NCAA Football 10 Special Teams

Special teams are the guys who are on the field during any kind of kick. They're comprised mostly of your best defenders, although the linesmen are taken out of the equation due to their low speed.

Kickoffs usually feature your kicker on the 30 yard line. Kicking it out of bounds will cause a penalty flag to fly, and the enemy gets the ball on their own 40. If the kicking team kicks it into the end zone, the receiving team can kneel, taking the ball on their own 20. Otherwise, once a member of the receiving team gets it, everyone else will block while the ball carrier tries to get as far downfield as he can.

The first goal of both teams rests on the 20 yard line of the receiving team. If the receiver can get to his own 20 or farther, he "wins" the kickoff and puts his team in a good position. If the kicking team stops the receiver before his own 20, the receiver "loses" the kickoff, putting his team in a rather bad position. "Win" and "lose" here are relative, of course: just because you start on the 50 doesn't mean you're guaranteed to score, and just because you start on your own 15 doesn't mean the drive is hopeless.

In the event of a safety, the scoring team will get the ball back. When this happens, the kickoff is replaced with a safety punt by the kicking team's punter. This kick will definitely not go as far, because the punter won't get a running start. Safeties are bad for whoever is scored against for many reasons; the nasty safety punt afterwards is part of it.

In a non-safety kickoff, you can attempt what's called an onside kick. Here's the deal: technically, the moment the ball passes the kicking team's 40-yard line, it's really anyone's to grab. So if you kick the ball at least 10 yards and your guys get it, you get the ball back. This is what everyone does late in the game if they're trailing.

This is EXTREMELY risky though. For example, if the ball goes less than 10 yards and one of your guys grab it, you get flagged for illegal procedure. This is a five-yard penalty, but you can re-kick. If you mess up again, the opponents will simply get the ball on your 40.

Also, if the opponents get the ball at all on an onside kick, they get to start their drive from wherever they get it, whether it went 10 yards or not. That means they can start on the edge (or closer) of field goal range... of course, if you're attempting an onside kick, it's probably because you're extremely far ahead or behind and can take the risk.

There's no easy way to perform the onside kick. 99 times out of 100, it will fail. So, before attempting one, practice it to death in Practice Mode. That's what the mode is there for anyway, and if there's any play that needs a tremendous amount of practice, it's the onside kick.