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Special Teams

I think Lil Mac is a pretty good punt returner. Very shifty and has been sure handed up and until the ASU game. I would imagine this is a one time deal, but you would have to make a change if he continues this. He will be fine, I am sure.
 
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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He did call for a fair catch (before he started sprinting), but he again misjudged the flight and was sprinting to try and make the catch. I think he was trying to avoid what happened the punt before that he let go and was downed at the five.
 
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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May have been mentioned elsewhere, but I'm thinking Jay was bothered by the lights. That or he broke up with his girlfriend.
 
wsp4820 said:
He did call for a fair catch (before he started sprinting), but he again misjudged the flight and was sprinting to try and make the catch. I think he was trying to avoid what happened the punt before that he let go and was downed at the five.
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JMac had trouble tracking punts all night for some reason. Was shaky on the ones he caught, too, with getting under it. Very unusual for him.
 
If he's concussed, put someone else back there. If he's 100, let him do it but it doesn't sound like it. It's not about turnovers either, dude could get hurt.
 
wsp4820 said:
He did call for a fair catch (before he started sprinting), but he again misjudged the flight and was sprinting to try and make the catch. I think he was trying to avoid what happened the punt before that he let go and was downed at the five.
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Mac said that he thought that the combination of some gusty wind and the 'howitzer' kicks the ASU punter made so high were causing the ball to have more erratic movement that messed up Jay's judgement of where the ball was headed. Paraphrased to my understanding of course.
 
FlatironsBuff said:
Mac said that he thought that the combination of some gusty wind and the 'howitzer' kicks the ASU punter made so high were causing the ball to have more erratic movement that messed up Jay's judgement of where the ball was headed. Paraphrased to my understanding of course.
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That's no excuse at all imho. If he can't go single back and read it, get him some help. Otherwise you have to focus on coverage and your job fielding it. It's not easy doing both if he's uneasy about it.
 
He has done a great job until last night

So had the kicker

Gotta be a st bug going around

None of the top teams waste a coaching spot on a dedicated st coach

And the BUFFS did hire some one in a non coaching position to work with the kickers
 
Last edited:
It may have been the lights, mentioned a few times in chat.

Also may have been that the ASU punter put a strange spin or wobble on the ball. I remember a long time back when the Broncos had a punter who not only punter left-footed but also had a slightly different drop that resulted in a lot of punts that had both a backwards spin but also tended to come down at a different angle. He had a number of his punts dropped because of it.

The ASU punter was a good one, he also had a strange looking style. It would be interesting to know if his ball looks different to a returner. Have other teams had similar issues against him?
 
Mighty Buff said:
He has done a great job until last night

So had the kicker

Gotta be a st bug going around

None of the top teams waste a coaching spot on a dedicated st coach

And the BUFFS did hire some one in a non coaching position to work with the kickers
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While it's true, based on a sample, most top teams do not use a dedicated special teams coach, they nearly all designate a position coach to have official coordination of special teams. And many of their titles include associate or assistant head coach.
 
Mighty Buff said:
He has done a great job until last night

So had the kicker

Gotta be a st bug going around

None of the top teams waste a coaching spot on a dedicated st coach

And the BUFFS did hire some one in a non coaching position to work with the kickers
Click to expand...
Question, did we win? Yes I get it wasn't perfect. End of the day, they've done pretty good. Lil Mac will be fine, returning punts is hard, that's why only a select few do it.
 
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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There is more to being a great punter than distance - directional punting, punting style, hang time. Hang time is key: It allows you to get your guys surrounding any potential returner before the ball arrives, before he thinks about making a move.
There is also the element of surprise: does the punter only kick one style, and either it's crap or a great punt, but same attempt each time? Or does the punter have an arsenal of different punts so the return team is always on edge? And no, I don't mean rugby.

Nor Cal Buff said:
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?
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I hate this argument. Is your recruiting pitch: Come to Boulder if you are just so-so and convince the NFL you can kick longer than other guys can due to thin air? Doesn't work that way. The change due to altitude is minimal ... a good kicker can (in theory) make the distance of most kicks that are required and a coach should have a good idea what the maximum distance is. That means someone is working with the kickers and punters and actually knows their capabilities.
Better kickers and punters will consider the Buffs when they are taken seriously during recruitment and when a ST coach talks intelligently about Special Teams. You wouldn't recruit a quarterback and then just leave him to his own devices for 4-5 years; you have coaches working with him on specifics the whole time he is on the team. Yet kickers and punters will regularly be sent to some corner to work on mysterious techniques with little observation and feedback. And then expected to improve dramatically on their own. It's just dumb.

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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True. Mason hit record-breaking distances at both sea-level and at Folsom. But ignorant folks attributed much of his success to Boulder, despite his outstanding high school career in Texas.
 
It is almost as if ST are falling through the cracks. Can a committee really coach special teams in modern CFB?

Is it time to admit that firing Nienas was a bad idea?
 
BuffLuKe said:
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.
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Crosby kicked a 60yd FG just before half.

Best part was the Miami fans sitting next to us:

Them: "What are they doing? You can't kick from there!"
us: "Watch"
Them: "HOLY ****!"

Worst part - those were the only points we got in the game.
 
ZandiBuff said:
Crosby kicked a 60yd FG just before half.

Best part was the Miami fans sitting next to us:

Them: "What are they doing? You can't kick from there!"
us: "Watch"
Them: "HOLY ****!"

Worst part - those were the only points we got in the game.
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Yep there were reasons for no other points. Dude was wide open on one play, looked like a wheel route, qb overthrew it a bit. It was stupid because there was nobody close to him. He could've bearcrawled into the end zone lol. Can't remember who it was, wanna say Moyd, not sure though.
 
8Jah said:
It is almost as if ST are falling through the cracks. Can a committee really coach special teams in modern CFB?

Is it time to admit that firing Nienas was a bad idea?
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Not sure if serious.
But pretending you might be. A bad special teams coach is worse than none at all.
 
AlferdJasper said:
Not sure if serious.
But pretending you might be. A bad special teams coach is worse than none at all.
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I'm seriously semi-serious. I was as much a critic of Nienas as anybody, but our ST under him were better than this year. I am laughing, because I can't believe I am saying this, but its kind-of true.

I think that any ST coach will usually look bad at the beginning of the season because they have to take all the freshman and guys who don't get many snaps...all the guys that make mistakes...and make functional units of them. Nienas always looked bad at the beginning of the year - probably even worse than he should have...but his **** usually looked pretty sharp by Oct.

Maybe we should have hired another ST coach. I realize we only get something like 9. Do we really need a Tight End coach?
 
I'm pretty sure Chev is the special teams coach. He gets a pass because of his recruiting prowess.
 
8Jah said:
It is almost as if ST are falling through the cracks. Can a committee really coach special teams in modern CFB?

Is it time to admit that firing Nienas was a bad idea?
Click to expand...
Would be nice to have a great ST coach that is a great recruiter.

But no, firing Neinas was about three years too late.
 
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