Loved the execution of the intentional safety at the end of the game last night. Not only did the punter do his job and run off 7 or 8 seconds before stepping out but if you noticed the blockers where absolutely mauling the rushers with blatant holds which allowed the punter to dance an extra 3 or 4 seconds. In that situation the hold in the end zone hurts nothing if it is called.

I thought the punter did a good job of getting out of bounds before he was touched.  You try to be a hero and run the last few seconds off the clock, then get nailed and cough it up (and they will be going right for the ball) and allow a TD, you lose the game.

They could have put Ed Reed or Ray Rice back there and maybe tried to run all of the time off, but I doubt those guys have ever caught a deep snap, other than maybe goofing off after practice, so that might be a factor.  Obviously, that would have tipped the 49ers off that there wasn't going to be a punt, but that might have been OK.

Loved the execution of the intentional safety at the end of the game last night. Not only did the punter do his job and run off 7 or 8 seconds before stepping out but if you noticed the blockers where absolutely mauling the rushers with blatant holds which allowed the punter to dance an extra 3 or 4 seconds. In that situation the hold in the end zone hurts nothing if it is called.

As a youth coach are there any special "situational football" type plays that you work on with your team through out the year? With our limited practice time are there any cheap time investment type things we should be covering with our players.

For example, teaching the team to take an intentional safety with that level of detail probably isn't worth our time (we have more important things to work on).

All that stuff can and really should be practiced.

For example, teaching the team to take an intentional safety with that level of detail probably isn't worth our time (we have more important things to work on).

Exactly.  I got into this argument about a year ago in Delphi's single wing, etc. forum.  I'm a realist, but there are coaches who claim they practice for every situation you can imagine, because you never know when that might make the difference in the game, and I'm missing the boat if we don't practice X because it takes "only" a little time.

OK, so make a reasonable estimate of how often that situation would come up such that it would make the difference in who wins.  Then figure out how much of that difference would be if you practiced it to perfection vs. never practiced it at all but tried it anyway.  Multiply those probabilities by the time needed for that amount of practice.

Now figure how much practicing the "regular stuff" that same amount of add'l time would help your execution many, many times during the avg. game.  It might help your execution only a little, but if it's something you do a lot, that adds up over the course of a season.

I don't think there's going to be many things that'd make that cut for 97% of youth teams.  (There might be 3% somewhere who are so swimming in available practice time, efficiently used, that they don't benefit from any more reps of their regular stuff.)  The intentional safety I don't think is one of those things, largely because the difference in the execution you'll get just from describing it vs. practicing it will be slight.

I'll tell you one thing that might make the cut, though it's a bit unsportsmanlike: intentionally fouling on defense to keep the opponents from getting off a quick play.  Like for instance they line up quickly for swinging gate, and you just snatch the ball from the snapper.  Theoretically the officials can award an equitable penalty, up to a touchdown, but in reality it'll just be 5 or possibly 15 yds., depending whether they rule encroachment or unsportsmanlike conduct.

Like for instance they line up quickly for swinging gate, and you just snatch the ball from the snapper.

Why would you bother snatching the ball?  Why not just hit him, or step across and touch him (or step across and grab him), in order to make sure it's called?

Why would you bother snatching the ball?  Why not just hit him, or step across and touch him (or step across and grab him), in order to make sure it's called?

Snatching the ball is to make sure it's called.  An official might let go contact on an opponent if he thinks it's gamesmanship, but if you're physically preventing the ball's being snapped, what can be done?

Very smart move.  Once again, experienced showed through.  SF seemed to be surprised by what a lot of us thought was coming...

I thought that maybe they should put someone else back there.  But i thought it was genius that they didn't.  The punter is the only guy on the team that practices catching that snap.  Which is not easy to catch.  So, i thought that was VERY SMART.

Loved the execution of the intentional safety at the end of the game last night. Not only did the punter do his job and run off 7 or 8 seconds before stepping out but if you noticed the blockers where absolutely mauling the rushers with blatant holds which allowed the punter to dance an extra 3 or 4 seconds. In that situation the hold in the end zone hurts nothing if it is called.

As a youth coach are there any special "situational football" type plays that you work on with your team through out the year? With our limited practice time are there any cheap time investment type things we should be covering with our players.

For example, teaching the team to take an intentional safety with that level of detail probably isn't worth our time (we have more important things to work on).

R

I have taken an intentional Safety twice. One paid off...one did not.

I think its worth practicing if you punt. 

Special Situation Checklist

1. Kill the clock-Spike play (not a time out, just stops the clock-don't assume kids know this, QB must be under center, not in Gun))
2. Injury to Center or QB (player stays down on field until we get sub prepped)
3. Take a safety-with punt team, with offense ( how far from the End Zone will you consider this? Usually we think up to -22 yard line)
4. Run out the clock, Milk the clock, slow down game (wide plays that don't go out of bounds, put ball down, make official pick it up)
5. Victory Formation-take a knee (Pressbox Coach has a down/distance /time out chart to tell when we can do this)
6. Defending weird formations-i.e. Swinging Gate, Hidden Receiver at Tackle, (it used to be that Empty Sets were considered "weird")
7. Punting out of the End Zone
8. Bad snap on P.A.T. or F.G.
9. Hurry up F.G. (15 seconds or less)
10. Free Kick after a safety (Punt or regular K.O.)
11. Hands team (onside kick anticipated)
12. Surprise onside kick (what to do do)
13. Hurry Up offense
14. Last play of the game down by 7 points or less (Hook and lateral, Hail Mary)
15. Overtime offense (if different than regular offense-i.e. Spread Offenses may have a Red Zone Series)
16. Fair catch, Free kick (if we have a long F.G. guy)

We will cover these in a 15-20 period between our last scrimmage and first game. Some, such as "Hands Team" require practice time.

Bignose,

Should Goal-line be on your list or is that just normal offensive procedure?

Goal line short yardage Offense:
It depends if your offense inside of the 10 yard line is different than your regular offense.

For year's we've run either the Power Bone or DW so it made no difference to us.
We were a "goal line-to-goal line offense.
If you run a Spread Set, you may have an entirely different package of plays. That would make it  a "Special Situation", but would require additional practice time.

1. Kill the clock-Spike play (not a time out, just stops the clock-don't assume kids know this, QB must be under center, not in Gun))

That's the one that led to the discussion at Delphi's single wing, etc. forum.  It was in the context of a team that otherwise never took handed snaps, only thrown ones.  I thought the benefit/cost in that case was particularly poor for youth football.

I have twice seen the spike rule get totally screwed up by a coach/kid.
One: I saw a kid spike one from the gun. Penalty. Ruling, intentional grounding. Loss of down. oopps
Two: I saw a kid under Center spike the ball off to his side. Ruling : Fumble, recovered by the defense. double oooops!
C'mon guys, you gotta understand the rules. You just can't watch the game on Sunday, and think you know the rules.

I have twice seen the spike rule get totally screwed up by a coach/kid.
One: I saw a kid spike one from the gun. Penalty. Ruling, intentional grounding. Loss of down. oopps
Two: I saw a kid under Center spike the ball off to his side. Ruling : Fumble, recovered by the defense. double oooops!
C'mon guys, you gotta understand the rules. You just can't watch the game on Sunday, and think you know the rules.

Big,

I've seen the shotgun spike, no less than 4 times.  Most people don't know that rule.  Pretty important to know if your a gun team.

And then there is the all important "Victory Spike".