Every coach who has read the NFHS rulebook knows a missed field goal is a scrimmage kick, just like a punt.
Lyons Township high school (IL) has built their fourth-down plan around that rule this fall, and on Saturday night it ended up going viral.
Facing fourth-and-long on their own 6-yard line in the second round of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs at Bolingbrook, Lyons lined its kicker up in the end zone and sent out the field goal unit.
The attempt was officially from 104 yards out.
Daily Herald Preps was among the outlets that posted the clip with a short explanation: “Got to love a 104-yard FG attempt. (Lyons does this instead of punting).”
Vincent Johnson, who covers Chicago-area high school football, shared the video Sunday afternoon. “This poor kicker’s stat sheet must be a mess! Covering high school football for 30 years. First time I’ve seen this,” he wrote. “They missed. It was not a safety.”
Johnson added that he’d been told Lyons had been doing it all season.
It should go without saying, but the kick missed, as planned. Bolingbrook HS took over where the ball went out of bounds, not back at the line of scrimmage.
Under NFHS rules, a field goal attempt is handled like a punt when it comes to possession. If a missed attempt goes out of bounds in the field of play, the receiving team takes over at that spot. If it reaches the end zone, it’s a touchback and the ball comes out to the 20.
The Iowa High School Athletic Association spelled it out in a 2024 memo to officials who may be thrown for a loop when seeing it for the first time: “The ball is not spotted where the holder’s knee was on the ground or from the previous spot.”
In Michigan, MHSAA assistant director Brent Rice has made the same point in the association’s Be the Referee series. “Essentially, the place kick is treated like a punt as it relates to team possession from the goal line and out of bounds,” Rice said.
Why don't you ever see something this off the wall in College or the NFL? Well their rules work differently in that a missed field goal that isn’t returned goes back to the previous spot.
Lyons isn’t the first program to use the rule. In September 2024, Kearney (MO) lined up for a field goal of more than 70 yards from its own 26 on fourth-and-8, according to Spectrum News Kansas City. The kick traveled 60 yards in the air and settled inside the Park Hill 1.
When you’re backed up inside your own 10, the logic to trot out the field goal unit is going to make sense to some reading this.
A punter standing on the end line has no room, the snap is 13 to 15 yards, and one bad exchange means a safety or a blocked kick. A field goal snap is seven or eight yards, the protection is tighter, and if your kicker has a big leg, the net yardage often lands in the same neighborhood as a punt, minus some of the risk. You also don’t have to develop a punter.
The kicker’s season stats will look rough, but nobody on the Lyons staff seems to mind.
The trick didn’t carry Lyons to a win though. Bolingbrook would go on to win 22-14.
Lyons, coached by Jon Beutjer, finishes 8-4. Bolingbrook, coached by Titcus Pettigrew, moves to 10-1 with its tenth straight win and draws Oswego in the quarterfinals. The Raiders beat Oswego 21-7 in Week 4.
Expect a few more coaches to study this clip during the offseason.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.