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Special Teams

We have hope on punt and kick returns with Patterson, Celestine and any of the others with a little speed. I guess we have no certainty they will be return men, but some hope.

We have hope with Grossnickle and Castor that kicking can at least be more consistent. However, we are counting on two unknowns here so pretty iffy. We really were at the bottom here last year though, so we have nowhere to go but up.

Do we really have any hope that our kick and punt return coverage will be better? Our tackling has been average at best under DH. Maybe we can attribute that to depth. I sure hope so.

If by some act of God special teams can be better it will obviously improve all phases of the game. I am not holding my breath.

I have a lot of optimism for this team, but man it is depressing to think we need significant improvement on offense, defense and special teams. I guess it really all does have to come together this year. That's the only way we will see this thing pop!
 
Grossnickle did out kick DiLiallo in warm-ups. He had about a full second of hang time on the ball, and about 5 yards more in distance. The cmpination of those two stats could help equalize the net loss that we had in 09 from ST. The only proble is during spring, Grossnickle was kicking about the same as DiLiallo in the 2009 season. I know one person mentioned that they may have been over working him, and he had a dead leg at points, but there is a big difference between doing standing free kicks, and punting under preasure.

Patterson may be the answer for the Buffs this year on punt returns. He may not have had a ton of game time, but he has a lot of practice. I guess we will know more on 9/4.

I don't have a problem with Lockridge on kick-off duty. He seemed to handle that pretty well after Scott left. I'm not sure who we would put back with him, but he has good experience and had some good returns last year.
 
like others, i'd like to see Patterson make an effort for return duties. new to the team, scheme, and terminology it IS a way he can contribute immediately....and thereby show the coaches he can make plays and needs to be on the field and get some touches.
 
sackman said:
Yeah, the times I was watching warm-ups, Grossnickle was far and away the better punter. Maybe I didn't see them all, but I saw enough so that it left an impression on me.

Of course, this is all just in warm-ups. It doesn't mean squat until it's in a game.

I'm very concerned about our team.
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FIFM. Waiting until I see something on the field during a game before I believe we have gotten better. Need to prove it.
 
I have my sources on this one. Goodman is not our FG kicker.

There is also another punter in the mix to add some competition I'm hearing.
 
Rugged said:
FIFM. Waiting until I see something on the field during a game before I believe we have gotten better. Need to prove it.
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I hear you, but here's the deal: You can look at offense and start to convince yourself that if Hansen is the QB, they have some talent and experience along the front line and some talent coming in at WR. Speedy and BLock are a decent one-two combo at RB, and we have some ability at TE. You look at the defense and can convince yourself that we're fast and talented in the backfield. We're pretty deep and talented at LB and along the D-Line, too. These are arguments that are easy to make. If you can get past the whole "Dan Hawkins is the coach" issue, you can begin to believe that we have a chance at good-ness (not greatness, but good-ness).
Then you look at special teams and all the air goes out of the balloon. It's horribly demoralizing for an offense to drive 60 yards, just to have the PK miss a field goal. It's equally demoralizing for a defense that has to trot on the field on it's own side of the 50 yard line because of a shanked punt or a 40 yard punt return. That has happened far too often the last two years. It's sickening, and for the life of me I can't quite figure out how it's going to get any better this year. I can't look at what we have and say "this is a definite improvement". There's nothing there to hang my hat on. It's all pure hope.
 
Sacky, I can convince myself anything (commence jokes) and I do think we can be good. However, I'm not going to buy into it until it happens.
 
buffalo30 said:
Speaking of special teams, why did Colorado's high school All-State and All-American kicker in 2006 end up at Wisconsin?

http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/welch_philip00.html
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Mason Crosby was a senior in fall 2006 when Welch (senior in HS) would have been recruited.
Kevin Eberhart was still on the roster in fall 2007 as a fifth year senior.
Phil Welch wasn't offered by CU - and the Rammies offered him a grayshirt only.

Wisconsin offered Welch in spring 2007 shortly after LOI signing day had passed, and he accepted. At the time, he said he wanted to redshirt under the Badgers talented and experienced kicker, Taylor Mehlhaff. (Now kicker for Minnesota Vikings.)

But I can't remember why CU didn't offer - if it was ever discussed and it usually isn't. Unless they already knew Goodman was coming that summer and didn't want to give up the scholly in case he kicked a game winner FG in OT or something. Because Goodman arrived as a walk-on, not a scholly player.

Somewhere, somehow, Jameson Davis was in that mix, too. Just not on the roster yet, but they might have known he was coming. Remember, Riddle had promised him a scholly when they were at Boise State, but he went on a mission. When Davis returned 2 years later, they honored that promise at CU instead. Could have been that was quietly simmering and worked against Welch as well.

Most likely, with a freshman (Tyler Cope) and Soph (Goodman) on the roster, behind Eberhart, they must have felt they had plenty of leg at the time. Especially if there was thought that Davis was going to be back in the states.

Here's the PK/P roster that year, Hawkins' second year at CU. (Goodman was on roster, but did not play due to transfer rules.)
Tyler Cope returned to his home state when CU didn't scholarship him and he was paying our out of state tuition.

14 DiLallo, Matt P 6-1 200 So. Wellington, Fla. (Wellington)
95 Suazo, Tom P 5-11 190 Jr. Glenwood Springs, Colo. (Glenwood Springs/Arizona State)
19 Cope, Tyler PK 6-1 180 Fr. Portland, Ore. (Jesuit)
39 Eberhart, Kevin PK 5-11 195 Sr. Broomfield, Colo. (Broomfield)
13 Goodman, Aric PK 5-11 175 So. Cherry Hills Village, Colo. (Cherry Creek/Wyoming)
 
Alferd,
Thanks for the info. It seems like everything broke down into the worst case for a lot of kickers that were thought of as possibilities to follow Eberhart. Cope left with no scholarship, Davis injured, Goodman with multiple problems probably both mechanical and confidence related. It seemed like the coaches were banking on the wrong players. I think it would have made sense to go after a high school All-American kicker from your own state.
On another note, it really bothered me last year when Aweida wasn't given a chance until the very last PAT of a miserable season. Then the coaches, both NU and CU, apparently agreed that the PAT wouldn't matter and they pulled him off the field just as they were ready to snap the ball. That was a horrible slap in the face. The guy probably more than earned his shot for at least one attempt. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but I think the CU head coach should have insisted the guy get his one shot.
 
buffalo30 said:
On another note, it really bothered me last year when Aweida wasn't given a chance until the very last PAT of a miserable season. Then the coaches, both NU and CU, apparently agreed that the PAT wouldn't matter and they pulled him off the field just as they were ready to snap the ball. That was a horrible slap in the face. The guy probably more than earned his shot for at least one attempt. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but I think the CU head coach should have insisted the guy get his one shot.
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Actually, I am still ticked about Aweida's lack of playing time. Seems that they didn't need to wait until the last second of the last game to let him kick. Don't forget, it wasn't just Aweida's first and only attempt, it was also backup snapper Austin Bisnow's ONLY appearance on the field in four years. Really too bad that neither got to make a play as a buff.

I don't want to hammer on Goodman, but he went 0-2 against Nebraska. He went 0-1 against Okla State. Just saying that it might have been the time to give the hard-working walk-on a shot, at least a line in the stats for posterity. A kickoff, an XP, a FG attempt ... something.
 
As long as the head coach continues to think our special teams coach is doing a great job, the special teams will be what it has been since the riddler took over.
 
buffsyko said:
As long as the head coach continues to think our special teams coach is doing a great job, the special teams will be what it has been since the riddler took over.
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I may get blasted for this, but I actually think that Riddle is a damn good Special Teams Coordinator. Unfortunately, I also believe that he's butt awful at handling kickers & punters. That's been his Achilles Heel.
 
Buffnik said:
I may get blasted for this, but I actually think that Riddle is a damn good Special Teams Coordinator. Unfortunately, I also believe that he's butt awful at handling kickers & punters. That's been his Achilles Heel.
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Really? Our coverage units were so awful last year it was ridiculous. Before last year it's not like they were good, but at least not that bad. The only bright spot I can think of with our special teams under Hawk has been the return units, which are ran by Hagan if I'm not mistaken?
 
AlferdJasper said:
Actually, I am still ticked about Aweida's lack of playing time. Seems that they didn't need to wait until the last second of the last game to let him kick. Don't forget, it wasn't just Aweida's first and only attempt, it was also backup snapper Austin Bisnow's ONLY appearance on the field in four years. Really too bad that neither got to make a play as a buff.
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I didn't know that was also going to be Bisnow's only appearance. I saw Aweida line up in formation for the PAT and didn't look at the snapper. I couldn't believe it when they pulled the PAT team off the field. I don't know the specifics of what was needed to cancel the play, but if it took the CU head coach to agree with the decision, that is unforgivable.
 
White_Rabbit said:
Really? Our coverage units were so awful last year it was ridiculous. Before last year it's not like they were good, but at least not that bad. The only bright spot I can think of with our special teams under Hawk has been the return units, which are ran by Hagan if I'm not mistaken?
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Kickoff coverage was among the best in the country.

Punt coverage was clearly due to short punts with little hang time.

Also, there's that fake FG versus Missouri last year that resulted in a touchdown. Riddle identified that fake as something to look for, he and others called out to watch for it when Mizzou lined up... and then our most reliable player (Chap Brown) missed the tackle and the MU guy ran for a touchdown. I blame Riddle for a lack of execution. Getting players to execute on ST is ultimately his job, but sometimes **** happens even though you did things right.

I don't believe we have a scheme problem.
 
Daaah said:
How is #27 among the best in the country?
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There are 120 teams. You don't think #27 is good enough to be called "among the best"? Semantics, then.

How's this:
We were damn good at it last year. Even with a rough start against CSU, we steadily improved throughout the year and finished in the top 25% of teams for our kickoff coverage. I believe that points to good coaching.
 
Mick Ronson said:
i'm not sure anyone plays the "all analysis" game with a 3 win team. Really.
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Even with an awful season, there can be things we did well as a team.

For example, our red zone defense was damn good last year. Big reason a lot of games had final scores as close as they were despite the feeling I had while watching that we were getting rolled.

Likewise, we did a nice job covering kickoffs.
 
Buffnik said:
Even with an awful season, there can be things we did well as a team.

For example, our red zone defense was damn good last year. Big reason a lot of games had final scores as close as they were despite the feeling I had while watching that we were getting rolled.

Likewise, we did a nice job covering kickoffs.
Click to expand...

we were also excellent at scoring points in garbage time.
 
Nik, I appreciate your arguments in this thread in defense of Riddle, but I think his coaching pretty much sucks. Watch the return units on a regular basis. There are serious gaps on those return teams. The punt return coverage was not totally due to ****ty punting, there were holes in the return team too.

I'm also inclined to believe we were "damn good" on kickoff coverage because we did not have to face many kickoff returns. Just sayin'.
 
Buffnik said:
Kickoff coverage was among the best in the country.

Punt coverage was clearly due to short punts with little hang time.

Also, there's that fake FG versus Missouri last year that resulted in a touchdown. Riddle identified that fake as something to look for, he and others called out to watch for it when Mizzou lined up... and then our most reliable player (Chap Brown) missed the tackle and the MU guy ran for a touchdown. I blame Riddle for a lack of execution. Getting players to execute on ST is ultimately his job, but sometimes **** happens even though you did things right.

I don't believe we have a scheme problem.
Click to expand...

Well if you want to blame our punter for our god awful punt coverage, can't we give Goodman credit for being a very good kickoff guy? I'll buy the argument that we'd have a bad return yard average against us with a bad punter, but there's no reason other teams should be scoring a punt return TD once a game.

We also got a punt blocked last year.
We missed an extra point.

I guess we can't blame Riddle for DiLallo and Goodman being bad at punting and field goals, but I mean at the end of the day he's the special teams coach and the special teams were awful. Someone has to be at fault for that imo.
 
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