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Special Teams

Bliff Cranch

Bliff Cranch

Well-Known Member
Though the game was never really in doubt past the mid-point in the second quarter, last night demonstrated how two opposing special team units can have an effect on a game. ASU avg punt 52yds with a long of 76yds to go along with three FGs made +50yds and two fumble recoveries. CU avg punt 44yds with a long of 47yds to go along with FG missed of 26yds, a missed PAT, two muffed/lost fumbles and a miscalculated punt catch that resulted in 1st and 10 at the 5yd line that ultimately gave ASU great field position on the ensuing exchange.

This game was an epic blowout without the above. Saying it needs to be fixed and get better has been a narrative all season. What, if anything, can be done?
 
It is what it is at this point. Maybe they can work on it more over bye week. Gotta get better talent at kicker and punter moving forward, blows me away we can't find someone to hit the ball 60 yards at altitude.
 
there's always that 1 nice thing that we cant have. Seriously though, clean this part of the game up? and truly look out.
 
you have to remember - Players make plays - and asu does have some great kickers.
 
Bliff Cranch said:
Though the game was never really in doubt past the mid-point in the second quarter, last night demonstrated how two opposing special team units can have an effect on a game. ASU avg punt 52yds with a long of 76yds to go along with three FGs made +50yds and two fumble recoveries. CU avg punt 44yds with a long of 47yds to go along with FG missed of 26yds, a missed PAT, two muffed/lost fumbles and a miscalculated punt catch that resulted in 1st and 10 at the 5yd line that ultimately gave ASU great field position on the ensuing exchange.

This game was an epic blowout without the above. Saying it needs to be fixed and get better has been a narrative all season. What, if anything, can be done?
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I forgot about that miscalculated catch - which led to 3 points for ASU with the subsequent short field. Damn, man - you are totally correct - we hold them to 3 without ST miscues. Unbelievable. You can argue STs cost us the Michigan game. Here's hoping it doesn't cost us another later this year.

On the plus side, Kinney is definitely getting his punts off more quickly. ASU came after him multiple times but he was getting them away with what looked like a step and a half.
 
Highlander said:
I forgot about that miscalculated catch - which led to 3 points for ASU with the subsequent short field. Damn, man - you are totally correct - we hold them to 3 without ST miscues. Unbelievable. You can argue STs cost us the Michigan game. Here's hoping it doesn't cost us another later this year.

On the plus side, Kinney is definitely getting his punts off more quickly. ASU came after him multiple times but he was getting them away with what looked like a step and a half.
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They're getting off more quickly, but they're line drives.
 
Jay had a BAD night. Two fumbles and letting that other punt hit the ground was horrible. But he has been very good to this point. Sure handed and has made some decent yardage on most punt returns. So my thought is that last night was an outlier. Hoping that whatever was affecting him will be resolved by next week.

FG kicking is a concern. Hoping that Price or Graham figures it out this week, but because neither of them have a lot of success to draw on, it will be something to be worried about the rest of the season.

Kinney looks pretty good and I think punt coverage last night was good as well. I think we are getting more athletes on the coverage teams.
 
89BUFF89 said:
It is what it is at this point. Maybe they can work on it more over bye week. Gotta get better talent at kicker and punter moving forward, blows me away we can't find someone to hit the ball 60 yards at altitude.
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Good points. I would expect the bye week can be used for ST focus along with installing other tweaks but there are things you can coach and then there are things that just are.

In fairness, ASUs punter was killing it. Hang time on his punts were off the charts which affected MacIntyre's fielding. Again, an example of where ST can be a weapon. I would hope there would be an open competition for punt return and that Julmisse gets a shot, if he hasn't already, but it looks like Oliver is plan B if MacIntyre continues to struggle. In pre-game warm up, Julmisse looked very comfortable fielding kicks.
 
For what it's worth, a reference from ASU athletics webpage regarding Shawn Slocum, Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Linebackers:

"Shawn has 25 years of coaching experience to his credit, with almost all of that coming at the elite college level," ASU head coach Todd Graham said when he announced Slocum’s appointment. “We have enjoyed a high level of success, both offensively and defensively and I have wanted to take our special teams play to a championship level."
 
SpacemanSpiff said:
Jay had a BAD night. Two fumbles and letting that other punt hit the ground was horrible. But he has been very good to this point. Sure handed and has made some decent yardage on most punt returns. So my thought is that last night was an outlier. Hoping that whatever was affecting him will be resolved by next week.

FG kicking is a concern. Hoping that Price or Graham figures it out this week, but because neither of them have a lot of success to draw on, it will be something to be worried about the rest of the season.

Kinney looks pretty good and I think punt coverage last night was good as well. I think we are getting more athletes on the coverage teams.
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Only thing to really worry about is it getting inside his head. I don't know him, I'm sure some on the board do. If it gets in your head, don't drop this mother****er, it's an issue. I don't think it will be with him. Kinney needs to quit the line drive stuff, remember the Michigan game? Overall it sounded like he booted it pretty well, hope that keeps up.
 
Bliff Cranch said:
For what it's worth, a reference from ASU athletics webpage regarding Shawn Slocum, Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Linebackers:

"Shawn has 25 years of coaching experience to his credit, with almost all of that coming at the elite college level," ASU head coach Todd Graham said when he announced Slocum’s appointment. “We have enjoyed a high level of success, both offensively and defensively and I have wanted to take our special teams play to a championship level."
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Brought up in another thread, but a very similar type guy is former CU assistant & UNLV HC Bobby Hauck. Currently the ST Coordinator at San Diego State.

One of the NCAA proposals up for vote is increasing the number of assistant coaches on a staff from 9 to 10. If that happens, I'd fully support CU hiring Hauck for ST Coordinator / OLB Coach.
 
Boulder is a natural Mecca for kicking. The rarified dry high mountain air sure didn't hurt the performance of CU greats and NFL mainstays Tom Rouen, Mitch Burger, and Mason Crosby.

We've seen the defensive turnaround with the addition of Jim Leavitt. The offense output has spiked with the addition of Darren Chiaverini. CU doesn't even have a special teams coach. Given the Michigan and ASU performances, the lack of focus on special teams is more than evident in the results. CU fans have been shaking our heads at blocked kicks, FG's bouncing off the uprights, extra points sailing wide, fumbles on punt returns, blown kick coverage resulting in a ST TD. The best kickers in Folsom have been wearing ASU and OSU uniforms. The Buffs special teams left 18 points on the table last night. Special teams lost the game in Ann Arbor.

My simple request is to address this issue. The addition of a special teams coach is not too much to request. Hire one who is the kicking equivalent of CU XC guru Mark Wettmore that cements the CU football program as "Kicker U"
The next kicker to break Mason Crosby's 60-yard FG needs to be wearing a Buff uniform.
 
Mason kicked a long ass one in Miami too didn't he? A special teams coach wouldn't be a bad idea. It can flat get you beat.
 
Players want to go where they will win games. Bama has a punter from Colorado.

People are over estimating that kickers want to go where the air is thin. Boise and Utah are both at elevation. This is the same argument I hear about Boulder with regular recruits, but unlike the rest of the student body I would imagine not a lot of athletes are going mountain biking and hiking and skiing all that often.

With a good team this year we can land a kicker.
 
SBG said:
Players want to go where they will win games. Bama has a punter from Colorado.

People are over estimating that kickers want to go where the air is thin. Boise and Utah are both at elevation. This is the same argument I hear about Boulder with regular recruits, but unlike the rest of the student body I would imagine not a lot of athletes are going mountain biking and hiking and skiing all that often.

With a good team this year we can land a kicker.
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Players also want to get a shot at playing pro. I'd rather sell a kicker on learning from a masterful coach than selling a kicker on playing at altitude for a HC who treats ST like an afterthought.
 
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Skidmark said:
Players also want to get a shot at playing pro. I'd rather sell a kicker on learning from a masterful coach than selling a kicker on playing at altitude for a HC who treats ST like an afterthought.
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Yeah and this is why we don't have one. MM hasn't grasped the importance of ST. Neinas is proof of that.

Get a proven ST coach and show the team doesn't suck and we will get someone. Most coaches want PWOs and if they do well convert them to scholarship players.

We are so bad at ST they will have to offer scholarships to incoming guys. Not really a position to be in, but it is what it is.
 
The ST's will improve when mike quits acting so ho hum on the mistakes. He seems to get agitated when anyone brings it up post game
 
Time to move JMac out of the PR job. He's too valuable as a receiver to risk continually getting injured trying to recover his muffs. It(Injured While Recovering Muff) has happened twice now in 2 different games.

Plus I think Oliver did a better job at it anyway.

Maybe put a non-2deep player in there like: Donovan Lee, Adkins, Lee Walker, Huntley(since his shirt is burned anyway), or Julmisse.
 
Good hands and good decisions, returns are a plus. That defined JMac until last night. Wonder what was up. How is he doing, did he go through and pass the concussion protocol? Not good the way his head bent back.
 
SBG said:
Players want to go where they will win games. Bama has a punter from Colorado.

People are over estimating that kickers want to go where the air is thin. Boise and Utah are both at elevation. This is the same argument I hear about Boulder with regular recruits, but unlike the rest of the student body I would imagine not a lot of athletes are going mountain biking and hiking and skiing all that often.

With a good team this year we can land a kicker.
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Boise is about half the elevation of Boulder. SLC is about 1000 feet lower in elevation than Boulder.

Kickers should want to go where the air is thin. Regularly hitting longer field goals or having a longer punting average is going to get you noticed by NFL scouts. Maybe we need to look to Australia for a punter?
 
But that also works against you. The guy only kicks at elevation.

That ASU kicker is going to be an AA. You make huge kicks and people will notice.

Mason would have been picked had he picked any school.
 
SpacemanSpiff said:
Jay had a BAD night. Two fumbles and letting that other punt hit the ground was horrible. But he has been very good to this point. Sure handed and has made some decent yardage on most punt returns. So my thought is that last night was an outlier. Hoping that whatever was affecting him will be resolved by next week.
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image.jpeg
Something was ****y finding the ball in those lights.
 
zbuff said:
Good hands and good decisions, returns are a plus. That defined JMac until last night. Wonder what was up. How is he doing, did he go through and pass the concussion protocol? Not good the way his head bent back.
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I thought the coach said he had a concussion in the postgame interview, but my house got kind of blurry by then, so I may be wrong.

Thought he should have called for yhe fair catch on the play. A couple of guys were closing hard on him.
 
bombay said:
I thought the coach said he had a concussion in the postgame interview, but my house got kind of blurry by then, so I may be wrong.

Thought he should have called for yhe fair catch on the play. A couple of guys were closing hard on him.
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The post game interview I saw with MM he said he didn't know anything about it, but I think that was on the field right after the game ended.
 
zbuff said:
The post game interview I saw with MM he said he didn't know anything about it, but I think that was on the field right after the game ended.
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Yeah, he was in a jacket & tie in the one I saw so a little later. Pretty sure he said Jay was concussed, and he might be in trouble with Jay's mom.
 
SBG said:
But that also works against you. The guy only kicks at elevation.

That ASU kicker is going to be an AA. You make huge kicks and people will notice.

Mason would have been picked had he picked any school.
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Well, no, because you play half your games away from home.
 
bombay said:
I thought the coach said he had a concussion in the postgame interview, but my house got kind of blurry by then, so I may be wrong.

Thought he should have called for yhe fair catch on the play. A couple of guys were closing hard on him.
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That's what happens, you don't have much time to decide either. If you don't have an upback with you, gotta track the ball and coverage. Its hard especially if you make the wrong decision.
 
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