I noticed recently in college most teams have changed the punt formation.
In the past it was 9 men on line of scrimmage , 1 guy 1/2 way back and the punter.
Now it’s 7 on line of scrimmage , 3 guys 1/2 way and the punter.
Was there 1 team or coach who did this and everybody copied it?
I guess the 3 guys back are there to block anybody who gets through the front line. Some pro teams do it that way too.
That was how we lined up in high school so id guess its been around for at least 20 years.
The earliest citation I could find for it was 1996 by Rutgers and special teams coach John Gibson. Gibson published an article in the American Football Coaches Association’s 1999 Summer Manual called “Dare to be Different: The Shield Punt” that described the X’s and O’s.
It didn’t really catch on then – Rutgers’ next staff in 2001 was using the traditional punt formation. In 2002, ESPN’s Bob Davie described the standard punt formation as being in use by “[a]lmost everyone in college or pro football.”
In 2003, the year Bruce Snyder was an assistant, UNLV used the shield punt when their normal long snapper was suspended. Quoting a coach who was there: “We put it in, and after that it kind of spread. No one had done it in 15 years when we did it for that. It was a nationally televised game. Everyone started doing it after that.”
In 2004, Davie’s ESPN column ($) described the shield punt and mentioned that “South Carolina, Clemson, Utah, BYU and Toledo are just a few of the teams in the country that have gone to the shield protection and coverage.”
(Nobody asked, but it should be mentioned why it’s not used in the NFL. The shield punt’s big advantage is giving the interior linemen fewer blocking responsibilities and allowing them to go after the returner before the ball is kicked. In the NFL, only the ends (the eligible receivers) can leave early.)