Special Teams

Its been said many times, many ways but I dont think some people really recognize how absolutely critical “special teams” (kicking, coverage, returns, gadgets & defending same) are to winning every game.  

Almost every offense and defense is advantaged or not by this third of the game.  

 
Special teams have improved but still A LONG WAY TO GO. Coverage on kickoffs and punts are still bad and almost atrocious (but improved from last year). Blocking on returns still need a lot of work as well. 

 
Special teams has definitely improved a ton, even if it has been "two steps forward, one step back" this season. That's still a net positive of one step forward.    :D

What I loved about the Purdue game was that the blocked punt gave us a big jolt of confidence right out of the gate, then we established dominance with Martinez's good drive & individual effort on his TD run to go up 14-0.

Good coaching and athleticism are starting to peek through here and there on our team...but we just have stop with some of the bad penalties, fix the kickoff coverage unit, and continue to keep turnovers down.

 
Kickoff return and coverage are still atrocious, which need to be improved.  I don't get how NU is so bad at those items, unless it's just a lack of overall athleticism or not trusting young studs to earn their PT there.  In NU's heydey, future stars would first show their skills on  special teams.  We haven't seen that happen in a long time.

 
Field goal Kicking obviously has been an enormous upgrade over last couple of years.  Punter still has too many line drive punts that allows returner room to run.  Kick off return still not that great.  Penalties overall “seem” to be down from years past but haven’t looked it up to know for sure. 

 
Connor Culp really has improved our field goal kicking obv.  So happy about that.  Agree with @ColoradoHuskthat our kick coverage however is (still) definitely not up to par. Would be huge if they can actually improve in this area.

 
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I am curious how much better we'd feel about the punting if the Aussie didn't get hurt. The rumors about the hang time on his punts are borderline unbelievable - I think Przystup can get decent distance, but when he kicks a long one we just don't have time to cover it. 

 
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