Special Teams

[Shenexon]

I'm not an X's and O's kinda fan but was hoping that those of you who are could talk about why our special teams have been so bad and what the coaches & players could and should do about it.

At times we've outkicked the coverage on punts allowing a good or great return. Some people have suggested we need faster people on the coverage team instead of beefier players currently on the field, but I'm not sure if it's a coaching thing, a punter not executing kind of thing, or a coverage team player thing. All I know is we've looked horrible at times on all kinds of kicks. If we can't do better, why punt?

We've also done a poor job on our kick returns, except for I think one nice return by Kobena against NW. For the most part we've gotten no advantage from our kick returns and the only reason it hasn't hurt more is that we have the best offensive production in years. I think we've lost the field possession battles so far which isn't a winning strategy. Between kick returns and turnovers, four of NW's drives started inside our 30, not to mention the punt return for a TD.

The missed field goals are another thing but I'm not sure if the problem is more complex than just Ross Krautman losing his rhythm & confidence or not. One thing we've had great success with over time has been with kickers. The same players did better last year than this year, which should be unusual. The only bright spot I've seen is with Norton doing kickoffs.

We have a good offense and a workable defense that may be endangered by a very weak special teams unit. We lost the NW game due specifically to special teams and were hurt by special teams in all three games so far. What should/could/is being done to at least have special teams function at an acceptable level? UConn has a good defense & special teams unit. We don't want that to be enough to beat us nor be a model for other teams to use in beating us. Isn't that our primary weakness at this point?

 

[oldpinepoint]

Well i can tell you one of the reasons i hate the punt formation is that its basically 7 on 11 when you cover. Those OL on the wall and the punter dont count as tacklers. Now against NW i think it was a case of out punting the coverage on a few of those returns. The gunners lost contain and off we went. USC just had amazing athletes, i didnt watch SB.

 

[sufandu]

I saw a highly ranked team using the same punt formation this weekend. It may have been Alabama or FSU, and they didn't have problems. I don't know if they used offensive lineman as the protectors, however. I think it comes down to execution, but then again, I'm not an X's and O's guy either, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

[Rocco]

I saw a highly ranked team using the same punt formation this weekend. It may have been Alabama or FSU, and they didn't have problems. I don't know if they used offensive lineman as the protectors, however. I think it comes down to execution, but then again, I'm not an X's and O's guy either, so take this with a grain of salt.

Using this formation, if the punter doesn't have great accuracy and consistency, it won't work. It can't work. The goal is to either pin or force them into a fair catch. We haven't been able to accomplish that yet, but DM is standing by the system. I guess he will succeed based on the performance of his punter.

 

[Scooch]

I saw a highly ranked team using the same punt formation this weekend. It may have been Alabama or FSU, and they didn't have problems. I don't know if they used offensive lineman as the protectors, however. I think it comes down to execution, but then again, I'm not an X's and O's guy either, so take this with a grain of salt.

I would imagine that team had *significantly* better athletes than us in those other 7 spots.

 

[sufandu]

I would imagine that team had *significantly* better athletes than us in those other 7 spots.

Certainly true, but wouldn't that be the case with whatever scheme we run? I'm sure teams with superior athletes aren't saying, "Let's run an inferior scheme, we've got good enough athletes to make up for it." They're putting their better athletes in the best schemes they can come up with.