Is Art Briles considering dumping the punter?

[GoSooners]

It would take a lot of balls to do that in college football. Wasn't there a college coach a few years ago that declared his team was never going to punt the ball? I can't remember who it was, but once reality set in I don't think he followed through with that plan. I've also heard Briles talk about never kicking off, only onsides kicks. The problem with all of this is you need to have a defense in case you fail. That's a real problem for Baylor.





[h=1]Might Baylor’s Art Briles dump his punter?[/h][h=2]Bears head man joined at SXSW by high school coach who never punts[/h]Posted: 5:24 p.m. Friday, March 13, 2015
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By Suzanne Halliburton - American-Statesman Staff


Art Briles, dressed in shorts, sneakers and a pullover, spent part of his spring break in Austin, Friday. The Baylor coach joked that he wanted to check out some music. But for an hour, he paid lots of attention to the guy sitting next to him, the one who basically preaches that punting should be banned.
“I believe the football gods are alive and well here,” Briles said, “the fact we’re talking about not about punting.”
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Baylor head football coach Art Briles preached coaching “fast and fearlessly” at Friday’s SXSports panel held at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Baylor head football coach Art Briles preached coaching “fast and fearlessly” at Friday’s SXSports panel held at the Four Seasons Hotel.
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He then added that not punting “made a lot of sense.”
Briles was at the Four Seasons to help open the three days of South By Southwest Interactive Sports section. The charismatic Briles did as much listening as he did talking.
Kevin Kelley, the head football coach and athletic director of Pulaski Academy, also was a featured panelist. Briles’ and Kelley’s task was to chat about “Coaching Fast and Fearlessly.”

• Baylor’s Briles says he’s “giddy” about his recruiting class

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• Bohls: Briles, Baylor are not going away

Briles’ up-tempo, wide open offenses seem to be permanently atop the national statistics.
Kelley is the high school coach who doesn’t even carry a punter on his roster. That’s because his teams never punt in a game. They don’t even practice punting during the week. They also on-side kick until the team has built at least a 28-point lead.
If it’s unorthodox ways bother the other teams, so be it.
“We’ve already won,” Kelley said. “It gets under their skin. They hate it.”
Kelley has won four state championships in 12 years. So what he does, works. He got the idea from studying analytics. A college professor from Harvard delved into three years of college football games. He came to the conclusion that punting is bad for the game.
Briles isn’t a fan of punting, either. But he’s more pragmatic, saying there’s a fine line between being “fearless and reckless.” In 2014, Baylor attempted 34 fourth-down conversions. The Bears punter kicked 47 times in 13 games.
Briles said he’s studied all the articles written about Kelley. And Kelley admitted that he studied what Briles did back when he Briles was a head coach at Stephenville High School in the mid-1990s. Kelley said Briles was “cutting edge” even back then.
These days, big-time head coaches travel to Little Rock to listen to Kelley’s football advice. He said he’s promised them anonymity.
Might Briles pick up some tips to bring back to Waco?
“I’ve always believed in a trickle-up effect,” Briles said. “It starts in high school then goes up to college then goes up to the NFL.”

 

[CoachCB]

There's no way a D1 coach would do that. The guy in the article has success w/ it, but it's HS ball. Different animal.

I could see a modified version of what Kelley does; using it in certain situations (i.e. not punting in certain situations). If you get pinned inside your 40 yard line and face a 4th and 10 or longer w/ plenty of time to go and you don't punt you deserve to lose. Now, if it's 4th and 5 at the 50 in the same situation? It may have merit. For a team that has a legitimate shot at any sort of title, it's too risky. For a 3-9 football team? Why not?

 

[GoSooners]

There's no way a D1 coach would do that. The guy in the article has success w/ it, but it's HS ball. Different animal.

I could see a modified version of what Kelley does; using it in certain situations (i.e. not punting in certain situations). If you get pinned inside your 40 yard line and face a 4th and 10 or longer w/ plenty of time to go and you don't punt you deserve to lose. Now, if it's 4th and 5 at the 50 in the same situation? It may have merit. For a team that has a legitimate shot at any sort of title, it's too risky. For a 3-9 football team? Why not?

I think Briles was mainly playing to his base by saying that. He had that HS coach Kelly sitting next to him. Briles has one of the nations best punters on scholarship. Although many kickers would have a decent average if they only kicked 40 times a season. This subject got me thinking about the days when we had punters that were good at another position. It's much more specialized now, but I can remember when they sometimes used backup QB's as kickers. Even the Dallas Cowboys had Danny White doing punting duties as a backup before he became a starter. Those kinds of players were good weapons because they always kept the defenses on their toes in case of a fake punt. It's also dangerous to put a bum rush on them because you leave yourself open for a quick pass. The biggest gambling coach that I've seen is still Mike Leach. He hated to punt. I've seen him go for it on 4th down inside his own 40 yard line more times than I can count. And more times than not they converted....

 

[BigdaddyQH]

Briles is not the best HC in the Big 12. Not by far. As long as he has teams that scores points by the bunches and still loses 1 or more games per year, his teams will never see the playoffs. Briles problem is that there will probably always be a team in the Big 12 that is better than his team. Since the Big 12 will be lucky to get one team in the playoffs because of the way the conference is structured, getting two teams will be impossible, especially if the second team is Baylor, a team that refuses to play a decent non-con schedule and who has a head coach who is considered to be a cocky SOB by many, including some in the Committee. Teams like Oklahoma, Okie State, and Texas have the ability to improve if they can step up the recruiting efforts. Their HC's are certainly way ahead of Briles, who is extremely one dimentional. TCU is a better team already, and shold defeat Baylor at home this season.

 

[cloverleaf]

I'm beginning to think Art Briles has a little "ego clown" in his personality.

Yes he has done a nice job at Baylor the past four years...but he's lost a lot of creditability with me
of late.

 

[GoSooners]

I'm beginning to think Art Briles has a little "ego clown" in his personality.

Yes he has done a nice job at Baylor the past four years...but he's lost a lot of creditability with me
of late.

Clover...Briles is one of the top coaches in the country. Don't let anybody tell you different. Waco is one of the toughest places in Texas to attract recruits. And if you think KSU was bad before Snyder, Baylor was just as bad before Briles. They've gone from needing a punter 10 times a game to barely needing one and all. Plus a smaller mid major type school like that winning the Big 12 title two years ago speaks for itself. It hasn't been done by anybody other than OU or Texas. But those are bigtime schools. Bottom line is Briles has one of if not the best offensive mind in the country. Sure he needs some better defensive players. But the best defensive players aren't coming to the Big 12 anyway. Much less Baylor. So Briles can't be blamed for that. Briles is just as good as Snyder is at maximizing the talent he has around him. By the way, most of your better coaches either have a huge ego or are cocky. It goes the same way with football players. Show me a coach who is any different and I can usually show you a losing team.

 

[cloverleaf]

GS, I agree Briles has done an amazing job in Waco and yes, I've been through there and it ain't pretty. But there's enough Texas talent to support schools like Baylor, Houston, Rice, Texas Tech and SMU with the right coach.

Briles seems to be the right coach for Baylor...and good for them! Still, he wouldn't fit at a lot of schools out side that Texas region...just my opinion.

 

[GoSooners]

GS, I agree Briles has done an amazing job in Waco and yes, I've been through there and it ain't pretty. But there's enough Texas talent to support schools like Baylor, Houston, Rice, Texas Tech and SMU with the right coach.

Briles seems to be the right coach for Baylor...and good for them! Still, he wouldn't fit at a lot of schools out side that Texas region...just my opinion.

Your right, there's a lot of schools he wouldn't fit at. His style rubs many the wrong way. But I kind of like it. But I hate Baylor! I'm getting real tired of this team beating the shit out of OU every year.

 

[loomis41973]

Wish he would give it a shot....stir this shit up.


Needs all the publicity he can get right now to keep da ducks and philly knight relevant for the future.

 

[rivercitybirdie]

I like the whole analytic approach.... But it's easy to do up 28-0 in 2nd quarter.... I wouldn't do it tied with Texas on own 20 yard line in 3rd quarter

 

[rivercitybirdie]

Something I think of watching all but very elite high school football

Why do teams do traditional punt? ... So many weak links. Long snap to punter who can't punt. 15-20 yard gross punt to the other team's tailback, who maybe 3 players at best can tackle in open field?

Why not pooch/quick punt on 3rd Down.... Much smaller drop back. Maybe get roll on punt. Tailback won't return it. Maybe db returning it fumbles it

I also like not directly covering wr's until teams prove they can bet you..... Put 2 guys as safety 15yards diagonally off each of 2 receivers. Can safety valve the run and stop big play by receiver.. If they show the ability to burn you (film or game) then reduce that distance between safety and wr.... And I'm not talking Bosch vs. centennial in orange county. Thinking average mediocre hs teams

 

[rivercitybirdie]

Huge bill Snyder fan but I think what brides has done is far more impressive than snyder/ksu

I guess the contra arguments are 1) being in Texas is huge advantage over kansas 2) if bridles doesn't get RG3, does none of this happen?

Sorry for at tortious auto-correct spelling on baylor coach name.....Gotta spend some time and figure out how to disable it. Only helps if I don't know how to spell a word. Never ever successfully corrects an easy word.....even my sentence about auto-correct got incorrectly corrected

 

[GoSooners]

Huge bill Snyder fan but I think what brides has done is far more impressive than snyder/ksu

I guess the contra arguments are 1) being in Texas is huge advantage over kansas 2) if bridles doesn't get RG3, does none of this happen?

Sorry for at tortious auto-correct spelling on baylor coach name.....Gotta spend some time and figure out how to disable it. Only helps if I don't know how to spell a word. Never ever successfully corrects an easy word.....even my sentence about auto-correct got incorrectly corrected

I agree about Briles. I think he's right up there with Snyder. Speaking of Baylor, I know this no punting thingy will never happen. But wouldn't you love to see a college team try the experiment of never punting for an entire season? I know I wouldn't mind seeing a great offense give it 4 tries every single time for an entire year. If your offense is THAT good, then they would be successful on the majority of those plays, and it would stress the opposing D (theoretically) to the max...knowing that every single time you step on the field you have to keep us from averaging 2.5 yards per play.

 

[sendacash]

Looks like somebody needs to give Art a Manzier (aka Bro) for his birthday.