The final of our 2016 football team “section” previews...we deal with the special teams. They may not be on the field for a long time, but can be under the most pressure of all the players on the team. If a QB makes a minor mistake, they usually get another chance to go back out there and do better/make up for it. If a FG kicker misses the game winning FG by 1 foot...that’s it...game over...you lose. It’s a critical part of the game...as we noticed with all our blocked kicks last year...without a few of which, we might have won another game or two.
We know that there is an increased focus on special teams this year, with Coach Fisher bringing in people who can focus on the special teams area, so hopefully all the blocked kicks are going to be a thing of the past.
So, here’s who we have specifically as part of our special teams crew:
#33 - Senior K/P Nathan Knuffman: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#31 - Junior P/K Luke Otto: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#49 - R. Freshman K Nathan Erickson: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#46 - Freshman P/K Kyle Coale: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#89 - Freshman P/K Adam Fellner: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#53 - Sophomore LS Hunter Varga: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
#53 - Freshman LS Nick O’Boyle: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football
Just for reference, you could also include Lenoir and Stacey Smith as kick/punt returners, as well as some of the various linemen as blockers on whichever side they specialize in, although I won’t mention too much about them here, since most of them were already discussed in their specific “regular” position areas.
Last year, Knuffman handled the FG duties (and I assume most of the XP attempts), going 11 out of 19 on FGs, with a long of 43 and 2 blocked FGs.
On Punting, Knuffman and Otto both put in some work:
- Knuffman - 42 punts for 1613 yards (38.4 ypp average), a long of 53, 4 TBs, 13 fair catches, 9 inside the 20 yard line, 3 over 50 yards and 2 blocked punts.
- Otto - 28 punts for 948 yards (33.86 ypp average), long of 46, 9 fair catches, 6 inside the 20, and 1 blocked punt.
- Listed for “Team” (I assume, just other players that happened to have what they did in a certain play qualify as at least attempting a punt), we have 4 kicks for 44 yards, a long of 41, and 1 blocked
Knuffman had 12 kicks for 769 yards (64.1 per), 3 TBs
In general, I think we’ll see a similar situation with Knuffman and Otto mostly handling the kicking duties. It seemed like having Otto around last year allowed Knuffman to focus a bit more on his FGs and XP duties (rather than having to handle both kicking and punting). We did have a significant number of blocked kicks last year:
- 9 blocked kicks allowed, 122nd out of 123 in the FCS
- 4 blocked punts allowed, tied with 3 others for 118th out of 123
- an average of 1 blocked kick or punt per game we played
I’m hoping that having two coaches that are Co-Special Teams Coordinators...Garry Fisher and Ben Hodges...will help the situation significantly. Fisher is also the linebackers coach, so I assume he’ll mostly handle the defensive/receiving side of the special teams, while Hodges is also a RB coach, so I assume he’ll mostly handle the offensive/kicking side of special teams.
If Knuffman and/or Otto struggle again in the early season though, I would not be at all surprised to see R. Freshman Nathan Erickson given a shot. Although I feel like Freshmen Kyle Coale and Adam Fellner will likely be our “kicker and punter of the future” (respectively), as long as the current guys do well enough, I think the coaches would probably like to redshirt them and see them both end up playing a full four years.
This wraps up my Preseason Position Previews for 2016. Stay tuned next week for my game predictions and how I think the season will end up going for us. And then the Thursday after that it’ll be time to kickoff the 2016 edition of Leatherneck Football (#TraditionOfTough) at Eastern Illinois University. I’m planning on being there...how about you?
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
