The Pulaski Academy Bruins will be available to watch live online at http://www.fearlessfriday.com at 12:00 p.m. CST on Saturday as they take on the Malvern Leopards.  The Bruins will try to complete their first undefeated season, and hope to attain Arkansas’ #1 overall ranking.  Be sure to login early to catch the opening onside kick if Malvern wins the toss.

Pulaski Academy is currently ranked 5^th in the nation (according to MaxPreps) in offensive yards per game with an average of 537.  However, their starting offense is averaging close to 400 yards in the first half.

Interested in more information on the Bruins?  They have launched a new website, http://pabruinsports.com.

After getting a stop on the first possession of the second half, the Bruins would use their starting offense minus Knighten to drive 59 yards on 3 running plays and a shovel pass to increase their lead to 51-6. Dollarway would score 4 unanswered touchdowns on PA’s second team, one being an interception return, to end the game. Pulaski Academy would finish the night with 656 yards to the Cardinals’ 147 yards.

HBO Real Sports was in attendance filming for an upcoming segment about Coach Kelley and his unique philosophies, mainly the onside kicks and insistence to go for it on all 4th downs. The first team was 1 for 1 on 4th downs, converting a 4th and 7 for a 13-yard touchdown pass from Knighten to L.J. Wallace. The onside kicks, however, were unsuccessful in all four attempts.

For those keeping up with the Bruins scoring streak, they had stretched it to 19 straight possessions of scoring a touchdown before just the 6th interception of the year for Knighten. In their last 61 possessions, PA has scored 55 touchdowns. They have 82 touchdowns in 104 possessions (79%) on the year with their first team offense.

Knighten has completed 73% of his passes for 4239 yards and 63 touchdowns. He has also gained 922 yards on the ground and has 13 rushing touchdowns. The Bruins have 4 receivers with double digit touchdowns. LJ Wallace has 48 receptions for 1118 yards and 18 touchdowns, Hunter Henry has 58 catches for 977 yards and 14 touchdowns, Kendall Bruce has caught the ball 57 times for 946 yards and 14 scores, and Ben Fortson has hauled in 42 passes for 783 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Pulaski Academy will face Malvern in the state championship on Saturday at noon. The game will be streamed live at http://www.fearlessfriday.com. The Bruins defeated Malvern in week 8 on October 21, 47-16.

Pulaski Academy has a new athletic website, http://pabruinsports.com, where you can get all of your up-to-date information regarding Pulaski Academy athletics.

Pulaski Academy was a little bit more on edge this week heading into their quarterfinal matchup with Pottsville. The Bruins weren’t worried as much about their offense as they were about the big play ability of the Pottsville Apache offense that was averaging over 44 points per game.

The Bruins elected to receive the ball to start the game, and after recovering Pottsville’s onside kick attempt, they marched 48 yards in 7 plays, capped with a 15 yard pass from Fredi Knighten to L.J. Wallace on a 4th down and 1. PA would successfully go for two to go up 8-0 with 10:37 left in the first.

“We felt like Pottsville was going to go for two on each of their touchdowns, and they had been fairly successful in making them out of the swinging gate formation on the films we had,” Pulaski Academy head coach Kevin Kelley said. “and obviously, we didn’t know we would be able to stop them like we did.”

The ensuing onside kick was unsuccessful, but PA would stymie the Apache offense on a 4-and-out, holding on a 4th and 2 attempt from PA’s 40-yard line. After a holding penalty on a big second play, Knighten would hit Ben Fortson on a tunnel screen for a 66-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion was good, but the onside kick was again unsuccessful. Pottsville would drive down to the 14-yard line, but was stopped on a 4th and 7, with 3:27 left in the first and down 16-0. The next time the Apaches would touch the ball, they would be down 37-0 with 27 seconds left in the quarter.

Knighten would hit Wallace on a 46-yard touchdown pass to cap a 3-play 86-yard drive and then take the two-point conversion in himself to increase the lead to 24-0. The onside kick was successful and Knighten would hit Kendall Bruce from 10 yards away just 4 plays later. The onside kick was again successful as it hopped over two Apaches into senior safety Aum’Arie Wallace’s hands. Knighten would score on a 15-yard scamper on the 3rd play of the drive to increase the lead to 37-0 just before the 2nd quarter, and the Apaches had only had two offensive possessions.

The Bruins would kick it deep for the first time in the game and would hold Pottsville to a 3-and-out. PA would use some clock with their run game and short passes until faced with a 4th and 19 from the Pottsville 28-yard line where Hunter Henry would go up to get a pass in the end zone from Knighten to make the score 44-0. That would be the last score for the offensive starters as they would have the ball just one more time as they would run out the last two-minutes of the clock. The defensive starters, however, were not done as safety Jeremy Brady would pick off a pass and take it 96 yards for a touchdown with 4:30 left in the half. Pottsville would drive down and score before the end of the half, as the Bruins led 51-7 at the break before finishing with a 65-13 victory.

PA would finish the night 2-for-2 on 4th down conversions with their starters, while the junior varsity and freshmen crew was 2-for-2 themselves. The starters scored on all 6 first half possessions excluding running out the clock. That increases the Bruins starters’ touchdown rate to 48 touchdowns out of their last 53 possessions dating back to the 2nd quarter against Nashville on September 30 in week 5. For the season, the starters have scored 75 touchdowns in 96 possessions (78%).

The Bruins will host Pine Bluff Dollarway in the semifinals Friday night at 7:30. Although the matchup looks favorable on paper, Dollarway has defeated PA in 4 out of their 5 previous meetings. Their speed and athleticism, combined with their size up front, will cause the Bruins some trouble. They will be the fastest, most athletic team that Pulaski Academy has faced all year.

Pulaski Academy head coach Kevin Kelley has one of the most unique coaching philosophies in the country. He doesn’t punt, he onside kicks and he wins. We love Pulaski Academy’s quirky style and that is why we feature them every week. To learn more about Kevin Kelley and his Pulaski Academy squad, click here.

Pulaski Academy’s 21 straight possessions of scoring a touchdown with their starters was snapped on their first possession against Ashdown. Kendall Bruce took a 58-yard bubble pass to the endzone on a 2nd and 21, but it was called back on a block-in-the-back penalty. After taking a sack on 2nd and 22, quarterback Fredi Knighten scrambled to pick up 19 yards on 3rd and 31 to make a more manageable 4th and 12. However, Knighten’s pass on 4th down fell incomplete as the Bruins were stopped for the first time in 4 games.

After scoring on their 2nd possession, a 2-play, 81-yard drive capped by a 68-yard touchdown pass from Knighten to Hunter Henry, their ensuing onside kick was recovered. They would score again on a 7-play, 50-yard drive, and recover another onside kick, which was followed by another 7-play, 50-yard drive that put the Bruins up 21-0 with 3:53 left in the first quarter. After defensive lineman Kyle Whelpley picked off a screen pass on the Panthers third play of their next drive, the Bruins would quickly score again on a 35-yard run by Knighten to go up 28-0 with 1:57 left in the first. PA scored again 27 seconds into the 2nd quarter, and Sutton Bartlett intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown to give the Bruins a 42-0 lead with 7:48 left in the half. On the Bruins last possession of the half, Knighten would throw an interception on 3rd and 36 that prevented them from extending a new streak after scoring 5 straight possessions. Ashdown had -7 yards at half to PA’s 389. The game ended 42-18 with PA leading the yardage total 416 to 97.

After receiving a first round bye, the Bruins defeated the Osceola Seminoles (5-5, 4-2), 57-18, to move on to the quarterfinals. Pulaski Academy scored on their third play from scrimmage, a 14-yard rush by Knighten. They were stopped on their next possession as they were unsuccessful on a 4th and 2. However, they would score on their next 7 possessions as they led 43-6 at the end of the first quarter and 57-6 at halftime. Each of the 8 touchdowns can be seen in the video below. The Bruins finished the first half with 360 yards to Osceola’s 30.

Pulaski Academy is still ranked #1 in class 4A and #2 overall in Arkansas. They take on the Pottsville Apaches (11-0-1), ranked #2 by some in class 4A, at 7:30 on Friday night. Pottsville is not known for a strong defense, but they are very explosive on offense, scoring over 44 points per game running out of the Dead-T formation.

Pulaski Academy (Little Rock, AR) recently reappeared into the national spotlight after they led a team 29-0 just three-and-a-half minutes into the game. But that wasn’t why it was on the front page of Yahoo. The real story was that Arkansas’ third largest school, Cabot, had not run an offensive play. Cabot had deferred to receive the ball in the second half and unsuccessfully onside kicked to start the game. The Bruins scored, recovered an onside kick, scored, recovered an onside kick, scored, recovered an onside kick, and then scored again before Cabot finally recovered a kick.

Going for it on fourth down and kicking onside kicks are just two of the quirky philosophies that Coach Kelley uses to lead his program. We’ll try to outline those philosophies here as well as the reasons behind his madness.

Foregoing the Punt

Coach Kelley has not always gone for it on every fourth down. He took over as head coach in 2003 after being promoted from offensive coordinator. Prior to becoming the head coach, he had watched a video by a Harvard professor that had analyzed every game from college football for three years. In that study, it revealed that if a team takes possession of the ball inside their opponent’s 10-yard line, then they have a 92% chance of scoring. If they take possession between their opponent’s 30- and 40-yard line, then they will score 77% of the time. So even when his team is backed up inside their own 10, he argues that if he nets a punt of 30 yards (which is a good average NET punt for high school), then he only decreases his opponent’s chance of scoring by 15%. He feels that most fourth down situations that he faces has a better than 15% chance of being successful.

Below is a chart of their number of punts and 4th down percentage since 2003. Note that this is 4th downs in all situations, 4th and 1’s as well as 4th and 25’s, as well as 4th downs with second and third string players.

As we said, Coach Kelley believes that the numbers tell him to go for it. As he looks at more factors and more numbers, the more he is convinced that he is right – from the psychological effect of both teams for a successful fourth down conversion to the value (or lack thereof) of field position in today’s game. “Punting is offensive failure. It’s willingly giving the ball to the other team. A voluntary turnover,” says Kelley. “If we average just 50% on 4th down conversions, then we are keeping the ball half the time that playing conventional football would have us give it up on a punt. And for what, 30 yards of field position?”

Kelley could talk for hours making his case. He’d bring out numbers, game statistics, or his own anecdotal accounts. And he might even convince the most traditional of coaches – at least a little. He once had a BCS level offensive coordinator in his office for two hours listening and taking notes as if he would be given an exam on the material. That coach went back to his head coach to argue his case, but to no avail. Kelley explained that college coaches are rarely willing to go against conventional wisdom even if they think it will help them win because their job is on the line. Regardless of what the numbers say, if they fail in that single instance, they could be fired.

Onside Kicking

The numbers behind the onside kick seem a little more straightforward than that of the 4th downs. Kelley said, “We took three years of data from when we kicked the ball deep and occasionally onside kicked. Kicking it deep gave the ball to our opponents on average at their 33-yard line. Onside kicks gave them the ball at their 48-yard line. So we’re giving up 15 yards of field position for a chance at getting the ball, which basically amounts to a turnover.”

Oddly enough, one of Kelley’s main objectives in kicking the onside kick doesn’t seem to be to get the ball. “What most people don’t realize is how much time a team has to practice working on our different onside kicks. And all that time spent on that is time away from practicing against stopping our offense or working on theirs.” Kelley went on to say, “If I had an onside kick that guaranteed me to get the ball 80% of the time, I would still use several different ones just so the other team would have to spend time on them.”

One would think that Pulaski Academy uses a large percentage of their own practice time on onside kicks, but that’s not the case. This year, they started devoting ten minutes per practice, two times a week, to their kickoffs and kickoff return teams beginning two weeks before their first game. And since they are always worried opponents will onside kick against them, they use their “hands” return team to field against their own onside kicks. Special teams coach Adam DePriest states that, “We try to go through each of our shifts and most of our kicks each time we’re given a segment. Whatever we don’t get through on Tuesday, we’ll be sure and hit that on Thursday. We’ll end our segment with two deep kicks so that our kickoff return team can practice on their returns we’ve installed.”

Late Arrival

Many teams have their pregame ritual that involves exact times to arrive, walk the field, get dressed, first group take the field, etc. on game day. Pulaski Academy doesn’t. Their arrival goal to an away game is approximately 40 minutes before the kickoff. When they arrive, it’s a “circus-like” atmosphere of coaches yelling for the kids to hurry to get dressed to get out onto the field. From the outside looking in, it would appear that the team ran into unexpected traffic or miscalculated the amount of time it took to get there. However, it’s all part of the plan.

“The worst part I remember, and just about anyone you talk to remembers, about game day is the 30-45 minutes before a game when you’ve already warmed up, and then you are just waiting for the game – ‘getting focused’ as the coaches would tell you,” Kelley remarks. “We take that part completely away. With all the hustle of getting dressed with coaches yelling, they don’t have time to sit around and get nervous. We show up, get dressed, run to the field, throw the ball around a little bit, get back to the locker room for a quick pregame speech, then it’s time to go.”

Coach Kelley will admit that this hasn’t always been his philosophy. In 2009, they were getting ready to travel over two hours to West Helena, an extremely athletic and extremely intimidating opponent. Longtime coach and second-year assistant, Pip Runyan, suggested showing up for the game to warm up AFTER West Helena had left the field. Kelley heeded the advice, even stopping at a gas station for 15 minutes halfway there to stall. They arrived at the stadium at 6:47 for the 7:30 game and pulled off the upset. The following week, they used the same strategy as they traveled to Greenwood, the top-ranked 5A team in the state. Once again, they pulled off the upset and headed to the semifinals the next week, another two-hour trip, this time to Monticello, who was the new top-ranked team in 5A. They did not win, but his new philosophy for game day had been cemented.

Stretching

Kelley has never been a big fan of organized stretching. Beginning the first 15 minutes of practice stretching and doing agilities seemed like 15 minutes taking away from working on offense or defense. In 2007, Kelley attended the AFCA Convention in San Antonio and listened to a guy by the name of John Gagliardi speak. He’s been coaching at St. John’s University in Minnesota since 1953 and has the most wins all-time for NCAA coaches, including four national titles. Gagliardi says they never stretch. He uses examples of intramural players, football players that would show up late to practice because of a lab, and third string players that have been standing on the sidelines for three hours. “They don’t stretch, and they don’t get hurt.” So Kelley has adopted that philosophy and tells his players to jog a lap and stretch on their own before the coaches get out to practice. The same can be seen on a Friday night, as the pregame rituals don’t have time to include much stretching.

Kelley has other idiosyncrasies that separate him from the traditional coaching mode. Earlier this year, his team hit the road for a two-and-a-half hour bus ride to De Queen, Arkansas. He broke up the trip by stopping 30 minutes into the trip for a movie, drove another 40 minutes for a pregame meal, then headed to De Queen to arrive at the game at 6:50 for the 7:30 kickoff, of course.

Like him or hate him, agree or disagree, it’s hard to argue with his success. He’ll continue coaching the way he believes gives his team the best chance to win, regardless of the naysayers.

Pulaski Academy’s starting offense is on quite a streak. After scoring in all 5 first half possessions on Friday en route to a 41-16 win over the Robinson Senators, they increased their consecutive scoring streak to 21 straight first half possessions. They scored the last three possessions in week 6 at De Queen, all 6 first half possessions against Bauxite, and all 7 first half possessions against Malvern.

The Bruins scored two touchdowns in just 3 offensive plays on Friday night and ended the first half with 17 offensive plays for 291 yards, a 17.1 yards per play average. They led 35-0 at halftime. The Bruins did have two unsuccessful onside kicks, but did not have any 4th down attempts. In fact, the first half saw just two 3rd down situations, and the Bruins picked up both of them (3rd and 6, and 3rd and 7). The Senators held the edge in time of possession with 18:12 for the half to the Bruins 4:26. Pulaski Academy offensive drives were 2 plays for 67 yards, 1 play for 24 yards, 5 plays for 59 yards, 6 plays for 80 yards, and 3 plays for 61 yards.

The Bruins offense, which was averaging 560 yards per game, could only squeeze out 377 yards in just 34 plays for the game, their lowest output of the season. Pulaski Academy’s defense gave up just 37 yards in the first half on 31 plays.

Pulaski Academy (9-0) hosts Ashdown (6-3) in its final regular season game on Friday. Ashdown’s defense is possibly the fastest in 4A, and will likely be a great test for the Bruin offense before the playoffs.

Pulaski Academy scored on all 7 first half possessions and racked up 483 yards on 48 first half plays to lead Class 4A number 3 ranked Malvern, 47-0 at half. Pulaski Academy’s starting defense allowed negative 3 yards and just one first down.

PA’s starters converted 9 of 10 on 3rd down including a 3rd and 23 from their own 35, and they converted their only 4th down attempt, a 4th and 10 from their own 14 on their 2nd possession.

The Bruins only successful onside kick came after taking a 20-0 lead. Quarterback Fredi Knighten would hit Kendall Bruce on the next play for a 55-yard touchdown.

Knighten would exit the game at the half, ending with 373 yards passing and 5 touchdowns through the air and 76 yards and 2 touchdowns on 4 rushing attempts.

The Bruins will travel a few minutes down Arkansas State Highway 10 to take on Robinson next Friday in what may be a battle of who has the best onside kicks as the Senators have adopted the Bruins philosophy of onside kicking on most kickoffs.

Last Friday was homecoming as the Bruins downed the Bauxite Miners, 42-12, to run their record to 7-0.  After returning the opening kickoff to the 44-yard line, the Bruins’ first play was a double reverse, double pass that touched 5 players hands before it was toted into the end zone.  You will notice the receiver turning around in what looks like a taunt at the end, but the play was designed as a hook-and-lateral to get the last receiver to touch the ball, but the timing was off.

The Bruins recovered the onside on the ensuing kickoff and quickly drove 50 yards in 4 plays to go up 14-0 before the Miners had run an offensive play.  That would be the only successful onside for the night, and the only one they would need as they led 42-6 at halftime.  The Bruins were 1 of 1 on 3^rd down attempts in the first half, so they did not have any 4^th down situations with their starters who averaged 17.4 yards per play, racking up 418 yards in 24 first half offensive plays.

For the season, the Bruins are averaging 569 offensive yards per game.  Senior quarterback Fredi Knighten, a division one prospect as both a quarterback and an athlete, leads the Bruins as he has completed 75% of his passes (151 for 201) for 2596 yards, 36 touchdowns, and just 4 interceptions.  He also leads the team in rushing with 418 yards and 6 touchdowns.

The Bruins have punted one time all season, a game they trailed 28-12 against Class 6A 2^nd ranked Lake Hamilton.  Facing a 4^th and 33 from their own 4-yard line with just 12 seconds remaining in the half, the Bruins punted and held Lake Hamilton with one play left in the half.  The Bruins would shut out the Wolves in the second half, kicked a successful onside kick, and would even kick a 42-yard field goal to win 38-28.  The Bruins rarely kick field goals, averaging approximately one per season, another one of Kelley’s philosophies that works hand in hand with the statistics he uses for not punting.

We will continue to keep you abreast of the goings on at Pulaski Academy as we will be providing weekly updates of the Bruins and their unique approach to the game.

Kevin Kelley and his 2010 version of the Pulaski Academy Bruins destroyed Star City this past Friday night 56 – 28 and will now play for the Arkansas 4-A State Championship on Friday night at 7:30 against fellow 13-1 squad, the Shiloh Christian Saints. A win will give Coach Kelley his third State Championship in the last eight years, and second in the past three.

In case you are not one of the four people who regularly peruse this site, here are some past features we have ran on Pulaski Academy, including an exclusive interview with their genius head man Kevin Kelley just after winning the 2008 State Title:

Who Needs a Punter? Pulaski Doesn’t

Pulaski Hangs On To Win State

The Pinkie Interviews Pulaski Academy Head Coach Kevin Kelley

The other semifinal features Shiloh Christian taking on Robinson. Pulaski Academy defeated Robinson 55-40 back on 10/29 and has yet to face neither Star City nor Shiloh Christian.