Innovation Advice From The Football Coach Who Never Punts

He’s known as “the coach who never punts.” When conventional coaching wisdom says to punt on a fourth down to play the “field position game,” Coach Kevin Kelley believes in taking greater risk for greater reward and goes for the first down. In twenty-four seasons coaching high school football at Pulaski Academy where he won nine AAA Arkansas state championships, and one season coaching Division I college ball, Coach Kevin Kelley has attracted both admirers and critics for his unorthodox approach.

His strategy has been covered by numerous news outlets, and he’s received international recognition. He was named USA Today’s 2016 All-USA Football Coach of the Year and received an innovation award from Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Disruptor Awards. Time Magazine named his no punt offense as one of the greatest inventions of 2009, alongside such notable innovations as the AIDS vaccine.

This fall, football fans around the country have wondered what “the coach who never punts” is up to. He’s returned to his home state of Arkansas to found Kid Champion, a motor skills development and academic program for kids aged two through ten, has a weekly sports radio segment on 103.7 The Buzz, a weekly college and National Football League podcast Big Pig Energy hosted by Razorback Sports Network, writes for Sharp Football Analysis, and does some private coaching. I sat down with Coach Kelley to hear what drives his innovative approach to football, and how we can apply it to business.

As part of your coaching approach, you’ve been celebrated for an innovative style that is reliant on data analytics and retaining possession of the ball via tactics such as no punting and frequent onside kicks. What first inspired you to embrace unorthodox strategies in how you approach the game?

Coach Kevin Kelley: When I became a head coach for the first time in 2003, the school didn’t have a great record. They had never been to a state championship game and had only been to the semifinals twice in the history of the school.

It hit me that I wasn’t necessarily going to be that much better than the last coach. We weren’t going to get players that were any better than the last players. I started thinking and questioning everything we did year-round.

Why, why, why? That was my question. The answer was often, “because everybody else does it.” I started looking into those things, challenging the status quo, and making sure we had a reason for everything.

It’s like the ”Five Whys” method developed by Sakichi Toyoda for Toyota and used in innovation.

Coach Kelley: Kids ask their parents “why,” and the response is often “because I said so.” As adults we sometimes discourage kids from asking, “why,” but I encourage my players to ask me why we’re doing anything we’re doing. Whether it’s a drill on the field or the pregame meal we’re eating, or why we’re going to watch a movie the night before a game, I’m going to have an answer. If I don’t have an answer, then we’re not going to do it anymore.

I think if you’ve got a real mission and a real reason behind everything you do, especially if you can come up with some evidence to back you up, then by asking the question, “why” you can find a different or better way.

You’ve won nine high school state championships by defying conventional wisdom regarding game management. What have you learned about defying conventional wisdom that you think could be applicable to innovating in other disciplines?

Coach Kelley: I’ve always thought I think differently than the typical coach with an education or physical education degree. I studied accounting, science, and biology, in addition to education. I think this background helped me realize that there’s always a better way to do things. Always. I really believe this with all I’m worth.

And if you really believe there’s always a better way, then you will always be able to pursue and find it. Think about it, we moved from horse and buggy, to car, to plane, because people were willing to ask, “why are we doing it this way?” They knew there had to be a better way.

At the same time, we do some dumb things that slow things down too much. We worry too much about the short-term cost of trying new things. When we don’t think of the overall big picture, we make short-term decisions that prevent long-term change and growth. Society has so much riding on public companies to innovate, but they are held back by short-term pressures about bottom line and stock price. If we can find a way to eliminate those short-term concerns, I think we would evolve faster with technology and medical advances.

You’ve received a remarkable level of recognition. How were you able to maintain a proper balance and not allow all the positive press and buzz to go to your head?

Coach Kelley: There are a few things that help with that. One, it doesn’t matter in coaching how successful you are, you’ve always got naysayers saying you’ve done a bad job.

My job was on display every week, for people to watch on television or in the stands. The positive that comes with that really helps balance out the negative. I’ve been fortunate and had a lot of success, and I think my strong leadership and innovation made that success possible. I’m not scared of the risk of trying new things on the field. I think more about the things that could go well than worry about the things that could go bad.

Some people are going to assume, “I bet you think you’re so big, so important.” Number one, I don’t make any money off the recognition. I do it because it’s good for school visibility. It’s good for our players, because they like the attention and the social media, the things that come with it. If you look at it just for what it can do for you, with an ego, you let those things affect how you think about yourself and other people.

I’m always trying to find a way for the visibility to help my team or cause. Ultimately, if I’m not successful with my team, I don’t get any of those things anyway. Never allow yourself to think, “I, I, I.” My assistant coaches would be the first ones to tell you that I give all the credit to them and the players and take none of it. When we lose, I take all the blame. When you do that, people will work harder for you, try harder for you, and if you’re successful, the recognition will come. Servant leadership over seeking the spotlight.

Clearly, coaching is a multi-variable equation: the plays you call are just one component; recruiting, training and teamwork are all key to winning. What are your tips for persevering and staying true to your vision, despite the naysayers who may second-guess your approach to the game? And how have you motivated your teams and staff to stay committed?

Coach Kelley: The hard part is not changing the variables that you don’t have to change, and not deviating from your vision. It can be hard to win people over. I’ve had to weigh what was more important: continuing down the same path that I started or changing some elements by punting sometimes, not onside kicking sometimes, to try to get players to buy in to the team.

In normal science experiments, human emotion is not a factor. When you’re in the middle of a game where you’re playing with people and minds and hearts and bodies, it does factor in and the hard part is to find out a way to address that human emotion.

I’m proud that I’ve continued down my intended path when I’ve had a lot of what I’ll call “encouragement” to deviate from that path. It’s hard; it’s tough on my family and the things they read and hear. I think God gave me the mindset to believe I’m doing what I believe is right. My job as a coach is to do what I think gives the guys who are practicing and working hard the best chance to win, even if it means I get ridiculed. I’m going to continue to do what I believe is best until I conclude that it doesn’t work.

As a coach for twenty-nine years, I have former players who have become firemen, policemen, they work on Wall Street. I’ve got over twenty guys who are doctors, some who work in the White House. My favorite thing is when they come back to tell me, “I’m glad you taught me that there’s a different way to do what everybody thinks there is only one way to do.” They’ve told me that whether it’s studying for medical entrance exams or financial trading, they’ve learned they’ve got to do something differently if they’re going to set themselves apart and be successful. I enjoy that, because I’m trying to raise and teach young men to be better people when they leave my program than when they started. I take pride in knowing that I’ve trained thousands of young men to think differently in business, medicine, consulting and more. That impact is huge.

In innovation there is a lot of talk of “customer centricity,” and doing what your customers want. Yet some of the most disruptive innovations have been products that no one knew they wanted, like the iPhone. How do you balance what your “customers,” the fans want, with what you believe will win?

Coach Kelley: The key is you try not to balance that at all. The number one priority is what is best for our team whether they know it or not.

The fans are my customers, but the biggest part of my customer base is the players and assistant coaches. I need to serve them. As long as I do what I think is best and do it right, eventually that’s going to rise to the top and I’m serving them.

I tell my players that we’re going to do some things that people don’t like, that even they are not going to like. Why would I do that and take all the ridicule, if I really didn’t think it was the best? I wouldn’t, because when it doesn’t work, I get chastised beyond belief in the social media world and I have many times over the years.

That’s how I helped them understand it, but the bottom line is, do what you think is best for your customers, even if it’s not necessarily what they want at that moment.

When I’ve got to make a decision, I don’t look at how I’m going to feel right now. I look at whether in two weeks, I will be glad I made that decision. That takes the emotion out of it. There have been times when I think “Do I really want to do this? I think it’s best, I just don’t want to listen to the crap that comes with it.” Yet I do what I really think it best and it always works out.

There are outcomes related to your coaching approach that go beyond winning, namely notoriety of your team, which then leads to recruiting, sponsorships, ticket sales, and the like. How much of a factor would you say these other benefits have been in your career, and how do you take the long view, and resist the urge to measure success solely with a win/loss record?

Coach Kelley: That’s the tough part. Everyone wants to base success on win/loss record, but what I’ve learned to is measure success based on whether we’re making progress toward our goal. No graph goes straight up, go look at the stock market. You won’t be successful if you throw your plan away when the graph isn’t going straight up.

You’ve got to have a long-term plan, take the emotion out, and know that the graph’s going to go down sometimes and then give it enough time. You’ve got to determine what amount of time you’ll go down that road before you change, and make that decision before you start, while you’re logical and unemotional, because if you don’t and try to determine it halfway through, emotions will come into play. You are going to make a much better decision when you’re not emotional than when you are.

The other thing is, as soon as you say, “I want to try this,” you’re probably done. If you’d said, “I’m going to do it this way for a while” then they’ve got a chance, but as soon as you say, “I’m going to try,” the emotional influence comes in. All it takes is for somebody booing you or calling you out on social media to make you change your mind, because you weren’t convinced you needed to do it anyway. You said you just wanted to try it.

Look at 3M, they were a mining company in Minnesota. They realized they had to change, and now they dominate the office supply market. Google started as a search engine, then realized they would never beat Yahoo! if they didn’t change and do more things. Sometimes you need to stay on your path, but sometimes you need to be open to change.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Follow me on LinkedIn or check out my other columns here.