Kevin Kelley’s No-Punt Strategy

American high school football coach Kevin Kelley of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, adopted an unusually aggressive strategy that almost never involved punting. Instead, his team frequently attempted fourth-down conversions and regularly tried onside kicks whenever the score was within 21 points. Kelley believed keeping possession gave his team better odds than giving the ball away. The approach proved successful, as Pulaski Academy won nine Arkansas state championships, including four consecutive titles from 2014 to 2017 (as of March 2026).

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