Go for it!
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Army converted 31 of 35!!! Forth down attempts last season. They used 3rd down to set up short 4th downs and frustrated/wore out their opponents on way to an 11 win season. With the running backs Kansas has this season. And the poor kicking game, why punt? I’d love to see KU put themselves in 3rd/4th down and short positions instead of throwing incompletions on first and second down. I’m excited to see what Les trots out on the field!
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Like all fans, I like being aggressive on offense and going for it on 4th down. Until we fail and I stare in disbelief that we went for it with the #1 punter in the league standing in the sideline. KU shouldn’t have a poor kicking game this year: Kyle Thompson led the league on punting average at 43.3 yds. as a sophomore. Gabriel Rui had the longest FG in the league of 54 yds., but graduated, so I don’t know who will kick this year. Since I expect the defensive line and linebacking crew to be two of our weakest areas, I’d opt for Thompson to punt on most 4th downs to give our defense the longest possible field to defend.
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In my mind, K-State should always have the best punter in the nation.
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I am waiting to see an analytics nerd as a head coach soon. Basically, the numbers say it’s totally worth it to go for it on most 4th downs and to go for 2 most of the time. Depending on your defense, it’s also worth it to onside kick it almost every time.
There will come a day. And if they are successful, it’ll spread like wildfire and likely change the game for forever. If they flop, it’ll be another 20 years before someone tries it again.
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@Kcmatt7 I wholeheartedly agree with going for it on 4th down. I probably wouldn’t have a punter on the team if i was the coach.
Not so agreeable on the onsides kick thang though.
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nuleafjhawk said:
@Kcmatt7 I wholeheartedly agree with going for it on 4th down. I probably wouldn’t have a punter on the team if i was the coach.
Not so agreeable on the onsides kick thang though.
I do need to see the NFL results from this year after teams have adjusted to the new onsides rules. That definitely could change my thinking.
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There’s some HS programs that follow the analytics and do this stuff. We’re probably 10 or so years away from this making it’s way to FBS football. The way it’ll happen is that one of these HS coaches will get hired at a lower level program as HC (D2 or below), then get hired at a bad FCS program that can take that risk, and then a bad G5 program that can afford to be patient and allow that type system to develop at the FBS level.
This system does exist and is currently working its way up the ladder, it’s just going to be awhile before it reaches the FBS level barring significant rules changes.
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Meh. My high school coach had this dumbass philosophy (in the early 80s). We only punted on 3rd down (“surprise”) when backed up on our own goal line.
To be honest, going for it worked probably one out of three times on 4th and less than 2… even if you have good D, if your offense sucks overall, you’re still going to lose due to the field advantage.
I actually think punting on third down would be more advantageous overall than going for it on fourth down.
