2024 Fall Camp Notes - Special Teams

whateveritis1224 said:
If Buschini can't stop shanking, they might need to throw Koch into the deep end.
Click to expand...
I don't know about that. Did anyone see Koch punt at the open practice? We all know Nebraska fans love to hype up the back-up just to get equal or worse results. I think Koch is not physically ready yet. However, if it gets really bad I could see him punting in November and playing in 4 games. Confidence is a big thing for special teams players and you don't want to mess with it unless they are ready. Do you remember Caleb Lightbourn? 

 
whateveritis1224 said:
If Buschini can't stop shanking, they might need to throw Koch into the deep end.
Click to expand...
I don't know about that. Did anyone see Koch punt at the open practice? We all know Nebraska fans love to hype up the back-up just to get equal or worse results. I think Koch is not physically ready yet. However, if it gets really bad I could see him punting in November and playing in 4 games. Confidence is a big thing for special teams players and you don't want to mess with it unless they are ready. Do you remember Caleb Lightbourn? 

 
HuskermanMike said:
I don't know about that. Did anyone see Koch punt at the open practice? We all know Nebraska fans love to hype up the back-up just to get equal or worse results. I think Koch is not physically ready yet. However, if it gets really bad I could see him punting in November and playing in 4 games. Confidence is a big thing for special teams players and you don't want to mess with it unless they are ready. Do you remember Caleb Lightbourn? 
Click to expand...
It's not being in love with the backup, it's being hopeful that the backup would show more consistency than the guy who's been here for 3-4 years and still has a shanking problem. If Koch can come out and kick 40 yards and have zero shanks, I'd take that over what Buscini has done the past few years.

 
whateveritis1224 said:
It's not being in love with the backup, it's being hopeful that the backup would show more consistency than the guy who's been here for 3-4 years and still has a shanking problem. If Koch can come out and kick 40 yards and have zero shanks, I'd take that over what Buscini has done the past few years.
Click to expand...
You do realize Brian averaged just over 40 yards per punt last year and 44 yards per punt in 2022. If the coaches wanted to get a different punter they would have hit the portal but chose not to. This is probably because they like what they have in Buschini.  It was observed for an early practice in fall camp that punting wasn't great. It has time to get better by 8/31. 

The last 5 games from 2023 for Brian

Iowa- just under 40 yards per punt. Let's just round up to 40 from 39.9 yards 

Wisconsin- 35 yards per punt

Maryland- 45 yards per punt

Michigan State- 35 yards per punt

Purdue- 46 yards per punt

So three of his last 5 games met the threshold for you for coming out and punting 40 yards. He 8 had games where he punted 40 yards or more. We know what we are getting. He will either punt really well or will punt a few games in the 35-yard average range. Hopefully, he can be more consistent but it is not as bad as others have been saying. 

 
HuskermanMike said:
You do realize Brian averaged just over 40 yards per punt last year and 44 yards per punt in 2022. If the coaches wanted to get a different punter they would have hit the portal but chose not to. This is probably because they like what they have in Buschini.  It was observed for an early practice in fall camp that punting wasn't great. It has time to get better by 8/31. 

The last 5 games from 2023 for Brian

Iowa- just under 40 yards per punt. Let's just round up to 40 from 39.9 yards 

Wisconsin- 35 yards per punt

Maryland- 45 yards per punt

Michigan State- 35 yards per punt

Purdue- 46 yards per punt

So three of his last 5 games met the threshold for you for coming out and punting 40 yards. He 8 had games where he punted 40 yards or more. We know what we are getting. He will either punt really well or will punt a few games in the 35-yard average range. Hopefully, he can be more consistent but it is not as bad as others have been saying. 
Click to expand...
Considering it was “bombs away” nearly every time because we couldn’t cross the 50 id expect it to be higher.

Wonder if any of these others were influenced by touchbacks?

 
I know that punting distance can be skewed by some factors (hangtime, field position, etc), but having a 40 yards/punt average is bad.

Buschini averaged 40.7 yards/punt last year, good for 71st out of 89 qualified punters.  45 yards/punt will get you into the top 20, 46 yards/punt will be in the top 10.  (Iowa's Taylor was 3rd at 48.2 yards/punt.)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dang.  My usual jabs about having a dedicated special teams coach don't really mean anything anymore since you can have as many coaches as you want.

 
gobiggergoredder said:
Considering it was “bombs away” nearly every time because we couldn’t cross the 50 id expect it to be higher.

Wonder if any of these others were influenced by touchbacks?
Click to expand...
I don't know, I guess you can make a case for that. I did see him punt a 60-yarder against Minnesota. 

Red Five said:
I know that punting distance can be skewed by some factors (hangtime, field position, etc), but having a 40 yards/punt average is bad.

Buschini averaged 40.7 yards/punt last year, good for 71st out of 89 qualified punters.  45 yards/punt will get you into the top 20, 46 yards/punt will be in the top 10.  (Iowa's Taylor was 3rd at 48.2 yards/punt.)
Click to expand...
In 2022, he was at 44 yards per game. I see him getting around 43 yards a punt this year to get closer to his 2022 average. So the question remains,  were we able to get a punter with a better average than that in the portal? I assume the answer was no so we are sticking with Buschini. 

Mavric said:
Dang.  My usual jabs about having a dedicated special teams coach don't really mean anything anymore since you can have as many coaches as you want.
Click to expand...
At least we don't have our Defensive Coordinator coaching the punter! 

 
HuskermanMike said:
In 2022, he was at 44 yards per game. I see him getting around 43 yards a punt this year to get closer to his 2022 average. So the question remains,  were we able to get a punter with a better average than that in the portal? I assume the answer was no so we are sticking with Buschini. 
Click to expand...


2022 Buschini was fine, and hopefully he can be that again. If the guarantee existed I would absolutely take a more consistent 40 yard average (ideally with hangtime) rather than gamble on Buschini finding his 2022 form instead of 2023. Consistency matters, and he had 4 games for 35 or less yards per punt last year, all with at least 4 punts. I can tolerate some inconsistency with a good average, but he didn't have either.

Of course there is no guarantee, and a true freshman is probably even more likely to be inconsistent. But 2023 Buschini was very, very bad and the open practice did not give a lot of confidence that 2023 was a fluke. There were guys in the portal - this guy averaged 47 a punt at Weber State, another one averaged 46.9 at Arkansas, 45 at Notre Dame. Now maybe they wouldn't have been interested anyway, and Buschini came in after averaging 46 at Montana so you can't be sure. But they definitely weren't going to transfer here with a returning starter embedded, so there's at least an argument that Buschini could have been encouraged to move on. It would have been risky, but so it sticking with him tbh.

 
Husker in WI said:
2022 Buschini was fine, and hopefully he can be that again. If the guarantee existed I would absolutely take a more consistent 40 yard average (ideally with hangtime) rather than gamble on Buschini finding his 2022 form instead of 2023. Consistency matters, and he had 4 games for 35 or less yards per punt last year, all with at least 4 punts. I can tolerate some inconsistency with a good average, but he didn't have either.
Click to expand...


Good point - it's almost a place where you'd want to view a player's punts on a scatter plot graph of some kind to better visualize the upper & lower bounds and their frequency, rather than just looking at an average stat.

And that's really what the original point was by whoever made it: the shanks are definitely costly.

 
Husker in WI said:
2022 Buschini was fine, and hopefully he can be that again. If the guarantee existed I would absolutely take a more consistent 40 yard average (ideally with hangtime) rather than gamble on Buschini finding his 2022 form instead of 2023. Consistency matters, and he had 4 games for 35 or less yards per punt last year, all with at least 4 punts. I can tolerate some inconsistency with a good average, but he didn't have either.

Of course there is no guarantee, and a true freshman is probably even more likely to be inconsistent. But 2023 Buschini was very, very bad and the open practice did not give a lot of confidence that 2023 was a fluke. There were guys in the portal - this guy averaged 47 a punt at Weber State, another one averaged 46.9 at Arkansas, 45 at Notre Dame. Now maybe they wouldn't have been interested anyway, and Buschini came in after averaging 46 at Montana so you can't be sure. But they definitely weren't going to transfer here with a returning starter embedded, so there's at least an argument that Buschini could have been encouraged to move on. It would have been risky, but so it sticking with him tbh.
Click to expand...
That is some good info on possible transfers. However, you are right that the coaches couldn't get anyone here with Buschini still at Nebraska. I know Rhule isn't big on moving on from guys that want to be here. I know Brian is on an award watch list for punters- not sure what the criteria is for it. 

I think the coaches were confident he could get back to his 2022 self. Let's hope he punts less than 50 times this year, which means our offense is generating points. Remember, Rhule is big on developing guys and making you better- we will see if it pays off with Buschini. 

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top