re: Kickoffs Sailing Out Of Bounds, Now And Then

quote:

---

If that was my only job on the team, I would make damn sure I could kick straight. Literally that’s all Dibert’s job is. He’s our only recruited scholarship kicker.

---

In many cases the coaches WANT the kicker to angle the kick to one side of the field. The thought being that if the returner fields the ball on or outside the hashes one side it is easier for the kicking team to cover it because the returner is pinned somewhat closer to the sideline. In essence, the KO team can condense to cover half the field. If you KO down the middle the coverage has to remain spread out to cover the full width of the field...which could create running lanes.

Of course, the better approach is to just kick the ball into the damn endzone.