Let's talk special teams for a moment

[Duff Man]

I said in a thread a couple weeks ago, I was giving up hope on the offense and I'm pretty much at the same place with the special teams. For every bright spot (Scott/Lockridge on kick returns thus far), we have 2-3 negatives. Scott and Lockridge seem to have a knack for finding the crease on kickoffs. Lockridge was consistently giving us solid field position against WVU.

Goodman looked like he was finally ready to turn the corner, but I think he may be headed the other way again after the WVU game. I did not expect him to make both long FGs in the first half, but any decent D1 kicker should be able to make one of those. Also, his kickoffs in the WVU were pretty short.

The punting game is still hit and miss. DiLallo is very inconsistent for a senior that has played in a lot of games. He puts our coverage teams in bad positions constantly with poor hang times and returnable punts.

The punt return game is a joke. Let's cut the crap about Espy being back there because he catches the ball right now. I understand that is an important aspect of punt returns, but it does not have to be the only aspect. With our offensive struggles, we need to give them better field position from the return game. It's great that Espy catches the ball all the time, but it does not matter much if our offense is constantly having to face 70 and 80 yard drives for TDs. We're not good enough to be successful in those conditions. It is time to try someone else back there.

Now the special teams have improved over last season (hard to get much worse), but we still have a long ways to go here.

 

[Darth Snow]

:yeahthat:

 

[Tadploe]

BB right on let Lockridge or Scott retun the punts, and get some speed on the field.

 

[buffsyko]

With our offensive struggles, we need to get the most out of our return game. Lockridge should be returning punts. Goodman isn't getting it done, time to try someone else.

 

[BuffLuke80]

Think kick return has been much better than expected so im happy there. Umm Goodman is well Goodman. If hitting the uprights counted, he'd be an all american. The guy has a great leg but when his confidence is shaken, game over. Now to the ever talked about punt return. Espy should transfer to Ft. Lewis if that tells you anything about what I think of him being back there. I hope he muffs a few so they will stop doing it. Lockridge is the logical choice here to me. Hell anybody is besides Espy.

 

[White_Rabbit]

Agreed, I don't get how Goodman's issues seem to be him hooking the ball and somehow we can't fix that. I was on the Espy boat for awhile, but I also thought our offense would be a lot better than what it is. We have to generate points somehow, since our offense can't do it they need help and that comes in the form of not having a 5'8 walkon that runs a 4.8 40 returning punts 3 yards.

 

[buffs04]

There really is no reason for one of the slowest skill position players on our entire roster to be returning punts.

Catching the punt should be a given and expected 100% of the time, not such a stellar and impressive skill that it trumps all else when it comes to picking someone to go back there. I have never heard of any other program assigning people to field punts based on their ability to catch the ball.