Almost as bad as Pass D in 2014: OU Special Teams

[ksigcajun]

Since we are in the market for an assistant coach or two, how about bringing in someone who will actually pay attention to special teams? From NCAA stats:

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/98

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KO Returns: #30. Despite 2 TD returns not quite in the top quartile, but our best showing by far in STs. Everything else is in the bottom half of D1.

KO Return Defense: #70 [putting our D in bad spot before they even took the field - not good]

Net Punting: #68 [how important is this stat that directly feeds into field position? tOSU was #5]

Punt returns: #103 (we were taking chances on Shephard getting hurt for this?)

Blocked punts: ZERO

Block punts allowed: 3 (the national low was 5, shared by 4 teams)

FG Percentage: Tied at #64 (and it's the game-losing missed chip shots that hurt the most here).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a team that could use every available edge, to say we flat out sucked in the kicking game is an understatement. Special teams seem to be an afterthought with Bob - if he's serious about fixing what's wrong, he turns to this problem after dealing with the secondary.

 

[doack]

I was not impressed with special teams in 2014.

It will be interesting to see how Boulware's new role pans out. For our sake, I hope he does a better job with the RBs than the 2014 special teams group.

 

[phillinois]

Well, damn fellows...we can only have 9 assistant coaches.
That's it, and it's mandated by the NCAA.

According to some of yous, we need special coaches for every aspect of the game. Golly gee, we have that.

If we focus on special teams, what other phase is going to suffer from not enough attention?

It's a conundrum, I'll give ya that.

 

[ETU]

Thank you, guys. I have been silent when I shouldn't have because I too have wondered why so much has been said about the good job our special teams coach did last year. I guess he does deserve credit for trying to talk Bob out of re-punting to O-State.