Coach Kevin Kelley, Outside The Box

• By Keith Grabowski

I am sure you watched plenty of football this weekend beyond the countless hours of film grading and breakdowns. 

In a weekend full of shake-ups and upsets in college football, one game that many people may have missed was Presbyrterian College Blue Hose vs. St. Andrew’s Knights.

WHO?

Presbyterian is in their first season as an FCS team, and St. Andrew’s is an NAIA team.  Presbyterian is coached by Kevin Kelley, the 9x state champion head coach of Pulaski Academy also known as “the coach who never punts.”

This was Coach Kelley’s first game as a college head coach and the test of his high powered offensive system and his outside-the-box strategies.  As a reminder of those strategies:

Never punt

Go for two on most tries after touchdowns.

Onside kick after most touchdowns

Never field a punt

So let’s get right to it.  How well did his strategies translate to the college level?

Offensively, the Blue Hose set an FCS record passing for 10TD. The craziest part is QB Ren Hefley threw his tenth TD early in the fourth quarter and could have easily thrown more.  He finished the game 38/50 for 538 yards and 10 touchdowns.  

Coach Kelley explains that what they do is unique.  He describes it as “a defender read passing game with a few progressions in it.” Watch his overview of the passing game here (click on image for video):

We will review some film this week and confirm how much of this is the same as he’s done, but knowing Coach Kelley’s convictions, we expect most of it to be. In watching the highlights it looks to be with plenty of the touchdowns coming from empty and quads. 

When asked about his offense post game, Coach Kelley had this to say:

“We do a lot of things on offense and I was really worried that in that amount of time, in 25 NCAA practices we could put all that stuff in and be able to do it effectively with minimal amount of mistakes on the field, and the good thing is, it’s designed to be so much that you can make mistakes and still be successful because if you give them more things to look at on defense then they’re going to make more mistakes too.So even if you make some it counter acts and you have a chance to be successful.”

Here is Coach Kelley explaining their high percentage clearing concept from his quads attack. They certainly used this one last Saturday:

Special teams is where Coach Kelley breaks from traditional strategy and he continues what he did at Pulaski:

​​Presbyterian attempted a 2-point conversion after six of its first seven TDs (converting three of them).  Coach  

The Blue Hose tried an onside kick after its first 10 TDs (going 1-for-10).  Coach Kelley explained exactly why he believes in this strategy in the following video: 

When asked post game what he was going to do to increase the onside kick recovery, Kelly replied “Well I am going to add some more onside kicks. I only had three in, so we are going to add some.”

This is an area that Coach Kelley studied and researched.  He explains exactly why they like the onside strategy here. It is the single most factor in whether they will win or lose:

The Blue Hose never punted. In fact, Presbyterian didn’t even list a punter on the two deep.

In addition, PC didn’t field a punt.  

The sample, is small, one game, but I don’t expect Coach Kelley to change.  He’s made a career on doing what he believes, doing it his way, and most importantly getting his team to believe in it.

There’s always plenty to learn from and we hope you takeaway something that can help you this season.

Here’s to his and your continued success!