Number of kickoffs out of bounds

[ethanm]

Maybe this has been discussed before and I missed it, but the one trend I see unfortunately continuing from last year is the high percentage of kickoffs that are penalized for going out of bounds. Glas seems to do it at least once every game. I

[Fighting Sioux Fan]

Last week, the kicker was damn near kicking them out of the end zone. Maybe he should focus on kicking them straight and hard...

[Northcountry]

Not all of the Sioux games are going to be played in the windless, warm environment of the Alerus and off an artificial surface. The kickers need to be able to vary the locations of kicks and the coverage team needs to be able to find the ball and adjust to the return. With games on the horizon at Sioux Falls, St. Cloud, and Omaha it is probably a good idea to have used a variety of kickoff strategies in advance.

[schmidtdoggydog]

Not all of the Sioux games are going to be played in the windless, warm environment of the Alerus and off an artificial surface. The kickers need to be able to vary the locations of kicks and the coverage team needs to be able to find the ball and adjust to the return. With games on the horizon at Sioux Falls, St. Cloud, and Omaha it is probably a good idea to have used a variety of kickoff strategies in advance.

I don't disagree with what you said with varying the location of kicks. But, there is no excuse for kickoffs going out of bounds at the college level while playing INSIDE, especially from of a kicker of JG's caliber. Besides with his leg strength it should never be an issue when playing indoors.

On the flipside, how can the coverage team work on their coverage if balls are kicked: 1) out of the endzone; or 2) out of bounds? If the coverage team needs to work on adjustments, it would seem logical that the ball must stay in play. No coverage improvements can be made when the ball is blown dead on kickoffs (not that I don't like when Glas blasts them through the endzone ).

With games upcoming outdoors against the teams you mention, it would seem imperative, at this point, to keep the kick in play and let the coverage team(s) do their job(s) - or at a minimum at least get a feel for pursuing the kickoff returner.

[Northcountry]

I agree that kicks out-of-bounds do no one but the receiving team any good. The point that I failed to make was that in game conditions, does the coaching staff have the confidence in the kicker to call a sideline kick? If they have never seen him attempt one or two they have no basis for deciding. I am not trying to alibi for or excuse the kicker for kicking out-of-bounds, only trying to rationalize the thinking that brought the situation into play. I hope the coaching staff has the data it needs to now incorporate kick-off strategies into the game plan.

Of greater concern to me is why our quarterbacks seem unable to get a catchable ball to receivers on the "bubble screen". It seems that 2 of every 3 are too high, behind the receiver, or too far in front - for the play to be effective the throw needs to be nearly perfect. As an aside, I see that the Bison have now introduced their version of this play which they call a "tunnel screen" (Travis Lueck's influence lives on).

[bisonguy]

Tunnel or Jailbreak screen is outside-in (from sidelines towards the middle of the field), a bubble screen is inside-out (from middle of the field towards the sideline).

NDSU doesn't really run a tunnel (they have on occasion the last couple years- but only maybe once a game), but they do go to a quick slant.

[schmidtdoggydog]

Jailbreak screen is outside-in (from sidelines towards the middle of the field

Was this play named during Rocky's tenure - jailbreak - that would've be appropriate at the time!

[bisonguy]

Was this play named during Rocky's tenure - jailbreak - that would've be appropriate at the time!

Ha Ha!

It's called a jailbreak because the offensive line releases automatically downfield to block.

[ethanm]

Of greater concern to me is why our quarterbacks seem unable to get a catchable ball to receivers on the "bubble screen".  It seems that 2 of every 3 are too high, behind the receiver, or too far in front - for the play to be effective the throw needs to be nearly perfect.

I've noticed the same thing with the screen passes being thrown too high. It's like the QB's still think they are throwing to guys who are 6'2"-6'3" (Lueck, Ahlers, Stattelman) rather than the receivers they have now that are basically all between 5'7" and 5'10".

I was curious and actually went and counted how many have gone out-of-bounds. I found that Glas has kicked 8 out-of-bounds in the last two years and Saunders kicked his one and only kickoff out of bounds this year. That's 9 times in the past 17 games. I feel that's way too often, but I guess the coaching staff can live with it since they haven't changed their philosophy.