Just saw on al.com that Greg Knox has taken on special teams duties, Hevesy and Billy G are now co-OC, and Brian Johnson is QB coach. Apologies in advance if Germans
in non-gay news......
- Thread starter Freezus H. Christ
- Start date
I like it. Our RBs our bad ***, now maybe our STs can be
I've seen Knox coach the RBs in the Spring before and I liked what I saw and how the players reacted to him. Maybe the STs will have a similar effect. Can't help but be optimistic. No reason not to be. They can't get any more worse.
I've seen Knox coach the RBs in the Spring before and I liked what I saw and how the players reacted to him. Maybe the STs will have a similar effect. Can't help but be optimistic. No reason not to be. They can't get any more worse.
What specifically are you complaining about with the Special Teams? The only real issue was missing placement kicks, and I may be wrong, but I dont think Greg Knox is a kicking coach. Bell, Sobiesk, and the new signee will have to put in the work to get better. I think one of the three will step up and do much better next season. Look to Spring Ball for marked improvement.
The one blocked punt was a jailbreak. - I only remember 1? The other issues were dropped snaps by the punters. They catch hundreds, if not thousands, a year - can't do much more as a coach for them. And i think the return game is largely a returner that shouldn't be. I just think "ST coaching" has largely been limited by personnel or a lack thereof. Maybe someone else is ready to fill a role and be an impact player.
I don't think most people want us to be just adequate at ST. The people who are talking about it here are mostly saying we need to be very good, if not outstanding, at ST to be truly successful in the SEC. We consistently have less overall talent than the Bama's of the world and ST can be the difference maker. Dan simply doesn't have enough hours in the day to be devoted to it.
Dead on here.
Our struggles in ST have largely been due to personnel, players not coaches, in my mind. I don't think Knox will do much to improve on our K's ability to kick unless he has some experience that I'm unaware of.
Our struggles in ST have largely been due to personnel, players not coaches, in my mind. I don't think Knox will do much to improve on our K's ability to kick unless he has some experience that I'm unaware of.
Should have had one blocked against Bama. How they missed it I will never know. A punt was blocked or almost blocked in every game of the second half of the season. That should happen one time and its fixed - not six.
Dropping the snap was not the problem.
Dropping the snap was not the problem.
Disagree with the players over coaches part. But I agree with the lack of confidence on Knox's ability to remedy the situation. He may improve the return game, but I don't know about things like automatic from the 30, flipping the field, or pressuring the kicker.
I was told that get off times - time from snap to kick - were a major concern all year on both field goals and punts. That could be anyone from the LS to the Holder to the Punter or Kicker. Protections are designed to work for a set amount of time, after that, it's blocked kicks.
Blocked and almost blocked aren't the same thing. Every kicking play is a fraction of a second from being blocked, always.
Maybe I didn't
explain that part clearly enough, but when I said our troubles were moreso upon players I was referencing in who we had as our kicker(s) and returning. They just didn't get it done last year, and I'm not sure what we've done will really change that.
explain that part clearly enough, but when I said our troubles were moreso upon players I was referencing in who we had as our kicker(s) and returning. They just didn't get it done last year, and I'm not sure what we've done will really change that.
Every kick? Always? Fraction of a second? Stop with the hyperbole. I think that you'd see more blocked kicks if it were so. Players are usually not within 2 yards of the kicker anymore.
Thank you Mr. Obvious for pointing out that blocked and almost blocked are not the same thing. But when the opposing player is close enough to tackle the punter when he jumps straight up, you might consider adding another category "should have been blocked."
Running free off the end and breaking through up the middle are two completely different things. You ALWAYS take your chance with a blocker running around the formation. Always. If a kick is blocked around the end, it's a timing problem. Do your research.
I prefer Captain Obvious. And I guess I will question if you understand how much ground a player can cover in a fraction of a second. Two yards IS the blink of an eye. All based on timing.
If we have timing issues we're going to see a lot more out and out punt blocks, whereas somebody with good times getting the ball off will see a lot of return setups with one person basically rushing to keep them honest and take advantage of any mishandled snap. So we would see a lot more close calls.
Most people would be fine if we were adequate at every aspect of the game. We are generally good on punting and kick coverage. I think a lot of our punting problems came from inexplicably putting Bell back there after we had been performing well. We are horrendous on kicking. Surely there is somebody out there our kickers can see in the off season to fix their issues, whether it's a mechanics coach or a psychiatrist or a priest. Punt return surely is a personnel issue; I can't believe we haven't taught basics regarding when to field a punt and when to let it go; has to be bad decisions by the player.
A player will not cover much ground in 2 seconds with an upback standing between him and the punter
Just to put your argument in context, here's the worst punt teams in the league. And 71 teams in the nation didn't have a punt blocked.
| 108 | UTEP | 12 | 67 | 2 |
| - | Penn St. | 12 | 55 | 2 |
| - | Oklahoma | 13 | 67 | 2 |
| - | La.-Monroe | 12 | 82 | 2 |
| - | New Mexico St. | 12 | 80 | 2 |
| - | Mississippi St. | 13 | 51 | 2 |
| - | Marshall | 14 | 58 | 2 |
| - | Kansas | 12 | 86 | 2 |
| - | Indiana | 12 | 54 | 2 |
| - | Georgia | 13 | 44 | 2 |
| - | Colorado St. | 14 | 70 | 2 |
| - | Buffalo | 13 | 74 | 2 |
| - | Arizona St. | 14 | 65 | 2 |
| - | Tulsa | 12 | 74 | 2 |
| 122 | BYU | 13 | 85 | 3 |
| - | Tulane | 13 | 83 | 3 |
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And for reference, here's the teams with the most punt blocks. A decade ago, teams doubled this production.
| 1 | North Texas | 13 | 81 | 4 |
| 2 | Southern California | 14 | 91 | 3 |
| - | Ohio St. | 14 | 79 | 3 |
| - | Georgia Tech | 13 | 69 | 3 |
| 5 | Utah St. | 14 | 92 | 2 |
| - | Kansas | 12 | 72 | 2 |
| - | UCLA | 13 | 74 | 2 |
| - | Texas A&M | 13 | 61 | 2 |
| - | Arkansas St. | 13 | 70 | 2 |
| - | Temple | 12 | 53 | 2 |
| - | Syracuse | 13 | 81 | 2 |
| - | Stanford | 14 | 74 | 2 |
| - | Oklahoma St. | 13 | 89 | 2 |
| - | Virginia | 12 | 79 | 2 |
| - | Washington St. | 13 | 64 | 2 |
| - | San Diego St. | 13 | 71 | 2 |
| - | Rutgers | 13 | 70 | 2 |
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Sorry. I'm talking about punts (although I didn't distinguish between punter and kicker). If you're talking about punts, then this conversation is not worth my time.
At first the rush was 2 yards away and unabated and now there is an upback protecting the punter and slowing down the rush??? It's been fun, but I'm afraid if I keep at this with you, you'll convince me that global warming is real.