Our special teams sucks

We could have fired Foley during the bye week and rebuilt Special Teams, but instead here we are making the exact same bonehead plays.

 
knapplc said:
We could have fired Foley during the bye week and rebuilt Special Teams, but instead here we are making the exact same bonehead plays.
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I’m more than fine if foley is let go. But, the idiotic decision on the first kickoff is squarely on the player. He has been playing football since in grade school. You don’t even attempt to catch that ball. Just plain stupidity. 

 
BigRedBuster said:
I’m more than fine if foley is let go. But, the idiotic decision on the first kickoff is squarely on the player. He has been playing football since in grade school. You don’t even attempt to catch that ball. Just plain stupidity. 
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Rhule is going to ride this entire Staff out, on his principles, which very well could lead to a 5-7 year.

That means Foley's brilliance coaching our ST through the year.  Bonuses - Satterfield will continue to call plays and McGuire's vast coaching experience will surely lead to better blocking and WR separation helping our five star QB.

 
DefenderAO said:
Rhule is going to ride this entire Staff out, on his principles, which very well could lead to a 5-7 year.

That means Foley's brilliance coaching our ST through the year.  Bonuses - Satterfield will continue to call plays and McGuire's vast coaching experience will surely lead to better blocking and WR separation helping our five star QB.
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If only Rhule had been given the largest assistant $$ pool any of any Neb coach ever. Maybe he could’ve gotten some qualified assistants. 

 
Fru said:
If only Rhule had been given the largest assistant $$ pool any of any Neb coach ever. Maybe he could’ve gotten some qualified assistants. 
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It gave his friend’s pubescent son a chance to get ahead. At the cost of our five star QB having someone to throw to. 

 
No idea what would happen if the Huskers did this.

Illinois lined up for a 58 yard field goal.  The kick is wide and short, but Rutgers called timeout before the play.  Then Illinois did this.


 
Red Five said:
#FireFoley
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Both guys have been a lot better. But while Buschini is 9th in the country in punting average, he's 54th in Net punting at 40.7. That shouldn't diminish the (potential) school record - Koch's net in 2005 was even worse, 39.85. But despite a worse net, that was 2nd in the country:

Koch’s punting average placed him second nationally and helped Nebraska to a No. 2 national ranking in net punting at 39.85 yards per attempt.
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And I think that's the real problem with Foley, he's stuck 20 years in the past. The rest of the country has learned that booming huge punts to the middle of the field and giving up returns isn't worth it, and that a good punter can minimize returns. The net punting number leading the country this year is 46.4, way higher than the ~40.0 that lead the country in 2005.

Buschini's coffin corner kicks have also been clutch, I think the dude has been good. But I don't think our coaching of the punter or the coverage teams has been good if the goal is to give the opponent the ball as far away from where we're kicking as possible. 

 
Husker in WI said:
Both guys have been a lot better. But while Buschini is 9th in the country in punting average, he's 54th in Net punting at 40.7. That shouldn't diminish the (potential) school record - Koch's net in 2005 was even worse, 39.85. But despite a worse net, that was 2nd in the country:

And I think that's the real problem with Foley, he's stuck 20 years in the past. The rest of the country has learned that booming huge punts to the middle of the field and giving up returns isn't worth it, and that a good punter can minimize returns. The net punting number leading the country this year is 46.4, way higher than the ~40.0 that lead the country in 2005.

Buschini's coffin corner kicks have also been clutch, I think the dude has been good. But I don't think our coaching of the punter or the coverage teams has been good if the goal is to give the opponent the ball as far away from where we're kicking as possible. 
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With net punting, if you punt it 60 yards for a touchback, is the net punt 40 yards? If so, I don't entirely blame Buschini for this. Our coverage team has been downright dumb on multiple occasions (and I'm mostly blaming Foley for this because it's something seen across multiple units), hanging around at the 10 yard line waiting for the punt to land only to have it land between them and the end zone. And I'm not talking when he's kicked it so far. I'm talking when they had time to get down to the 2 yard line but stopped at the 10.

 
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Moiraine said:
With net punting, if you punt it 60 yards for a touchback, is the net punt 40 yards? If so, I don't entirely blame Buschini for this. Our coverage team has been downright dumb on multiple occasions (and I'm mostly blaming Foley for this because it's something seen across multiple units), hanging around at the 10 yard line waiting for the punt to land until to have it land between them and the end zone.
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Yes.  Net is the difference from the line of scrimmage on the punt, to the new line of scrimmage for the other team.  Touchback would take away the 20 yards. 

 
Moiraine said:
With net punting, if you punt it 60 yards for a touchback, is the net punt 40 yards? If so, I don't entirely blame Buschini for this. Our coverage team has been downright dumb on multiple occasions, hanging around at the 10 yard line waiting for the punt to land until to have it land between them and the end zone.
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Yes, but he only has 2 touchbacks on the year. So if we assign 100% blame to the coverage, that would bump his net up a yard to 41.8. I still think it's an outdated coaching philosophy that kicking it farther is always better, but I've got no issue with Buschini. He is indeed kicking it far and has had some excellent coffin corners. But we're giving up 11 yards per return, and Foley needs to either figure out the coverage team and/or get Buschini to sacrifice a little distance for some more hangtime. 

 
Husker in WI said:
And I think that's the real problem with Foley, he's stuck 20 years in the past. The rest of the country has learned that booming huge punts to the middle of the field and giving up returns isn't worth it, and that a good punter can minimize returns.
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An interesting point on Foley considering Koch helped revolutionize punting. Maybe we should bring Koch in like Maher. 

 
VedderHusker said:
An interesting point on Foley considering Koch helped revolutionize punting. Maybe we should bring Koch in like Maher. 
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I'd guess Koch is around, his kid is on the team. I think it'll take more than that though. Koch teaching the punters some different kicks and when to use them is one thing, but the coverage has to be on the same page and I don't trust that Foley will be able to handle that.

Full disclosure - I know very little about Foley's beliefs as a ST coach and it's quite possible he's tried other things and just ended up back at "let's kick it far." Maybe Buschini's problems last year were because we were trying to have him do too much, and Foley made the call to maximize strengths this year instead of chasing the optimal strategy. But all in all the special teams results have been bad, and I don't think getting a punter back to his old form after a down year and making our field goal game functional again after breaking it should be enough to keep him around.

 
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