2023 Spring Practice Notes - Special Teams

[Mavric]

Barthel looks to be coaching the returners.

 

Betts, IGC, Kemp, Emmett Johnson and Elliott Brown got reps returning punts today.

[Mavric]

Similar list of punt returners today, with the addition of Grant.

 

Kickoff returners were Hill, Grant, Kemp, Elliott Brown, Emmett Johnson, Ervin, Fleeks and Hardy.

[Mavric]

Grant and IGC looked to be the top kick returners.

[Mavric]

Bleekrode said his range is 55 yards right now, 60+ with the wind behind him.

 

He said Brett Maher told him Memorial Stadium was the most challenging he's ever kicked in because of the swirling winds.

[runningblind]

20 hours ago, Mavric said:

Bleekrode said his range is 55 yards right now, 60+ with the wind behind him.

 

He said Brett Maher told him Memorial Stadium was the most challenging he's ever kicked in because of the swirling winds.

More challenging than extra points indoors huh?

[Mavric]

Kemp, IGC, Betts and Elliott Brown getting reps returning punts.

[Mavric]

Fleeks and Grant getting reps returning kicks

[admo]

I have no confidence in FG kicker Bleekrode.  

 

I also think Boomshini isn't that good, because he kicks his farthest punts when the Huskers are around the 50 yard line - when you just need to pin them within the 15 yard line.  Instead his punts land inside the 10 and goes into the endzone.  Seen it nearly every time.  But also, when he punts from his own  5-10-15-20 yard line.... the time you really want to boot a punt ... it carries 34-42 yards with no hang time... and sets up good returns.  The boom from midfield helps his punting average, but doesn't help the team with field position.  

 

Sounds brutal, but it happens a lot when you rewatch these games.

[admo]

I know we all really like the guy, but if we are going to play field-position battles like the rest of the conference and help our team out, our punting has to better than this.  He definitely has room for lots of improvement....

 

2022 Big Ten Punters:

 

Nebraska Buschini: 

 

Avg Yards per Punt:  7th best out 14 teams
* Net punting:  9th worse out of 14
* Most Punts returned:  4th! (most returned punts) out of 14 teams
* Most punt returned yards: 3rd (most returned yards) out of 14
* Fewest Punts downed inside 20 yard line: 12th (fewest) out of 14 
* Most punts that ended up touchbacks:  3rd (most) out of 14
 

Punting is practiced skill.  Obviously needs to work on hang time so our special team players can make it more difficult for opposing teams to return punts.  But also, punting the ball inside the 20 can make a lot of difference for your defense too (and shifting momentum).  Some of these stats are really, really bad, but can be improved upon this year.  

[Red Five]

16 hours ago, admo said:

I have no confidence in FG kicker Bleekrode.  

 

Then its a good thing that we have an high school all-american kicker coming in this fall.

[Undone]

Buschini was at least measurably better than what we saw in '21-'22. In fact he had a 74 yarder against Wisconsin last year.

 

We saw some unbelievably epic fails those seasons. With the best one being this:

 

 

[admo]

7 hours ago, Red Five said:

 

Then its a good thing that we have an high school all-american kicker coming in this fall.

Yes and a local kid.  Wishing him all the success he needs to compete.  If he wins out, it will be deserved and I would probably feel better about the place-kicking game.

[admo]

2 hours ago, Undone said:

Buschini was at least measurably better than what we saw in '21-'22. In fact he had a 74 yarder against Wisconsin last year.

 

We saw some unbelievably epic fails those seasons. With the best one being this:

 

 

Understandable.  He was a lot better.  But that is not the bar for measuring what a good punter should do, if he wants to be a top 3-5 guy in conference.  The previous was so awful there wasn't much ground needed to become better than what it was.  So I am saying, moving forward, let's be better.  Let's be among the conference's elite guys and help our team out when punting the ball and playing field position.  That is B1G's most helpful play for many football teams when you wonder what contributed to winning a game.  Great punting, winning the field position battle, and knocking down field goals.  Over and over again.

[Undone]

For sure, @admo. You always get an edge when you're playing great special teams in the B1G.

 

Attention to detail on defense & special teams is something Frost didn't really do at all.

[brophog]

8 hours ago, admo said:

Great punting, winning the field position battle, and knocking down field goals.  Over and over again.

 

Football is actually trending away from that, because the math says kicking is stupid. Not Big Ten football, mind you, some of them just accepted the fact the forward pass isn't actually illegal.