"Moses" kick-return scheme.

As the head football coach at Hamilton Union H.S., I am always striving to perfect the three major phases of the game--offense, defense, and special teams.

More often than not, the most underestimated and undeveloped of these major units are the special teams. And we therefore place a tremendous amount of focus on them.

We believe that our special teams can pose just as much of a scoring threat as the offense or defense. Over the past three season, our kick return and punt-return schemes have put a lot of points on the scoreboard and a lot of fear into the opponents.

It is extremely important to begin a game or a second half with a great start. We have been achieving this with our "Moses" kick return scheme. When properly executed, it rewards us with big yardage, great field position, and touchdowns.

Why the name "Moses"? Because the running lane for the ball-carrier will usually open up like the parting of the Red Sea.

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As you will notice in the diagrams, the "Moses" is an evolution of the traditional wedge returns. Most of these schemes are quite valid and effective, but do have some drawbacks. They have blockers retreating on the kickoff and creating a wall (wedge) in front of the ball-carrier.

By retreating, the return team is giving up field position and allowing the oncoming tacklers to run down the field at full speed and level the wedge blockers--clogging up the running lanes and slowing down the ball-carrier.

The "Moses" return scheme prevents this. It allows the ball-carrier to run full speed into a specific lane that is being protected on both sides by a wall of blockers.

THE SETUP/PERSONNEL

The setup for the "Moses" return is the basic 5-4-2 alignment shown in Diag. 1. Within the front five, (11, 12, 13, 14, 15), the middle three are usually our best, biggest, and most agile linemen.

In the second row (16, 17, 18, 19), we use players who have good hands for the short kicks and have experience running the ball. The last two players are our fastest players because speed is essential when running 85 yards for a touchdown.

THE SCHEME:

The two most important parts of this scheme are:

1. The return man is not hindered by having a wall of blockers in front of him.

2. Most kickoff teams are taught to stay in their lanes. As soon as the ball is kicked, the five players on the right side of the kicker drop back to form a wall parallel to the sideline (Diag. 2).

At the same time the four players to the left of the kicker do the same. Both walls are formed within the width of the goal posts.

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We teach our players to use the goal posts as guides in forming the wall. We want the walls to be fairly tight together, no more than seven yards apart. Forming the walls so close together in the middle of the field automatically places eight players from the kick off team on the outside of our running lane.

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As the kick off team runs down the field, players 3,4,5 (Diag. 3) automatically take themselves right out of the play. By the time they figure out where our ball-carrier is running and start moving toward him, they are already out of position.

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Our ball-carrier is running at full speed in a straight line through the lane in the middle of the field. This forces the tacklers to change their direction, slowing them down and moving toward the middle of the field, where our blockers are waiting for them.

Only three defenders remain in the path of the ball-carrier: the kicker and the number 1 players (Diag. 3) to his right and left. Our middlemen account for these defenders.

BLOCKING SCHEME:

In order to provide the best protection for our return man, we emphasize the concept of zone blocking skills. But our middle three blockers in the front five have specific people, whom we control with the numbering system shown in Diag. 1. The opponents are numbered inside out from one to five on both sides of the kicker.

As shown in Diag. 3, the man in the middle (11) is responsible for the No. 1 defender on the right side of the kicker. Our (12) player is responsible for the #2 defender and (14) is responsible for the #1 defender to the left of the kicker.

The rest of our players (13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19) are responsible for a zone, shown in Diag. 4. The return man who does not receive the ball becomes a lead blocker and picks up any tackler that may filter through.

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Once our walls have been set and our players engage the opponent, we teach them to kick the defender down and to the outside. Our key teaching terms are simple, and we repeat them over and over again: "Block the person in your zone down and out."

No player from the kickoff team should ever come through the top shoulder of one of our blockers and penetrate the lane. We teach our players to attack our opponents' top / up-field shoulder (the shoulder closest to the kicker) and then drive them "Down and Out."

If the defender slips the block to the topside, our blockers are taught to drive them in that same direction and stay with them. This may seem to clog the running lane, but actually it opens up another lane to the outside (Diag. 5).

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Once our ball-carrier gets to the outside, there is nobody there and speed becomes a huge factor.

RETURN MEN:

In choosing our return men, I look for one thing, SPEED. I want our ball-carriers to hit the lane before the kick-off team. In setting up our return, we put our two fastest players back. They split the field in order to double our chances of a good return.

If the ball is kicked to the corner, one of our return men can get there much faster than a single return man who must worry about both sides.

As a coaching point, we tell our return men that once they receive the ball, advance to the middle of the field and run at the opposite goal post.

This ensures the ball-carrier of being in the middle of the lane running in a straight line toward the end zone. After all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

As mentioned above, if the middle of the lane becomes clogged, it means that another natural lane has opened up to the outside (Diag. 5). As long as our ball-carrier sees the opening and hits it, it becomes a race for the goal line.

During our practice sessions we actually practice clogging up the middle and allowing our ball-carriers to find the new seam to the outside. By about the third week of the season, our return men are very proficient at finding alternate seams.

PRACTICE SESSIONS:

At Hamilton High, we have found a way to practice our special teams every day. We do not practice any special teams work until two weeks prior to our first game. This first week does take a lot of time (approx. 35min. every day), but it is time well spent.

After our agilities and stretch period, we take both our JV and Varsity teams through special teams. By putting them both together, we give the younger guys an opportunity to see the schemes and get used to playing better competition.

If you cannot afford 35min. per day on special teams, you can work it into the conditioning period.

Friday is a review period and we can cover all four schemes in 30 minutes (using a very quick tempo) with only two reps for each segment). This will set the tempo for the upcoming practices the rest of the season.

As stated before, we view our special teams as a scoring threat. Our practice schedule allows us to stay focused on our special teams every day.

Do we vary the routine? Yes, depending on what needs work. If this is not done at the beginning of practice, our players know at some point and time throughout the day we will be working on special teams.

During the course of a practice, we will have players come up and ask us, "When are we doing special teams?"

Our players become as excited over special teams as they do for offense or defense. Once they discover they can produce scores and big hits, their enthusiasm for special teams makes them a legitimate scoring and yardage-producing threat.

STATISTICS FOR MOSES RETURN:

The accompanying chart (above) provides the statistics for the 2001-2003 seasons. Columns two and three indicate the number of times that our opponents tried to keep the ball out of the return man's hands. In 2002, our defense recorded six shutouts--which means that our opponents had to kick off only once in those six games.

The Moses return scheme helps us win the battle for field position, produces big yardage, and, most importantly, puts points on the board. It is easy to teach, takes minimal practice time, and has been very effective for us. Our opponents have recognized its effectiveness and no longer opt to kick it deep.

Try it and see for yourself!

Season                      2001    2002    2003   Avg. for 2001-2003

* Total kick-offs out of
  bounds                     9       2       1             4

* Total short kicks
  second row had to field    11      7       9             9

* Average return yards by
  our deep men              26.7    29.5    23.2          26.4

* Average starting field
  position                 Own 44  Own 40  Own 42        Own 42

* Total touchdowns           3       2       3            2.6

By Mark Cooley, Head Football Coach/Athletic Director, Hamilton Union H.S., Hamilton City, CA