ST Coverage Concerns....

[Husker Richard]

I didn't attend the spring game, but I just watched the highlights and one thing that really jumped out at me was the poor coverage on punts and kickoffs. There were 2 kickoff returns of over 50 yards and Tuner had a 50+ yard punt return. This seems to have been an issue for the past couple of years and I hope Bo and Co. are doing something to rectify it.

 

Does anybody that attended the game have anything to say about the overall play of the special teams coverage units? Obviously short returns don't make the highlight reel, so I'm hoping the coverage teams played well overall and the 3 long returns were just lapses in the coverage that can easily be sorted out.

[Fuzzy]

I don't think its too much of a concern, we just got a glimpse of what Turner and Kinnie can do when returning kicks. I mean, minus Adi Kunalic, and Alex Henery, special teams squad is pretty much the same, we probably saw some new faces on Special teams covering, but i doubt those who covered the kicks and punts during the spring game will be the same during the season.

 

Time will tell though.

[Nexus]

Snippet from a long article @ HuskerOnline.

 

***As exciting as Nebraska's big kickoff and punt returns in the game may have been, the downside to them was the fact that the coverage units gave up so many big returns. However, Papuchis said it was mostly due to the fact that the coverage teams were pieced together on the spot after the draft for the teams.

 

"There were guys on the coverage units that had never practiced on those units before just with the way the teams got divided up," Papuchis said. "There were guys on the return units who had never been on a return unit before, too. Sometimes in these games special teams is a little bit sloppier than you'd like. Basically what you're doing is kind of piecing guys together based on how the teams are split. But I thought those return units did a pretty good job, and we're going to have some explosive guys back there."

 

LINK

[Husker Richard]

Snippet from a long article @ HuskerOnline.

 

***As exciting as Nebraska's big kickoff and punt returns in the game may have been, the downside to them was the fact that the coverage units gave up so many big returns. However, Papuchis said it was mostly due to the fact that the coverage teams were pieced together on the spot after the draft for the teams.

 

"There were guys on the coverage units that had never practiced on those units before just with the way the teams got divided up," Papuchis said. "There were guys on the return units who had never been on a return unit before, too. Sometimes in these games special teams is a little bit sloppier than you'd like. Basically what you're doing is kind of piecing guys together based on how the teams are split. But I thought those return units did a pretty good job, and we're going to have some explosive guys back there."

 

LINK

 

+1, that settles my nerves a bit.

[Enhance]

As Nexus' quote points out, there really isn't anything to worry about. I know it's cliche to say it's just a practice and we shouldn't take much from it, but it's entirely true in almost all cases. It was a practice and we shouldn't take much from it.

 

It's similar to what writers were saying about the offense and Martinez yesterday. Reports from coaches and players was that the new offense fits Martinez like a glove, but coaches said yesterday that we barely saw any of what we will see in the fall. For example, we've heard tons of talk about there being fast-paced, no-huddle action and I don't recall seeing any of that yesterday.

[NUance]

Remember a few years ago when the video was going around of Kenny Wilson breaking like six tackles on his way to the endzone in a scrimmage? And people were raving that Kenny Wilson was the next coming of Lawrence Phillips (on the field)? As it turns out, our defense that year--2007 I think--was maybe the crappiest defense ever fielded by NU. And they gave up runs like that on a weekly basis.

 

So when I see big offense numbers or ST numbers I always wonder whether the offense/ST are that great. Or maybe we got issues on the other side of the ball. (I'm NOT drawing any conclusions. I'm just saying it makes me wonder.)

[huskerscott]

If Eric Martin is on kickoff/punt coverage we should have nothing to worry about.

[knapplc]

I think the ST coverage units should be the least of our concerns coming out of this game. The quote from Nexus is key - there were so many guys on coverage who just don't do that sort of thing, and when you put those kinds of guys out there against a dynamic runner like Turner, you're going to have runs like that. You SHOULD have runs like that, and if you don't, that's when you should get worried.

 

BK, who doesn't figure to be involved in much KO/PR duties, had a huge return. That should tell you something about the "quality" of coverage units we had out there. Nothing to worry about here.

[BIG ERN]

I think that for kickoff and punt returns people didn't want to go balls to the walls like you need to. It is just a spring game and a lot of times people get laid out. Kind of like practice this happens a lot. Not to mention that Turner is a burner though.