If you were a coach and your objective was to deceive the opposing team on a fake punt, what would you do?
You might send various people in motion to create confusion.
You might have the ball snapped to a non-obvious player.
You might put people in motion, snap the ball to a non-obvious player, then have that player pitch it back to someone else in motion who throws a pass downfield.
As you see, there is almost an unlimited amount of options.
Against Miami last weekend, Arkansas State added a new one that we've never seen before.
The Red Wolves had a player play dead. No, seriously. Like, the ball was snapped and the player slowly fell backwards until he crashed lifeless onto the grass.
Watch:
<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/OaVnUztllaW/embed/simple" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The bad news: The play didn't work, as the punter's pass was intercepted. But that didn't dampen head coach Blake Anderson's outlook on the play called the "Fainting Goat."
“We were just having a little bit of fun to be honest with you,” Anderson told For The Win. “When you scare a goat, it faints. It was a joke.”
Anderson said the player, Booker Mays, practiced playing dead on the play all week and "did his part to a T." In the formation, Mays was an ineligible receiver and therefore couldn't run a route and catch a pass, so there wasn't much he could do on the play except for act like a decoy and try to confuse the defense.
“It really wasn’t going to be a critical part of the play, successful ot not,” Anderson told FTW. “It was just a distraction and mainly to have a good time with the kids. They’ve been through five head coaches in five years. Any chance we can laugh with them and have a good time with them I think will help us grow as a team."
(h/t SB Nation)
You might send various people in motion to create confusion.
You might have the ball snapped to a non-obvious player.
You might put people in motion, snap the ball to a non-obvious player, then have that player pitch it back to someone else in motion who throws a pass downfield.
As you see, there is almost an unlimited amount of options.
Against Miami last weekend, Arkansas State added a new one that we've never seen before.
The Red Wolves had a player play dead. No, seriously. Like, the ball was snapped and the player slowly fell backwards until he crashed lifeless onto the grass.
Watch:
<iframe class="vine-embed" src="https://vine.co/v/OaVnUztllaW/embed/simple" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe><script async src="//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The bad news: The play didn't work, as the punter's pass was intercepted. But that didn't dampen head coach Blake Anderson's outlook on the play called the "Fainting Goat."
“We were just having a little bit of fun to be honest with you,” Anderson told For The Win. “When you scare a goat, it faints. It was a joke.”
Anderson said the player, Booker Mays, practiced playing dead on the play all week and "did his part to a T." In the formation, Mays was an ineligible receiver and therefore couldn't run a route and catch a pass, so there wasn't much he could do on the play except for act like a decoy and try to confuse the defense.
“It really wasn’t going to be a critical part of the play, successful ot not,” Anderson told FTW. “It was just a distraction and mainly to have a good time with the kids. They’ve been through five head coaches in five years. Any chance we can laugh with them and have a good time with them I think will help us grow as a team."
(h/t SB Nation)
