it.
Keeping the offense on the field on fourth down allows for more creative play-calling. Third-and-long does not have to be a passing down. The Little Rock school can run the ball, throw a screen pass or use any number of formations. Defenses do not know whether to use a nickel or dime defense. And Pulaski's offense has less pressure on third down.
"We don't really worry too much about it," quarterback Spencer Keith said. "We just get as many yards as we can. We don't have to go for the first down."
If Pulaski converts on fourth down, it creates a momentum change similar to a turnover. Other high school coaches have told Kelley they would rather see his team punt.
The Bruins even avoid punting when the defense has stopped them inside their own 10-yard line.
"You can just tell people are in the stands thinking, 'You're an idiot,' " Kelley said.
Kelley supports this rationale with numbers analysis.
If Pulaski has a fourth-and-8 at its own 5-yard line, Kelley said his explosive offense likely will convert a first down at least 50 percent of the time. If it fails to convert, statistical data from the college level shows that an opponent acquiring the ball inside the 10-yard line scores a touchdown 90 percent of the time. If Pulaski punts away (i.e., a 40-yard punt with a 10-yard return) the other team will start with the ball on the 38-yard line and score a touchdown 77 percent of the time. The difference is only 13 percent.
An innovative and statistics-minded coach, Kelley had tinkered with eschewing the punting game since winning his first state championship in 2003. He became further emboldened after reading several studies, including "Do Firms Maximize? Evidence from Pro Football," by University of California-Berkeley economics professor David Romer. Kelley also examined ZEUS, a computer program developed by Chuck Bower, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, and Frank Frigo, a game theory expert, to model and predict football outcomes.
The Pulaski coach has adopted an unusual approach to kickoffs as well. About 75 percent of the time, he uses an onside kick instead of a standard kickoff. To illustrate why, Kelley again relies on numbers.
If his team does not recover the onside kick, the opponent likely will field the kick around its own 47-yard line. On a typical kickoff, the other team usually starts around the 33-yard line.
"You're only giving up 14 yards," Kelley said. "And you get a chance to get the ball."
Pulaski features seven different kinds of onside kicks, including bunching eight players on one side of the field and three on the other; faking the kick with one kicker while another player shifts over to kick to a vacated spot in coverage; clustering all 11 players before spreading out just as the ball is kicked; bouncing a hard kick off the turf for a jump ball and launching a "helicopter kick" by kicking a ball placed on the ground against the tee. The latter strategy causes the ball to spin like a helicopter's propeller and move like a curveball.
"Much like the punting situation, [the onside kick] becomes something the other team has to work on a lot during the week," Kelley said. "That's taking time from their preparation against your offense or defense. So it all works towards the common goal."
For Kelley's objective of winning games with a risky but aggressive offense, Pulaski had the perfect quarterback. Keith, who has received major interest from Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State and several Ivy League schools, could make defenses pay for not stopping the Bruins on fourth down. And if the other team scores off a short field because of a missed fourth-down opportunity, the unflappable passer could compensate by scoring points in a hurry.
Kelley called him the most athletic quarterback he has ever coached, and Keith set the state record with 5,308 passing yards this season. He also possesses the requisite accuracy for an offense that threw on about 45 of its 75 plays a game and averaged 570 total yards.
"It's a really fun offense," Keith said. "I wouldn't change it for anything."
A possible pre-med or pre-engineering student who scored a 30 on the ACT, Keith has the intelligence to master an intricate scheme, which features pre- and post-snap reads with receivers making adjustments based on coverage.
With Keith and several other impact players returning from his 2007 team, Kelley said he knew his team had the potential for a state title this year. When the media asked for his pick of the No. 1 team in Arkansas before the season, Kelley chose Pulaski and consequently received some heat.
"It was just confidence in my guys," he said. "I thought this might be one of the better teams we've ever had."
His prediction proved to be on the mark. Although Pulaski lost its first game of the season, 46-29, to West Helena, it reeled off 13 consecutive wins and avenged that Week 1 defeat with a 35-32 state title victory against the Cougars.
During the offseason Kelley will begin investigating different football strategies. He also plans to further study the punting game by analyzing specific instances where punting may prove statistically superior.
After Kelley searches through data, Pulaski may tweak its approach next year. His 2009 team could punt on occasion, or he may develop a new tactic that defies the norms of football but gives his team an edge.
"Just because something's always been done that way," Kelley said, "doesn't mean it should continue to be done that way."

I saw 3 of their games this year. I believe the onside kick was done every kickoff except one and PA did not get any of them. The one time they did not onside kick, the kicker kicked it to the back of the endzone. My theory on Kelly's no punt strategy is that he wants to get noticed as an offensive genius so he lets the other team score so he can score more. PA had a very good defense but they gave up a lot of points because they always had to defend a short field. Whether you want to say the QB is a product of the system or not, he is very good. I saw him throw a 50 yard pass on the money while running wide open to his left. I can't figure out why he is not heavily recruited. He's 6-2, 185, and probably runs a 4.6 40. He did have knee surgery last January after hurting his knee in a basketball game, but he showed no signs of it being a problem during the season.

Interesting counterpoint to the article. I thought someone on here would know more about it. An above average quarterback with some good athletes on the team can really rack up points. Seems like this coach took advantage of having an exceptional quarterback and wanted the offensive on the field as much as possible. Throwing 50 yards accurate as you describe probably means this kid is the real deal. What are our chances of getting him here?

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Originally Posted by Easydawg

Interesting counterpoint to the article. I thought someone on here would know more about it. An above average quarterback with some good athletes on the team can really rack up points. Seems like this coach took advantage of having an exceptional quarterback and wanted the offensive on the field as much as possible. Throwing 50 yards accurate as you describe probably means this kid is the real deal. What are our chances of getting him here?

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I haven't heard of any big name schools recruiting him. What better school could he find than Tech with one of the top Bio-med engineering programs in the country? It would be nice to make him our first Arkansas recruit in over 10 years.

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Originally Posted by DONW

I haven't heard of any big name schools recruiting him. What better school could he find than Tech with one of the top Bio-med engineering programs in the country? It would be nice to make him our first Arkansas recruit in over 10 years.

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DON-I thought CRUZ was from Arkansas?

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Originally Posted by MICKEYS14

DON-I thought CRUZ was from Arkansas?

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We didn't recruit Cruz. His guardians are Tech grads that called Dooley after he decided he did not want to go to Arkansas. We haven't recruited an Arkansas player since Joe Raymond Peace was the coach. We are recruiting Jesse Grandy from Pine Bluff Dollarway this year. I've seen Grandy play and he is very fast. I believe we also offered Ferbia Allen from Dollarway last year, but, he went to OLe Miss. I don't believe we ever had a coach cross the Arkansas state line when Bicknell was the coach.

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Originally Posted by DONW

We didn't recruit Cruz. His guardians are Tech grads that called Dooley after he decided he did not want to go to Arkansas. We haven't recruited an Arkansas player since Joe Raymond Peace was the coach. We are recruiting Jesse Grandy from Pine Bluff Dollarway this year. I've seen Grandy play and he is very fast. I believe we also offered Ferbia Allen from Dollarway last year, but, he went to OLe Miss. I don't believe we ever had a coach cross the Arkansas state line when Bicknell was the coach.

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So, CRUZ & his guardians recruited US?

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Originally Posted by MICKEYS14

So, CRUZ & his guardians recruited US?

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That's what I was told by a reliable source. Everything was kept quiet here in Arkansas by the sports media about him deciding to not go to UAF because he was probably one of the top 5 recruits in their class. The only thing to come out in the media was that he did not have the grades which we all found out later was not true. There was nothing put out by the media as to why he chose Tech over Arkansas, but, it would be a real surprise to me if Conroy has ever been on the PA campus.

30 on the ACT. That's impressive.

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Originally Posted by MICKEYS14

So, CRUZ & his guardians recruited US?

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He decided that Arkansas wasn't a good fit, and looked up Tech and talked to Dooley about coming down. Dooley offered him a scholly and that was that.