Playbooks
Landingzone Heavy Kickoff Middle New is a designed kickoff play from the Kickoff formation that aims the ball toward the middle of the field with a heavy personnel grouping on the kicking unit for extra coverage support. This is not a route concept or offensive scheme, it is a special teams kickoff that targets landing zone rules to either force a touchback or pin the return man deep depending on placement. The primary read for the kicking team is watching where the return man sets up pre-snap and adjusting the kick depth to either drop it inside the landing zone for a touchback conceded by the returner or drive it deeper to pin field position.
Watch the return man depth in the landing zone before the kick, shallow alignment signals an attempted return rather than a fair catch or touchback take. Identify if the return team has stacked blockers to one side, since a middle kick neutralizes lane blocking schemes built for sideline returns. Look for return wall formations forming early, a heavy middle kick disrupts these lanes by forcing the returner to break through the numbers instead of the edge. Key the return man's hands and stance, if he is signaling for a fair catch read, adjust kick power to keep it out of easy catch range in the landing zone. Against hands team or all out return pressure look for split alignment cues, this indicates the opponent wants to attack a specific gap that a well placed middle kick can take away.
Use this heavy middle kickoff when you want to eliminate big return lanes by funneling the ball to the middle of the field instead of the sidelines.
Check the returner alignment before the snap, if he is deep in the landing zone favor a flatter, faster kick that limits hang time and return space.
Pair this with Landingzone Heavy Kickoff Left or Landingzone Heavy Kickoff Right in sequence to keep the return team guessing on directional tendencies.
On kickoffs after a big offensive score, lean on the middle variant since it minimizes explosive return risk against aggressive return schemes.
Combine with onside kick logic sparingly, since this heavy middle kick signals a standard possession kick and should not be used as a disguise for surprise onside attempts.