SWC75
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THE KICKING GAME
(I don’t like the title “special teams”- it’s all about putting the “foot” in football as well as returning some kicks)
It’s entirely arguable that for eight years, our MVP was our punter. First Brendan Carney and the Rob Long gave us a punter who could get us out of trouble by booming the ball 50-60 yards downfield and we needed one because with our anemic offense, we were often in trouble. Of course, when you do something as often as they did it, you are going to get good at it but they brought a lot of natural ability to the task as well. They rank second, (Long 43.3) and third (Carney 42.6) all-time in career punting average at Syracuse. My only complaint about them is that they were not that good at pinning the other team in front of their goal-line with strategically-placed punts. But we were so often punting from deep in our own territory that their value was still enormous to us.
Long was also our holder on place kicks, which was an unusual move because the holder is often the back-up quarterback so if there is a muff, we still have the possibility of turning it into a pass play. But the biggest job of a holder isn’t to make something out of a busted play. It’s to avoid busted plays by catching all the fastballs, curves, sliders and knuckleballs that come back to him from the long snapper and turning them into footballs that are pointed in the right direction and held at the correct angle. Long was superb at this. In 2010, our place kicker, Ross Krautman, was 30 for 32 on extra points and 18 for 19 on field goals.
Last year the punting was shared between Jonathan Fisher, who had been a highly recruited punter out of high school, (41.7 career average with a state record 73 yard punt) and walk-on Shane Raupers. Fisher was a major disappointment (39.3 in 43 punts), and Raupers wasn’t the answer, either, (37.4 average in 21 punts). This year Fisher is competing with another walk-on, Riley Dixon and has struggled to beat him out. When your offense can’t move the ball and you have to send in a punter you have no reason to have confidence in, you are in a bad situation.
Meanwhile Ross Krautman slipped a bit to 15 of 19 field goals. He was 33 of 34 in extra points but, as we know, one of those shouldn’t have been counted as good. Even some of the “makes” were shakier than the year before because the new holder, back-up quarterback Charley Loeb, wasn’t quite as deft with the ball as Rob Long and I think that effected Krautman’s confidence a little. In their second year together, they should both be able to function better.
We have a new kick-off guy, Ryan Norton. Last year, we had trouble getting the ball deep, which set up many successful returns against us. Opponents average starting point after our kick-offs was the 29 yard line. Norton is said to be booming them in practice so maybe we can do better there this year.
Besides a good punter, a team with a struggling offense needs big plays from it’s kicking teams- not just successful place kicks, long kick-offs and good punts. Blocked kicks can turn around football games. Last year we had none. Our opponents had three against us. Big kick returns can do the same thing. The biggest positive play we had all year was Dorian Graham’s 98 yard kickoff return for a score vs. West Virginia after the ’Neers had just scored on a 64 play of their own to close to 14-9. It gave us the momentum right back to us in a 49-23 win. Jeremiah Kobena also had a 79 yard return that set up a score vs. Tulane in a 37-34 win. Other than those two plays, we averaged 20.3 yards per kick-off return, a less than mediocre stat. The ]problem was simply opening up a seam for our guys. Graham and Kobena certainly had the speed to take it all the way but too often they’d just be a bug on a windshield after 15-20 yards. Graham’s gone and Prince-Tyson Gulley will take his place but it will mean little if we can’t spring them with some blocks.
No one has been able to figure out how to get punt returns off the blocking formation that is in vogue right now. One rule difference between the NFL and college is that blocker s on a punt return in the NFL can’t cross the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked. In college they can go downfield with the snap of the ball and some clever coach figured out that you didn’t need to use everybody to protect the kicker on a punt so they released several guys up front to be “gunners” and surround the punt returner by the time the ball gets there. Last year we returned 12 punts, (out of 47) for 37 yards. Basically all we are trying to do is get possession of the ball. But our opponents did a little better than we did, with 25 returns, (of 64) for 189 yards. We’ve got to figure a way to get something more out of our punt returns. In charge of that will be Stephen Rene, a diminutive (5-7) back-up running back and Ritchy Desir, a back-up defensive back. I’m not optimistic they will get things turned around.
Last year we kicked off 56 times, punted 64 times, attempted 34 extra points and 19 field goals. That’s 173 plays. We ran the ball 396 times and passed it 418. Our opponents kicked off 70 times, punted 47 times, attempted 38 extra points and 35 field goals. That’s 190 plays. They ran the ball 436 times and passed it 415. That’s 363 kicking plays, 832 running plays and 833 passing plays. 18% of the plays in a football game are kicking plays. But they are all big plays. Place kicks are attempts to score, not just get closer to a first down. Kick offs and punts are all potential scoring plays as are blocked kicks. Being mediocre in the kicking game means you are giving up many chances to turn a game around. And we are decidedly mediocre.
Overall, I think we will have a better team this year, not because some superstar will show up riding a white horse and lead us on a charge to victory, (we have no RG3), but because we will be bigger, stronger, faster, more talented and deeper across the board, because this team will be almost entirely Marrone recruits who came here to be a part of his program and because the leaders on the team will have been disgusted with how last season ended and will be out to do something about that this year. Whether we have a better record will depend on who we play and which way the prolate spheroid bounces.
(I don’t like the title “special teams”- it’s all about putting the “foot” in football as well as returning some kicks)
It’s entirely arguable that for eight years, our MVP was our punter. First Brendan Carney and the Rob Long gave us a punter who could get us out of trouble by booming the ball 50-60 yards downfield and we needed one because with our anemic offense, we were often in trouble. Of course, when you do something as often as they did it, you are going to get good at it but they brought a lot of natural ability to the task as well. They rank second, (Long 43.3) and third (Carney 42.6) all-time in career punting average at Syracuse. My only complaint about them is that they were not that good at pinning the other team in front of their goal-line with strategically-placed punts. But we were so often punting from deep in our own territory that their value was still enormous to us.
Long was also our holder on place kicks, which was an unusual move because the holder is often the back-up quarterback so if there is a muff, we still have the possibility of turning it into a pass play. But the biggest job of a holder isn’t to make something out of a busted play. It’s to avoid busted plays by catching all the fastballs, curves, sliders and knuckleballs that come back to him from the long snapper and turning them into footballs that are pointed in the right direction and held at the correct angle. Long was superb at this. In 2010, our place kicker, Ross Krautman, was 30 for 32 on extra points and 18 for 19 on field goals.
Last year the punting was shared between Jonathan Fisher, who had been a highly recruited punter out of high school, (41.7 career average with a state record 73 yard punt) and walk-on Shane Raupers. Fisher was a major disappointment (39.3 in 43 punts), and Raupers wasn’t the answer, either, (37.4 average in 21 punts). This year Fisher is competing with another walk-on, Riley Dixon and has struggled to beat him out. When your offense can’t move the ball and you have to send in a punter you have no reason to have confidence in, you are in a bad situation.
Meanwhile Ross Krautman slipped a bit to 15 of 19 field goals. He was 33 of 34 in extra points but, as we know, one of those shouldn’t have been counted as good. Even some of the “makes” were shakier than the year before because the new holder, back-up quarterback Charley Loeb, wasn’t quite as deft with the ball as Rob Long and I think that effected Krautman’s confidence a little. In their second year together, they should both be able to function better.
We have a new kick-off guy, Ryan Norton. Last year, we had trouble getting the ball deep, which set up many successful returns against us. Opponents average starting point after our kick-offs was the 29 yard line. Norton is said to be booming them in practice so maybe we can do better there this year.
Besides a good punter, a team with a struggling offense needs big plays from it’s kicking teams- not just successful place kicks, long kick-offs and good punts. Blocked kicks can turn around football games. Last year we had none. Our opponents had three against us. Big kick returns can do the same thing. The biggest positive play we had all year was Dorian Graham’s 98 yard kickoff return for a score vs. West Virginia after the ’Neers had just scored on a 64 play of their own to close to 14-9. It gave us the momentum right back to us in a 49-23 win. Jeremiah Kobena also had a 79 yard return that set up a score vs. Tulane in a 37-34 win. Other than those two plays, we averaged 20.3 yards per kick-off return, a less than mediocre stat. The ]problem was simply opening up a seam for our guys. Graham and Kobena certainly had the speed to take it all the way but too often they’d just be a bug on a windshield after 15-20 yards. Graham’s gone and Prince-Tyson Gulley will take his place but it will mean little if we can’t spring them with some blocks.
No one has been able to figure out how to get punt returns off the blocking formation that is in vogue right now. One rule difference between the NFL and college is that blocker s on a punt return in the NFL can’t cross the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked. In college they can go downfield with the snap of the ball and some clever coach figured out that you didn’t need to use everybody to protect the kicker on a punt so they released several guys up front to be “gunners” and surround the punt returner by the time the ball gets there. Last year we returned 12 punts, (out of 47) for 37 yards. Basically all we are trying to do is get possession of the ball. But our opponents did a little better than we did, with 25 returns, (of 64) for 189 yards. We’ve got to figure a way to get something more out of our punt returns. In charge of that will be Stephen Rene, a diminutive (5-7) back-up running back and Ritchy Desir, a back-up defensive back. I’m not optimistic they will get things turned around.
Last year we kicked off 56 times, punted 64 times, attempted 34 extra points and 19 field goals. That’s 173 plays. We ran the ball 396 times and passed it 418. Our opponents kicked off 70 times, punted 47 times, attempted 38 extra points and 35 field goals. That’s 190 plays. They ran the ball 436 times and passed it 415. That’s 363 kicking plays, 832 running plays and 833 passing plays. 18% of the plays in a football game are kicking plays. But they are all big plays. Place kicks are attempts to score, not just get closer to a first down. Kick offs and punts are all potential scoring plays as are blocked kicks. Being mediocre in the kicking game means you are giving up many chances to turn a game around. And we are decidedly mediocre.
Overall, I think we will have a better team this year, not because some superstar will show up riding a white horse and lead us on a charge to victory, (we have no RG3), but because we will be bigger, stronger, faster, more talented and deeper across the board, because this team will be almost entirely Marrone recruits who came here to be a part of his program and because the leaders on the team will have been disgusted with how last season ended and will be out to do something about that this year. Whether we have a better record will depend on who we play and which way the prolate spheroid bounces.
