since its the bye week, I figured it would be a good time to ask this question...is there anything good about the spread punt formation? I've seen it used more and more over the last 6 or 7 years, but it just seems to lead to more blocked punts. I'm sure that everyone here remembers the blocked punt in the '03 national title game came off the spread punt formation. Saturday evening, Texas turned around their game against colorado by blocking a punt out of the spread. So why do teams do it? My inquiring mind wants to know.
That formation has hurt us in the past but it hasn't been a factor this season. As long as it works I'm ok with it.
I don't know the advantages, but I know it is not new to the game of football like many seem to think. My dad played ball in the 60's and said it was a prevelant punt formation then too. The only thing I can think of is it spreads the defenders out and our guys start out in their lanes as opposed to having to branch out. But I can't give you a really good reason why we use it.
When has it ever hurt us? Our punting has been outstanding out of the formation and very few have been blocked. It shocked some fans for a couple of years until they got used to linemen rushing past the line, but they never actually get to the ball unblocked anymore, not from the inside and not from the outside. Furthermore, it has a full-house backfield and we have both run and passed out if it successfully, if a team tries to cheat to the inside or outside. Everybody is using it because it is effective.
In the past two years we have had punts blocked and many nearly blocked. There were many many posts about how bad that formation looked and how many near misses there were in past years. Like I posted it hasn't hurt us this season and in fact has looked pretty good.
Well, "Nearly blocked" is synonymous with "unblocked." We've had fewer blocked punts with the formation than with the old one. Yes, it did scare some fans who were not used to it. So what?
You're getting too worked up about nothing. I'll repost my original post so you can read it again and relax a little.
