Ed Foley breaks down Nebraska's special teams heading into Fall Camp

As Nebraska heads into Fall Camp, most of their questions on special teams for Ed Foley appear to be answered.

We know Brian Buschini has a lock on the punter job, Marco Ortiz will be the long snapper and Billy Kemp IV appears to be locked in as the primary punt returner. The two big questions remain at kicker and kickoff returner.

As Foley talks about the evaluation system and what will go into a position like a kicker, he said it is not rocket science what he will use to evaluate Timmy Bleekrode and Tristan Alvano for the starting kicker job.

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“For the specialists, we are just looking for performance,” Foley told the Husker Sports Network. “You can look at the performance and it’s an accounting system. ‘Am I making my kick? Am I putting the ball where I need to? Or am I not.’

“Some other positions – I’ve coached the tight ends and the offensive line, it’s not as cut and dry or black and white. We are always looking to make our performance better. We were doing some things in spring pretty well, and there are some things that we needed to get better at. We left with kind of a grocery list of things we were going to work on this time of the year. I can see the guys working now. They are getting better and working on the things that we need to work at.”

The off-season is also a time of year when guys can receive plenty of outside instruction to get better at their craft.

That is something Foley is a big believer in, but at the same time, it’s important to realize every kicker or punter’s process might be different with how they apply new things.

“I encourage my guys to do as much technical information as they can on the kicking,” Foley said. “I also coach them that you are getting information, but how you process it is really what’s important. They come back and share the information with me. We had a pretty good list of guys that came to our specialty camp too.

“For the most part, those things are good. When you get a guy like (Greg) Zuerlein or (Brett) Maher or (Alex) Henery talking to you about kicking, even if it’s not exactly aligned to what your technique is, to get that information is really good. I encourage them to get as much as they can. I do caution them or have the conversations with them of how that’s going to apply to exactly what we are doing.”

Foley breaks down Nebraska’s specialists heading to camp

Foley also gave a nice rundown of each of his specialists on Wednesday and where they stand heading into Fall Camp:

Punter Brian Buschini: “Brian (Buschini) is a guy. He’s a real player. He’s a joy to coach. He’s a challenge to coach because he wants so much information all the time. I love working with him. He does a really good job with location, the different kind of kicks we are asking him to do – I think he’s going to have a really good year next year.”

Kicker Timmy Bleekrode: “The spring he needs to make the kicks, but we need to do a better job of the operation, too. Those goals go hand and hand. Without good operation, we are going to have a harder time making the kicks. We are working with Timmy about becoming more consistent, and he’s done that. Timmy is another guy who puts a lot of pressure on himself to make a lot of kicks and be perfect. He’s working on that to get better.”

Kicker Tristan Alvano: “Tristan (Alvano), off of the film and the recruiting we did, shows a lot of promise in terms of ball strike and strong leg. He’s got a leg. When you are looking at him, making the big kicks is obviously big. You can see him kicking the ball off and the way the ball comes off of his foot on film.

“He’s got a big leg and can make a 55-yarder, but does he have a repeatable swing? Is he swinging where he’s swinging the same way every time, whether it’s a 50-yarder or a 12-yarder or his approach to a kickoff, which is a little bit different. Does he have a repeatable, very consistent swing? Yes he does. He has a powerful leg. The next part of it is does he make pressure kicks? We’ve seen those guys come in that have really nice swings and then they get to the college game, and there’s a lot more pressure. These guys put a lot more pressure than maybe the kids did over 15 years ago. To see a guy make the pressure kicks in high school, especially at that level in our stadium, on our field to make those kicks, that’s a big part of the evaluation for me.”

Long snapper Marco Ortiz: “Marco is a really good snapper. He showed consistency—the ability to snap. In the snapping game, it’s not just snapping the ball back there anymore. So now we are asking him to do certain things like put the ball back there in a certain spot. We are also trying to it so there is very little ball rotation on the field goals and extra points.”

Kickoff return: “The kickoff return job is open to me. There have been some guys that have done a good job back there. Josh Fleeks did it a little bit for us at Baylor. I liked Tommi Hill back there. Billy Kemp can do both – the punts and the kickoff returns. This one is going to carry through the preseason, I think more so than some of the other jobs. There are some guys that can do it. I’m not worried about it. I want to get a better feel. We will find us a kickoff returner somewhere in camp.”

Bill Kemp IV at punt return: “I like Kemp. He’s got that little bit of swagger when he’s back there doing it. When he catches it, he can make the first guy miss. I like him back there.”

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