High school coach who never punts, always onside kicks

This is the seventh in a season-long series taking an inside look at high school football in Western North Carolina. The series will focus on a different player, coach or event each week.

ASHEVILLE – If there is a stereotypical WNC high school football coach, he would generally fit the following mold — God-fearing, conservative, play for field position, defensive-minded believer in the block and tackle fundamentals on which the game was built.

Play smart, play the percentages, better safe than sorry.

So, imagine the reaction to the unorthodox thinking of a coach like Kevin Kelley at Pulaski (Arkansas) Academy, who crunched thousands of numbers and came up with a style of virtually never punting — even when pinned inside his own 10-yard line — and always using an onside kick.

And it works.

Kelley inherited a struggling program in 2003, and after studying the statistics of every college football game over three seasons — those kinds of stats weren’t available for high school games — he concluded that his team should adopt an aggressive philosophy in which the offense almost always goes for it on fourth down, no matter what the field position.

In the past 11 years, Kelley is 124-22 and has won three state titles at a school that had reached the state semifinals just twice in the previous 40 seasons.

Among the findings that caused him to adopt radical changes on how football is played:

• Offenses score 77 percent of the time when they have the ball inside the opponents’ 40-yard line, and 92 percent when inside the 10.

So whether you punt the ball away or go for it deep in your territory, odds are the other team will score when it gets the ball.

• Average start of a drive after a conventional kickoff is the opponent’s 33yard line; average start after a failed onside kick is the 47.

• 80 percent of games lost are by the team with most turnovers.

Based on those numbers, Kelley concluded that if you punt deep in your own territory (and the belief that most high school teams only pick up 30 yards or so of field position after punting), the other team is very likely to score anyway.

So why not go for it on fourth down, no matter the field position?

Kelley said his offense earns a first down when it goes for it on fourth down about 50 percent of the time.

Contrast that with former Reynolds High coach Scott Conner, who once punted on FIRST down when pinned inside the 1-yard line.

On onside kicks, the value of recovering the ball (which Kelley views as a turnover) outweighs the 14-yard average loss in field position of the traditional kickoff versus the onside try.

Kelley said his team recovers about 20 percent of its onside kicks, and there is other value in that play.

“Teams spend a lot more practice time working to defend the onside kick when they play us, and that means they spend less time working on our offense and defense,” he said.

He will punt on rare occasions, when it’s late in the first half or near the end of the game and the percentages of a team not having enough time to drive a longer distance are in his favor.

“If I’m up two touchdowns and there’s four or five minutes to play, and the odds are it will take them longer to score if they are further from the goal lime, then I will punt,” he said.

Not surprisingly, a random sampling of area coaches found no one who would play high school football that way.

“I think punting the ball, playing field position football and and trusting you can play good defense is a big part of the game, and I wouldn’t want to give that up,” Owen coach Kenny Ford said.

“We all go for it on fourth down sometimes, but to do it all the time? To me, punting keeps you in the game. You go for it on your end and don’t make it, you might lose the game right there. But punting gives you a chance to stay in the game.”

Reynolds coach Shane Laws is more blunt about a style that Kelley said his kids love, because it’s cool and different.

“I like my job, and I would like to keep it,” Laws said.

“If I did some of things (Kelley is) doing, I don’t think I would keep my job for very long,” he said with a laugh.

“My question would be, how good is his defense? You punt for field position but also because you believe your defense holding them gives you the best chance to win.

“I’ve seen the numbers and I don’t disagree with everything (Kelley) does, but football is such a momentum game.

“You go for it and don’t make it, now the other team has all the momentum, and if they score from in close because you gave them the ball close to the goal line, that’s a big change in the game.”

“I’ve looked into that, but I just couldn’t adhere to that kamikaze philosophy,” said Asheville High coach Danny Wilkins, who is as fond of trick plays and risky calls as anyone around.

“I like the element of surprise for a fake punt or onside kick or going for it on fourth down, but if you do it all the time there is no surprise.

“When it doesn’t work, it really puts a lot of pressure on your team, especially your defense.”

One of the reasons Kelley began his unique approach to the game — in addition to what the numbers told him — was the belief that it could help even the playing field for teams that are challenged athletically or have a small number of players.

Andrews has been WNC’s least successful program over the previous 10 seasons (29-90, .243), but Wildcats’ coach Avery Cutshaw said he wouldn’t play the game like Kelley.

“I can see some of what he does having merit, but I’m a field-position coach, and that’s what I believe in,” he said.

“I absolutely hate to punt, to give the ball back, and you’re tempted a lot of times to go for it, but I believe you have to think about field position.”

Kelley said one of the major benefits of his style of play — and a few other high schools are adopting that way of playing football after attending his clinics — is the freedom of the offense knowing it has four downs to make 10 yards instead of three.

“It really helps with play calling,” he said. “For most teams, 3rd-and-8 is a passing down, but we have more options.”

Law does see the benefit of that philosophy.

“There are times when I tell my offensive coordinator that he has four downs to work with, and that does change the play-calling,” he said.

“A lot of that depends on how the game is going, the situation you’re in and how well your offense and defense is playing. It’s a feel thing most of the time.”

Laws also believes WNC might be a less than ideal place to launch radically different football ideas.

“Seven years ago, I switched from the I formation to the spread, and you would have thought I dropped a bomb in the middle of Fairview,” he said.

“If we were on our 5-yard line and it was 4th-and-5 and we went for it, I don’t think that would go over very well with our fans.”

TAKING THE FOOT OUT OF FOOTBALL

Arkansas high school football coach Kevin Kelley crunched a lot of numbers and came up with a successful philosophy based on virtually never punting and always trying onside kicks, which includes:

• When you punt from deep in your own territory, the other team scores more than 75 percent of the time, so you should go for it on fourth down. Kelley said his team makes first downs on fourth down tries about 50 percent of the time.

• The offense knowing it has four downs to gain 10 yards instead of three creates more confidence and play-calling options.

• The difference in starting point of a possession after kicking off deep as opposed to onside is just 14 yards, and Kelley’s teams recover about 20 percent of onside attempts.

• Players love the style, believing it is cool and different.