I know this is a small part of the picture, but since it is small it should be one of the easiest things to fix. I have two primary gripes: 1) Whatever happened to our ability to block or nearly block our opponent's punts with some regularity? 2) Why can't we at least catch the majority of the balls punted to us?
It seems that whoever drops back to receive punts is under explicit instructions to do whatever it takes to 'not fumble' the kick. In other words, unless you're sure the punter has outkicked his coverage by at least 20 yards stay the hell away from the ball. I understand not wanting to turn the ball over, but I am so tired of watching the other team get off a 35-40 yard punt and then watch it roll another 20 yards with of course no return.
With 85 Division I scholarship athletes and a number of other capable walk-ons why can't we find one guy who can at least get under 90% of these punts and at least catch them. I don't care if he fair catches every last one of them, at least we won't be giving up countless field position yards by just letting them bounce and roll closer to our goal line.
So far this year our opponents have punted 34 times and we've returned a whopping 7 of them for an even more whopping 34 yards. The returner is protected completely if he wishes to fair catch the punt so there's no reason to not field every last one of them unless they're shanked or crushed completely over the player's head.
Let's get back to making the other team afraid of a block when they drop back into punt formation and save needless yards by being a little more assertive on our receiving end. We don't need new players to pull these two things off.
It seems that whoever drops back to receive punts is under explicit instructions to do whatever it takes to 'not fumble' the kick. In other words, unless you're sure the punter has outkicked his coverage by at least 20 yards stay the hell away from the ball. I understand not wanting to turn the ball over, but I am so tired of watching the other team get off a 35-40 yard punt and then watch it roll another 20 yards with of course no return.
With 85 Division I scholarship athletes and a number of other capable walk-ons why can't we find one guy who can at least get under 90% of these punts and at least catch them. I don't care if he fair catches every last one of them, at least we won't be giving up countless field position yards by just letting them bounce and roll closer to our goal line.
So far this year our opponents have punted 34 times and we've returned a whopping 7 of them for an even more whopping 34 yards. The returner is protected completely if he wishes to fair catch the punt so there's no reason to not field every last one of them unless they're shanked or crushed completely over the player's head.
Let's get back to making the other team afraid of a block when they drop back into punt formation and save needless yards by being a little more assertive on our receiving end. We don't need new players to pull these two things off.
