Five yards often sounds like 50 when college football coaches discuss a rules change that has had them working overtime on special-teams strategy in the off-season.

Teams will kick off from the 30-yard line, instead of the 35, under the new NCAA rule. No SEC coach is making light of those extra 5 yards.

“It’s going to be one of the most significant rule changes to come about in recent years, maybe in a decade,” Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said at SEC Media Days last month. “Very few teams will have a guy who can kick it into the touchback area or out of the end zone.

“You’re gonna see scoring averages go up because of the rules change. You’re gonna see a lot more gimmicks on kickoff coverage.”

Georgia might be as well prepared as any team from a defensive standpoint. That’s because assistant coach Jon Fabris, who handles their kick-coverage team, has always believed in directional kicking with height.

“I think now everybody will have to go into the season with that type of strategy,” said Richt, who, like the rest of the coaches, has been analyzing last year’s data.

“We returned 25 percent of the kicks last year,” Richt said. “This year, we predict we’ll be returning 75 to 90 percent.”

Brooks can foresee teams taking extreme measures to combat the returns.

“There may be some people that decide they want to kick it out of bounds and give it to the team on the 35-yard line, rather than kicking it deep and having a return out to the 40 or 45,” he said.

In a speed league like the SEC, the threat of a long return will loom large. That’s probably just fine with LSU coach Les Miles, who has two outstanding return men in Early Doucet and SEC sprint champion Trindon Holliday, who has run a school-record 10.02-second 100 meters.

“I think the return game is obviously exciting for us,” Miles said. “We think we’ll have great returners. If we can get a hat on a hat in the blocks, we have an opportunity to go get some yards.”

LSU won’t be the only conference team with great kick-return potential. The SEC’s top 10 kick returners from last season are all back. That includes Auburn’s Triston Davis, who led the league last year with a 27-yard average.

Also returning are Arkansas’ Felix Jones and Kentucky’s Keenan Burton, each of whom had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in 2006.

Said Miles: “On defense when you’re kicking it off, you better have a very talented, fast coverage core going down ready to tackle.”

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.