[sstack]

I believe in the "never punt" philosophy as I have seen the stats. It would take some convincin' on adding onside kicks and never fielding punts to the mix.

At that point, you can not just evaluate them separately, but must view the effects as a whole as well, since you are now sacrificing all elements crucial to winning field position.

Highlands has been a team that is lucky if they punt the ball 10 times a season and until this year rarely fielded punts. This year they are fielding punts and I believe it is because he has two very fast returners with very good hands and sees it worth the risk of dropped punts. but once again they have been heavy favorites in most games. In games against equal quality they will punt more. they also have a kicker who puts it in the endzone 85-90% of the time so I see that as an advantage over onside kicking every time, although they did open Fridays game with onside kick. It is easier to do this if you are confident your team can overcome the short field you give up if you do not recover the onsides kick.