Why don't we fair catch every kickoff?

[MeowingCows]

If you fair catch a kick, you take it at the 25. How often do we ever return a kick past or even just up to the 25? This just seems like the smarter, easier way to go about it. A bad decision to take out a kick in the shallow part of the endzone left us with some awful field position yesterday, that's just one example. IIRC from the stat page, we only averaged ~15 yards/return.

Special teams in general hasn't been great for us, but this seems like a simple place for improvement without really any work involved. Sure, there's a chance to house a kickoff every now and then, but is one or maybe two a season really worth the trouble?

 

[clonedude]

Probably anything inside the 10 should be fair caught really.

 

[madguy30]

Plus the field conditions just begged for a fumble on the return.

It's boring, but the 25 yard line is safer than anything else we've seen.

 

[Go2Guy]

def in yesterday's game, we should have. Kick coverage for most teams is so automatic, taking the ball at 25 is better than the risks: fumbling the catch; teammate running into catcher; negative yardage return, block-in-back penalty, etc etc/

How about this - is there a revolutionary way to improve kick-return blocking schemes? seems like there hasn't been any inventive techniques introduced and rarely any long returns anymore- but what do I know; just a fan.

 

[CloneGuy8]

Unless a healthy Kene is back there, I hope we do this on every kickoff going forward.

 

[madguy30]

def in yesterday's game, we should have. Kick coverage for most teams is so automatic, taking the ball at 25 is better than the risks: fumbling the catch; teammate running into catcher; negative yardage return, block-in-back penalty, etc etc/

How about this - is there a revolutionary way to improve kick-return blocking schemes? seems like there hasn't been any inventive techniques introduced and rarely any long returns anymore- but what do I know; just a fan.

The flying wedge.

 

[FinalFourCy]

At least now we know why we don’t try to get any yardage on punt returns.

 

[alarson]

This isn't unique to us, but a lot of programs are overly aggressive on returning kickoffs hoping for the one big play when overall most would be better off just taking the free 15-25 yards.

Of course if we started looking at statistics teams probably also would change when they punt and when they don't (teams would go for it more often, as we saw yesterday there is often little benefit in punting for a net 15 to 20 yards versus the increase in chance on scoring on the drive)

 

[cyclone87]

Because usually we have Kene back there. Yesterday without him you are probably right though. Have to know the situation, the decision to return the kick from the corner just inside the goal line was a bad one.

 

[Wally86]

That play was the details CMC always talks about. Wife got upset when I started cursing on that kick return. The script was too familiar. Ferentz molds his team to play field position ball. It was an obvious don’t do this and play into the hawks need for a short field to score. Fair catch the ball or let it run through the end zone and Iowa ends the game with no TDs. There were a lot of Cyclone mistakes precipitated by the pressure that play caused.

 

[IceCyIce]

Thats a great question. I'm curoius who our Special Teams coach is? If we fair catch our kicks and punts we most likly win the game. Even playing the way we did. Horrible

 

[weR138]

To me, philosophically, the 25 yard line is just too good to pass up. I'll never be a special teams coach but if I were taking it at the 25 would be our rule rather than our exception.

 

[CyCloned]

To me, philosophically, the 25 yard line is just too good to pass up. I'll never be a special teams coach but if I were taking it at the 25 would be our rule rather than our exception.

I think it really depends on the kick. Low line drive kicks to the 5 give you a decent chance to get a return, high floating ones, like Iowa was kicking are a definite mistake to try and return, no matter who is back there. BTW, Iowa is outstanding at covering kicks.

 

[JP4CY]

Jarvis was an outstanding returner and after seeing him put himself in tough concussion like spots years ago I'm a lot more in the fair catch camp.

 

[Wally86]

I think it really depends on the kick. Low line drive kicks to the 5 give you a decent chance to get a return, high floating ones, like Iowa was kicking are a definite mistake to try and return, no matter who is back there. BTW, Iowa is outstanding at covering kicks.

You are spot on. That is why it is so annoying the returners weren’t prepared.