Punter

[FordhamBulldog]

Someone with some recruiting insight- how hard is it to find a quality punter? Is it just not a priority? Is it difficult to scout who's really good?

As a layman, it seems to me like a) it should be a huge priority, b) there's gotta be tons of kids throughout the region who are high quality, and c) it wouldn't take that much time/resources to figure out who they are and get them.

What am I missing here?

 

[CochiseCowbell]

We need to recruit the Aussies.*

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

I would think you find somebody that can kick the shut out of the ball and recruit him.

 

[kired]

It’s not exactly an easy position to recruit because no one is going to give out multiple scholarships to kickers and punters. Everyone basically has one of each on scholarship and then a few walkons. If the scholarship guys turn out to suck, then you’re screwed. Normally the walkons aren’t going to be great because any punter / kicker worth a crap is on scholarship somewhere. And it takes a special person to be a walkon punter / kicker - it’s a lot different than a walkon LB who actually participates in practice. You have nothing to do but come out & kick footballs, knowing the only chance you have to ever play is if the scholarship guy gets hurt or does so bad they decide to give you a chance. Then if you screw up everyone’s going to say you suck & fans will ask on message boards why we have no one better than a ****** walkon punting.

From a recruiting standpoint- a lot of guys can punt a ball 60 yards. But then they may shank the next one for 15 yards. So you’ve got to find someone who most importantly is consistent and isn’t going to piss himself playing in front of 100,000 fans in Death Valley or Bryant Denny.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Paging the Swede...

 

[JoMo MoJo]

Someone with some recruiting insight- how hard is it to find a quality punter? Is it just not a priority? Is it difficult to scout who's really good?

As a layman, it seems to me like a) it should be a huge priority, b) there's gotta be tons of kids throughout the region who are high quality, and c) it wouldn't take that much time/resources to figure out who they are and get them.

What am I missing here?

If you are upset at our punters then you are missing the big picture.

 

[WutheringDawg]

Yeah, like the fact that Boston is about to go up 2-0 on the dodgers. Mid term elections, mysterious immigrat caravans, bombs (real or fake depending on who you ask) in the mail to politicians, Halloween remake, the Good Place, Mike Trout appreciation in general and the weird thing that Kimbel does with his arm.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

Our current punter was an all-anercain in high school. Or at least he played in the US Army all-American game. Then Mullen screwed him up in just one year last year...

 

[KentuckyDawg13]

If you make this comment, you haven't been paying attention to our dismal field position. That is on the punter.

 

[Seinfeld]

Aren’t scholarships renewed on an annual basis, though? I mean, I’m sure most anyone would like to avoid pulling a scholarship whenever possible, but I’d compare the current punting situation to a kid getting an academic scholarship and then having a 2.0 GPA his freshman year.

Certain standards must be met

 

[Strike.sixpack]

Our current punter was an all-anercain in high school. Or at least he played in the US Army all-American game. Then Mullen screwed him up in just one year last year...

Absurd and Ridiculous statement considering we had Logan Cook, a pro, punting for us the last few years. Not to mentioned that we had and have a pro kicking coach on staff that handles all of the kickers not the former head coach.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

If you make this comment, you haven't been paying attention to our dismal field position. That is on the punter.

We had a first and goal at the LSU 2 yd line and could not score. Please tell me how that was the punters fault.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

I realize our punters don’t have the leg that Cooke has.... but their technique is awful... if nothing else try the rugby style kick and let it roll... anything would be better than 35 yard line drives....also schollys are awarded on a yearly basis... we can find another punter.

 

[WutheringDawg]

Discussing our punting issues does not mean that someone thinks that everything else is great. Tucker day ranks 120th nationally with an average distance of 38 yards per punt.

 

[HD6]

Three of LSU's scoring drives were 55 yards or less because our punter could not put them in bad field position.

 

[shotgunDawg]

I think you utilize the grad transfer market every year to go get a proven kicker and punter.

There are tons of really really good punters and kickers out there that would give their left nut to play at an SEC school for a year. Just look at LSU's kicker.

 

[peewee.sixpack]

If anyone goes to HS football games in the state of MS they know there are numerous kickers in the Jackson metro area alone that are better than states punter. There obviously in not much interest in recruiting a punter. Hell go to Clinton and grab Tucker Barefoot and get you a punter/fg/kickoff kicker all in one.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

you're right, we had FANTASTIC special teams during Mullen's tenure. Cooke was not an aberration.

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[Uncle Ruckus]

Here's what I don't get, and maybe they were just loaded - but Mullen came in an signed Berry at WR, White at LB, , Hutchins and Brauchle at kickers. That's just in year one. And in a couple of months. How have we not signed another special teams guy from the jucos with all of our problems?

 

[Strike.sixpack]

you're right, we had FANTASTIC special teams during Mullen's tenure. Cooke was not an aberration.

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Mullen hasn’t been apart of the kickers for years and yes we did have some good kickers besides Cooke. Boniol handles the kickers exclusively. BEFORE Day was even signed he has been in charge of the kickers.

And if you think Mullen’s special teams are worse than what have had this year on a whole your blind. Mullen has some bad groups and some bad field goal kickers no doubt. But did he ever have punters this bad? I can’t recall that. And Cody was here last year and did better.

 

[FlotownDawg]

I don't understand why Tucker Day is so bad this year. He was the #1 rated high school punter in the country when he signed with State. Mullen did try to make him the field goal kicker last year, which failed miserably, so maybe that messed up his punting mechanics and now it’s in his head. Schexnayder is no better, so it looks like Day either needs to get the snakes out of his head or we get a JUCO punter in the offseason.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

I don't understand why Tucker Day is so bad this year. He was the #1 rated high school punter in the country when he signed with State. Mullen did try to make him the field goal kicker last year, which failed miserably, so maybe that messed up his punting mechanics and now it’s in his head. Schexnayder is no better, so it looks like Day either needs to get the snakes out of his head or we get a JUCO punter in the offseason.

Boniol worked EXCLUSIVELY with Day last year. Mullen has nothing to do with that

 

[Seinfeld]

I don't think anyone's arguing that as a whole, we have bigger fish to fry. However, A&M's punter is probably the best in the country with a 54 yd/kick average thus far. In other words, we will lose nearly 20 yards per exchange this Saturday if our punters don't significantly improve. That is a grand canyon sized problem no matter how many other issues we might have.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

Three of LSU's scoring drives were 55 yards or less because our punter could not put them in bad field position.

I didn’t say our punting was awesome. I just think the OP topic was missing the big picture. WE CAN’T 17’ing SCORE! The scoring drives you mentioned were all coming up tres’ which didn’t hurt us anywhere near as bad as our offenses inability to cross the goal line.

It’s like a doctor complaining about his dead patient’s lack of circulation.

 

[Dawgg]

Three of LSU's scoring drives were 55 yards or less because our punter could not put them in bad field position.

That's categorically untrue. Only one field goal fits what you just described and that was the last one, a 40 yard FG with 10:42 to go in the 4th.
In fact, only 2 of LSU's scoring drives even came after a punt.

Scoring drives for LSU:
1 yd TD - started at the State 3 from a turnover.
25 yd FG - started at the LSU 29 because of a Day 22yd shanked punt from the State 49. LSU drove 64 yards to the State 7.
38 yd FG - started at the LSU 25 from a kickoff and touchback. LSU drove 55 yards to the State 20.
29 yd FG - started at the LSU 45 because Fitzgerald was sacked on 4th down. LSU drove 44 yards to the State 11.
40 yd FG - started at the LSU 27 because of a Schexnayder 28 yd punt from the State 45. LSU drove 51 yards to the State 22.

Hell, we almost punted for as many yards as we gained on offense (243 vs 260)..

 

[kired]

Prepare for minds to be blown --- our net average is 37.1 yards per punt. Average net under 9 years of Mullen the Great was 37.4 (37.8 if you take out a terrible 2009 season). So the net result of our punts isn't far off from our norm.

In reality, gross or net average doesn't mean much about your punter --- that's impacted by field position, your coverage team, and quality of your opponents returners. I'd say it's pretty obvious our punters are not great, our coverage team is good, and other teams are not returning our short punts (5 returns in 7 games).

The problem with Day is his inconsistency. Out of 21 punts: 7 have gone less than 35 yards when he wasn't trying to drop one inside the 20, 1 short one was inside the 20, 11 were 40 yards or more, and 2 between 35-40 yards. If you just add 5 more yards to each of those 7 bad punts, he's averaging right at 40 yards - and honestly our net average would be probably ~38.5 or so.

I'm not sure why we keep putting the other guy out there. In my opinion Day needs to be getting all the reps he can & hope he becomes more consistent.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

Prepare for minds to be blown --- our net average is 37.1 yards per punt. Average net under 9 years of Mullen the Great was 37.4 (37.8 if you take out a terrible 2009 season). So the net result of our punts isn't far off from our norm.

In reality, gross or net average doesn't mean much about your punter --- that's impacted by field position, your coverage team, and quality of your opponents returners. I'd say it's pretty obvious our punters are not great, our coverage team is good, and other teams are not returning our short punts (5 returns in 7 games).

The problem with Day is his inconsistency. Out of 21 punts: 7 have gone less than 35 yards when he wasn't trying to drop one inside the 20, 1 short one was inside the 20, 11 were 40 yards or more, and 2 between 35-40 yards. If you just add 5 more yards to each of those 7 bad punts, he's averaging right at 40 yards - and honestly our net average would be probably ~38.5 or so.

I'm not sure why we keep putting the other guy out there. In my opinion Day needs to be getting all the reps he can & hope he becomes more consistent.

To answer your last point isn’t scahengyxhkislwrer a fan favorite? I’m sure most people mistake Day for a coaches 10 yr old son or some kid getting to live out a final wish on the sideline. (That was probably in poor taste but you see it in nearly every broadcast game now)


And whoever brought up Tucker Barefoot. Great kid! I know his dad really well. We work together in healthcare. His dad has such a negative opinion of State, because of his dealings with Mullen, we have no chance of ever getting Tucker there. And this was a family that could have been a new generation of StTe fans.