Texas Football Mid-Camp Report: Special Teams

Who can we expect to see block a punt this year? Who would you put your money on, Scip?

the only thing I don’t like about having Monroe with Goodwin is that when Malcolm was the 2nd returner he could make some punishing blocks. Do Goodwin and Monroe have that capacity?

If the blocking is good…I would consider it kicking out of bounds if I had a lousy coverage team. Not really, but it would be fearsome.

Agreed about the importance of special teams and the kicking game. Especially during a season in which it would appear that we will rely on defense to take us where we want to go.

Think Ohio State 2004.

Hell, our program is in a very different place right now if not for some clutchy kicking in the last 5 or so years.

I am personally worried about Patrick Nkwopara keeping his focus while on the field. One would think he would have an eye turned towards the sky for any impending aerial predators. And who can blame him..

When was the last time we missed a clutch kick? Seriously, I can’t even remember. I’m sure there’s one recently that y’all will bust me over the head with, but I’m blanking right now. We seem to hit all of them.

Pino missed two important kicks in the Rose Bowl against USC, but VY saved his ass.
 
Cuz that’s what VY do.

Good question, Nordberg. Mangum missed a long one in the third quarter of that disastrous Big 12 CG vs. CU in 2001, but that is seldom one of the “what ifs” brought up from that one.

Going way back, Jeff Ward (who had only missed 1 FG all year) missed two in that disastrous Cotton Bowl loss vs. Georgia in 1984. Making either of those could have changed the outcome of that one.

Even during the lean pre-Mack years it seems like we had solid kicking.

Mack has come a long way since some notable punt team misadventures early on. The big one that comes to mind is NC State in ’99 when the wolfpack had TWO blocked punt returns for touchdowns in handing Mack a 23-20 home loss. Truly atrocious. We also had a punt blocked for a TD by Stanford in 2000 in that 24-27 loss.

I can’t fathom a Mack led team gifting away a game like that today.

we coulda had two field goals vs Bama last year in the NCG.

the jeff ward missed FG still haunts me. i wasnt but 8 years old. jan 2 1984.

that was a big football year for me. cotton bowl, we were number 1 coulda been natl champs. and about a month before, Midland Lee lost to Converse Judson in Texas stadium for the 5A title.

hence began my hatred of all things dallas.

oh and hunter better kick it into the paint i cannot stand seeing us kickoff to the 5 or 10 yard line. some of you know my sheer hatred of that as well. two words, dammit: touch back.

We certainly could kick the ball into the end zone, it’s not like we can’t find a strong enough leg in all of Texas. I believe our mindset on special teams is that the ball is ours and we are going to get it back. Not much chance of that if you kick it into the end zone.

We are very aggressive on special teams, it’s paid off to the point we have the best ST in the country. Unfortunately, we have lacked the bullet man mindset lately on kickoffs. Perhaps it’s because we no longer have the walk-ons that used to dominate special teams. We have more talented players filling out ST and they are looking at NFL careers. Hard to lay out your body when it might be worth 10 mil in 3-4 years.

Occasionally we get burned on the kick offs, but occasionally we get caught on a blitz and the other team scores and sometimes we rough a kicker too.

Yeah it was Scipio, of course, who pointed out that kicking it to the 5 was by design. I would be interested to see return averages against Texas compared to other programs. I wonder if the feelings about poor coverage are real or simply anecdotal.

Vaccaro was a demon in coverage last year, plugging the blue chip freshmen into that role seems to pay off big.

Until Cobbs finds his position, whether it’s on defense of offense, I don’t see his participation on STs this year. I woud rather he redshirt.

But there certainly seems to be a bigger push the last few years to move kids through the system. So who knows.

@Nickel – I hear you about kick return blocking. But if you only have to beat the kicker, I like our chances. Plus, with both speedsters deep, the only tactic remaining is a big leg into the end zone. I’m with Scip, this duo should give us some short fields to work with.

We can of course do better, but I feel like Texas fans don’t understand where we rank nationally in kickoff touchbacks. Every year I hear our fanbase bemoan our lack of touchbacks as though we are utterly pitiful at kicking the ball into the end zone.

In 2009 we were 37th in the nation in touchback percentage. In 2008 we were 19th. Yes, we got worse last season and it’s something we should work on. But the complaints were just as loud and vocal in 2008 when were were in the top 20 in that statistic.

And for those of you that are curious, the top of that statistic is indeed usually dominated by teams that play at altitude. 2008 Top 10 – Southern Cal, Idaho, Utah, UTEP, South Carolina, Utah St., BYU, Nebraska, Kentucky, Texas Tech. 2009 Top 10 – Oklahoma St., Utah, Nebraska, Florida St., Utah St., UCLA, Colorado, New Mexico St., Cincinnati, Western Michigan.

Agree with Nickel Rover about having one of the kick returners be a guy that can lay a block. Might like to see Aaron Williams back there for that reason.

Then they would just kick to Aaron Williams every time. Which isn’t the end of the world, but it negates the reason he would be there in the first place.

Watching Russ and Tucker trade shots at the field goal posts was one of the highlights of the open practice for me. If they have the nerves, they should be money on anything in the middle of the field inside the 40 yd line. Both have monster kicks.

If we’re returning kicks to the 40 yd line, that means we need two first downs to make 3 points.

Why is it that NFL kick returners are capable of fielding a kickoff from sideline-to-sideline but we have to have two guys back there in case they directional kick to one side or the other?

I’ve often wondered this. Is it just that NFL teams are more willing to let line drives get into the end zone whereas college coaches aren’t because of a higher probability of a big return?

Something tells me we’re going to start a lot of possessions on the 40.

This will help out a young QB as much as a dominating defense will giving him good field position.

Billy –
 
I don’t know who the punt return team is yet. I’d take a look at one of our freshmen DBs. White, Byndom, Phillips.
 
Huck -
 
Nicely stated. As for the side-to-side thing, I think most NFL teams are more comfortable with the degree of difficulty increase with one returner vs. two. I still see some teams use two though. And, as you state, in college you want to return every kick possible.
 
nickel -
 
I’d prefer to have major threats at both return positions rather than a threat and a glorified blocker. Besides, neither Marquise or DJ is a pussy. They’ll block for the other guy.

I understand the necessity of risking important pieces on PR, but when you have guys like Monroe, Hales, Goodwin, etc on the team, who are probably more explosive anyway, what’s the point?

Blake B -
 
Did you read my piece?

Just listened to Mack’s latest presser. They’re looking at DJ and Marquise on the punt block team together along with Aaron Williams. Lordy.

nordberg, you want to kick it to this guy everytime?
http://gifs.utexasclan.com/aaronwilliams.gif
great.