Leatherneck Nation

Special Teams (kickers, punters, long snapper)

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

Otto mostly handled the kickoff duties, with 52 of them for 3196 yards (61.5 yards per), 24 TBs, 2 out of bounds
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

Some of that might be chalked up to some of Knuffman’s kicks coming out pretty low, but I think a lot of it was a combination of the blocking team (seemed like most of them were blocks that came in from the side rather than a defender jumping up in the middle) not doing a good enough job around the edges, as well as a lack of focus on special teams in general by the part of the old coaching staff (if you remember...we did not have a coach assigned to special teams last year).

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?

And of course I forgot to mention the kick/punt returners.

Last year, for punts, we had Lance Lenoir returning 14 for a total of 84 yards (6 yard per return) and a long of 42. Stacey Smith returned 1 punt for 17 yards and David Griffith returned 1 punt for 14 years.
For kicks, Stacey Smith returned 26 kicks for 525 yards (20.19 yards per) with a long of 44 and Lance Lenoir returned 17 kicks for 364 yards (21.41 yards per) with a long of 71.
There were no returns for TDs for kickoffs or punts.

Since we have both back, I think we’ll likely see Lenoir and Smith returning the majority of kicks again this year, although, since we are pretty deep at WR, I could see them putting in a younger player as a kick returner at times, to help rest Lenoir and make sure he’s 100% for his play on the offensive side of the ball.

Kick and punt return coverage guys dont get much attention, but IMHO, they provide the best clues as to how much overall speed a team has. A coach will usually go with his fastest guys in kick coverage and they are all on the field at the same time. Last year at Coastal, it was very noticeable just how much impact those guys can have on a game - incredibly fast. They were down field like a swarm of hornets.

And of course, I forgot to talk about great Leathernecks special teams players in the past.

As usual, I'll put out some that I personally was able to see play, but feel free to add more that you know of and/or saw play that were particularly exceptional...or even if it's a fairly average player who made one spectacular play (for example...a fairly average FG kicker who happened to nail a 49-yarder in the rain to win the conference back in the '60s or something).

Punters - I mean...I probably don't even need to say it, but....Mike Scifres. Easily the best punter in WIU history, one of the best punters in FCS history, picked in the 5th round of the 2003 NFL draft by the Chargers and (if he's able to earn the starting spot with the Panthers this preseason) is still playing in what will be his 14th season in the NFL (the first 13 with the Chargers). For those that never had a chance to see him play, Scifres could not only boom giant punts, but also drop them where he wanted them to go. In addition, he proved he could come through in a clutch, hitting a 56-yard field goal (tied for the longest FG in Western history) at the UNIDome to win the game and the conference championship in 2000...chasing after an errant snap, running around to the side of the field (while being chased by opposing defenders) and getting off a huge punt...absolutely clothes-lining a punt returner who thought he was "gone" because he only had the punter to get past to score. Just about everything that was asked of him on the football field...he did very well.

Beyond Scifres, I did also want to mention Jeff Baker, the punter from '95-'98. Outside of Scifres, Baker had some of the longest punts (two 70-yard punts, one 69-yard punt), the best punting seasons (Baker's '98 season is better than all except Scifres' senior year...44.2 yards per punt on 83 punts...vs Scifres 48.0 average but on only 53 punts), and holds the records for most consecutive games played and consecutive games started (50 for both) in Western history.

As for placekickers, I'm not really sure where to start. I've been lucky in that just about every season I've been following Western football, we've had exceptional FG kickers. Nearly everyone on the lists of all the records for things like FGs, 50+ yard FGs, and XPs for game, season, and career...almost all have been in the last 20 years. I'll just put out the list and you guys can discuss (in parentheses will be their ranking for career FGs in WIU history and other relevant info):

• Keith Jones (#2 with 42 and a .636 average)
• Joe Lopez (#4 with 38 and a .521 average)
• Justin Langan (#1 with 53 and .679 average...was also a standout soccer player simultaneously while completing a pre-med/biology major en route to becoming an orthopedic surgeon)
• Taylor Rowan (#3 with 41 and .612 average...also ended up playing 7 seasons with teams in the AF2 and AFL arena football leagues)
• Pat Smith (#8 with 18 and .783 average...also covered punts some though, had 84 punts his junior year...a WIU record for most punts in a season)

As for kick and punt returners, I can remember Donnie Caldwell back in '98, Reggie Gray back in the early '00s, and Todd Speight in the late '00s all doing really well.

So, who do you remember doing well on special teams? Or (since I know I listed a lot of players)...feel free to chime in on players I did mention. Do you remember some great things that I didn't mention about a player?

Knuffman is listed as starting Punter and Luke Otto is listed as starting Kick off kicker

Everyday effort by WIU's Knuffman gives him leg up (Quincy Herald-Whig) - http://www.whig.com/20160830/everyday-e ... him-leg-up

I'm putting together a page for the Band Alumni website and looking through some old photos in the archives. Came across one that I thought you guys would appreciate.
Ladies and Gentlemen....I present...the greatest punter in Leatherneck history...

San Diego needs him back. The punter they replaced him with is terrible...

Bob

BobLovely wrote:San Diego needs him back. The punter they replaced him with is terrible...

Bob

Yea, if he's able to heal up and stay in shape, it's possible that a team with punting issues (like SD) could bring him in for the rest of the season.

Then again, after more than a decade in the NFL, he might just want to spend some time with his family.