Can you be in the driver's seat when there are two teams ahead of you?
Are special teams part of the "process"?
- Thread starter SCarolinaCy
- Start date
Can you be in the driver's seat when there are two teams ahead of you?
When you play one of them head to head. yes.
If we go on the road and beat OU, and win out, I don't see a scenario where we miss out on the Big 12 title game.
Is there a difference between being in control of your own destiny and being in the driver’s seat? If so, this is it.
Even they got smoked by special teams against Clemson last year. I will never forget how stupid that fake field goal call was from Saban. Blew my mind.
When the offense is performing at this level I have no problem with fair catching kicks and letting Purdy go to work.
Kicking game has just been killer this season. Missed kicks made the difference against Baylor, and they made the game a lot closer last week. Punting, long snapping (shoutout Steve Wirtel, who's actually an NFL prospect and one of the best in the nation) and kickoffs have been solid. I think, it just comes down to placekicking at this point
What if you're a back seat driver? My wife is an expert at it. ; )
Just to echo some others thoughts, there are 5 ares of special teams:
Kickoff return
Kickoff coverage
Punt team
Punt return
Field goal
With the current rules (getting the ball at the 25, eliminating the wedge for blocking, etc) I have no doubt the numbers point to not returning the ball being the right decision in most circumstances. Less exciting for fans, but a logical strategic decision. And our return team has done average or above when given the opportunity.
Kickoff coverage has been very solid. I don't see much other way to analyze it.
Punt team has also been been very good. Particularly good at pinning the opposition inside the 20 or 10. Rivera's distance averages are somewhat impacted by rarely punting on a full field (credit to the offense).
Punt return is a mixed bag. They've obviously decided to emphasize punt rush. If or when we finally get one that will seem like a good decision, we are consistently getting pressure while doing a good job of not making contact with the punter. Then there's obviously the big mistake against Iowa.
Field goal was undeniably bad against Texas Tech. So if that trend continues it will be a major negative going forward. Outside of that game we are 32 for 32 on extra points and 8 of 11 on field goals. Assalley has been very reliable inside 40. Narveson would appear more mental than anything, but its worth noting he's never gotten a chance to attempt anything inside 40.
Kickoff return
Kickoff coverage
Punt team
Punt return
Field goal
With the current rules (getting the ball at the 25, eliminating the wedge for blocking, etc) I have no doubt the numbers point to not returning the ball being the right decision in most circumstances. Less exciting for fans, but a logical strategic decision. And our return team has done average or above when given the opportunity.
Kickoff coverage has been very solid. I don't see much other way to analyze it.
Punt team has also been been very good. Particularly good at pinning the opposition inside the 20 or 10. Rivera's distance averages are somewhat impacted by rarely punting on a full field (credit to the offense).
Punt return is a mixed bag. They've obviously decided to emphasize punt rush. If or when we finally get one that will seem like a good decision, we are consistently getting pressure while doing a good job of not making contact with the punter. Then there's obviously the big mistake against Iowa.
Field goal was undeniably bad against Texas Tech. So if that trend continues it will be a major negative going forward. Outside of that game we are 32 for 32 on extra points and 8 of 11 on field goals. Assalley has been very reliable inside 40. Narveson would appear more mental than anything, but its worth noting he's never gotten a chance to attempt anything inside 40.
They lost the Iron Bowl in 2013 because they didn't think the Auburn player standing in the end zone might try to return it.
By the way, I forgot how awesome that was.
This has been my biggest issue this year. You'd think special teams would be a spot where a team "in the margins" tries to make up some ground.
We have good punt/kick coverage , but, basically making no attempt to return punts or kicks - what message does that tell your team? Either that we're so good that it doesn't matter (unlikely), or that we're so worried about screwing it up that we just fair catch everything. It's presumably the latter. To be clear, I'm not calling for Campbell's head over this - I'm a huge fan; just can't understand the insane conservatism as times.
UNI game - our play calling was so vanilla, and we wouldn't even return punts where we have a clear skill advantage; barely won that one
Iowa game - think it would have helped if we'd actually tried to return a punt before the last one of the game; that fumble off blocker's back was flukey but it was the first time our gunners had tried to block on a punt.
I understand that the new rules make fair-catching kick-offs a good call lots of the time. But, returns can bring momentum - needs to be Kene or Tariq back there for that on a k/o.
Punters - Rivera's done a nice job. Kicking - Assalley has been great under 40 yards (no idea what he was doing duck-hooking that PAT on Sat.); gotta figure it out at 40+.
No we didn't. Connor made the his only attempt. We would have had at least another attempt at one in the 1st half but Brock fumbled. What killed us that game was HORRIBLE punt coverage.
Pretty sure the Iowa game was where Lang tried to run out a kick that he had no chance to return, got stopped at the 10 and them ISU got a penalty to boot. That one really set Iowa up to score.
Last edited:
