Wow... We had a coach that would occasionally punt the ball on 3rd down..
- Thread starter Together2813
- Start date
I was watching the game next to a guy that brought this up in the second half. He said, "well, we could always go back to the clay stapelton years and punt on third down."
Coach Stapelton was honored at half-time because he was coach of the 'Dirty Thirty' team that played for an Orange Bowl berth in 1959. Somewhere on cyclones.com there is a free video tribute to that team.
Coach Stapelton was honored at half-time because he was coach of the 'Dirty Thirty' team that played for an Orange Bowl berth in 1959. Somewhere on cyclones.com there is a free video tribute to that team.
That is showing a lot of confidence in your team. Just saying oh screw it. We are not going to make it. PUnt the damn thing.
Fair enough...Do you know the reasoning? Was it common or something done in certain circumstances?
Hayden's excuse would be he was drunk off his *** and lost track of what was happening during the game
It's usually disguised as a pass or run play. If it is third and forever, you might quick-kick to catch the defense off-guard, and hope to get a good roll on the punt to gain a field position advantage. That's the only time I've seen it done. If field or weather conditions are bad, or you don't have a good punter, I guess it could work out...
Last edited:
I think they're talking about a 'quick kick.' They would line up like they're running a normal play and then have a back punt it.
I doubt the passing game back then was a big part of the offense so if they had a 3rd and 15 or 20, they would get the field position back by kicking it and letting it roll. Obviously the defense isn't expecting it so the ball would roll forever if you kick it right.
West Bend-Mallard did this back in the day and they were a pretty good team.
I doubt the passing game back then was a big part of the offense so if they had a 3rd and 15 or 20, they would get the field position back by kicking it and letting it roll. Obviously the defense isn't expecting it so the ball would roll forever if you kick it right.
West Bend-Mallard did this back in the day and they were a pretty good team.
Listen man I am not arguing for it. I just said he did it a lot. I would never be one to defend punting on 3rd down. Hayden Fry did it sometimes when he was backed up to the goal line and he had 3 and 20 or so. Teams actually would just rush the pass/kicker and try and block it. Then let it role.
I saw a quick kick maybe 2-3 years ago. It was Syracuse vs. (someone?). It was really kind of a funny thing to watch. They direct snapped it to the guy who kicked it while the quarterback was still on the field, then he did a rugby style kick down the field.
It was cool and really funny to watch in a way, but in the end it just seemed pointless.
It was cool and really funny to watch in a way, but in the end it just seemed pointless.
I was there during the Clay Stapleton years. The reason given for punting on the third down was that if we screwed up the snap we always had another down to try again. I'm not sure but it may also have been true that if we got the punt blocked but we recovered, we could also try to punt again. We think we had two players go to the NFL while I was there (Tom Vaughn - RB/DB and Tim VanGelder - QB) but overall we weren't successful recruiting.
We weren't very competitive in football or basketball because we didn't have the budget nor facilities to compete with the rest of the Big 8. Our athletic director (whose name escapes me which is probably fortunate) announced that since we couldn't be competitive in the big-name sports, we would make up for it by being spending more than average to be competitive in the lesser known sports such as wrestling and gymnastics. We had men's track, cross-country, swimming, tennis, and of course baseball. For women, I don't ever remember hearing about a basketball team or swimming (they may have been there but they sure weren't advertised) but I'm sure we had women's track, cross-country, tennis, and gymnastics.
When Clay Stapleton stepped down as coach and became the athletic director sometime in the late 60's, he hired Johnny Majors. I heard then that the candidates had been asked what they would do to make ISU competitive in football and Majors' response supposedly was "Give me the money and I'll give you a winner". Apparently Clay did and I know Majors did.
We weren't very competitive in football or basketball because we didn't have the budget nor facilities to compete with the rest of the Big 8. Our athletic director (whose name escapes me which is probably fortunate) announced that since we couldn't be competitive in the big-name sports, we would make up for it by being spending more than average to be competitive in the lesser known sports such as wrestling and gymnastics. We had men's track, cross-country, swimming, tennis, and of course baseball. For women, I don't ever remember hearing about a basketball team or swimming (they may have been there but they sure weren't advertised) but I'm sure we had women's track, cross-country, tennis, and gymnastics.
When Clay Stapleton stepped down as coach and became the athletic director sometime in the late 60's, he hired Johnny Majors. I heard then that the candidates had been asked what they would do to make ISU competitive in football and Majors' response supposedly was "Give me the money and I'll give you a winner". Apparently Clay did and I know Majors did.
We did it in high school once because our head coach was confused and thought it was 4th down. It was only like 3rd and 6 too. What an idiot.
Even if you did it 25% of the time on 3rd and long, no opposing coach in his right mind would drop their safety back far enough to return the punt.
I think that is a great play to have in your repertoire. When you are inside your own 10 and 3d and long a medium length quick kick over the heads of the safeties can roll a long ways giving you the best field position possible. It results in a much longer net punt every time. I'd like to see us do it more often.
