Kickoff Coverage
 

KICKOFF: Winning the field position battle will often result in giving your team a great advantage in winning the game. It is important that your kickoff coverage teams try to keep the kick returner pinned as deep in their end of the field as possible. Players selected for this important phase of the game need to be able to run, be aggressive, have great desire, and demonstrate the ability to tackle.

PURPOSE OF KICKOFF DRILL: To teach the entire kickoff team to work as one unit while covering the kickoff correctly.

RUNNING THE DRILL: Position the coverage players [10] and the kicker in the proper position on the field with five coverage players on each side of the ball. Start teaching the drill with only the two kick returners on the field to catch the kick and bring it up the field. On the whistle, the kicker should kick the ball and the coverage people need to move down the field to make their coverage. The kick returner making the catch should run the ball up the field in the direction called out by the coach prior to the kick and continue to run until the whistle blows.

• Every coverage person should try to touch the return man with the ball before the drill is concluded.
• It is not necessary to have the coverage people tackle the ball carrier as long as they break down, come under control, and are in position to make the tackle.
• The coverage team should exit on the sideline so that the next group of players on the coverage team can line up for the next kick.

TECHNIQUE:

• All coverage players should start their forward run with the movement of the kicker and be running at full speed as the kicker strikes the ball.
• Each player must run in their correct coverage lane as they sprint down the field.
• The players should try to keep the ball on the same side of their body as it was prior to the kick.
• Players need to avoid any blocker [when blockers are added to the drill] on the side of the ball, as it is returned up the field, and then quickly get back into their coverage lane.
• Players should be coached to never run in the footsteps of a fellow player.
• Players need to shorten their stride, widen their base, come under control, and be prepared to tackle the return man.
• Check that the kicker and the safeties [L5 and R5] are in position to stop any long return, should the return man break free by moving to the side of the return.

In the beginning, once the blockers are added to the drill and they are assigned the coverage players to block, you should run the drill with only one side of the coverage team going at a time so that you can focus your coaching and make necessary corrections.