Special Teams

HominidHusker

Senior
Jun 25, 2018
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Needs to be better. We’ve been talking all off season about offense/defense, but let’s not forget phase 3 that can win/lose games.

I hope Isaac Armstrong is having a great off-season. Consistently flipping the field/pinning teams deep can go a long way.

Pickering should improve after already showing to be valuable.

My guess is everything else looks a lot better as we are gonna be faster and stronger.
 

John_J_Rambo

Senior
Feb 22, 2019
2,015
906
13
Needs to be better. We’ve been talking all off season about offense/defense, but let’s not forget phase 3 that can win/lose games.

I hope Isaac Armstrong is having a great off-season. Consistently flipping the field/pinning teams deep can go a long way.

Pickering should improve after already showing to be valuable.

My guess is everything else looks a lot better as we are gonna be faster and stronger.

special teams were the biggest disappointment of 2018 in my opinion. it's all about attitude, effort and discipline, which a team can directly impact no matter the overall talent level. we were horrible in that phase last season, and it's hard to point to talent or turnover as valid excuses.

in addition to the above, whoever returns punts needs to field them, whether with fair catch or not, in the air or on the bounce. wayyyyy way too many times last year a punt would land and bounce 15+ yards behind our returner, further burying the offense.
 
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Captain Nick

All-Conference
Jul 22, 2008
1,038
1,297
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I think we'll see considerable improvement this year. Everytime there's a regime change ST seem to be the last thing addressed in year one.

It would be nice not to see our return men getting consistently blown up though.
 

HuskerLLM

All-Conference
Aug 1, 2004
45,801
1,671
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Still think we need to move forward into the past and put back two punt returners. With more and more teams going to rugby punts and the ball taking weird rolls this limits the open field.
 
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Cornicator

Hall of Famer
Feb 27, 2009
58,313
202,927
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Special Teams was a comedy of errors at times. The coverage units were especially atrocious. I think the first four times Nebraska returned a kick last season, there was a blocking penalty on the play. You really put your team in hole when your opponent is starting drives on the 35 and you're backed up inside your own 20.

The punt coverage unit looked like it had never practiced ever for the first few weeks. And Caleb Lightbourn was a ******** clusterfvck.

I thought Special Teams Coaching was really bad for a few weeks. Frost brought in a consultant and it did improve as the season went on.
 

Headcard

Heisman
Feb 2, 2005
192,509
20,878
113
Special teams were a train wreck early in the season, but they eventually got better. It took the staff a while but by the end of the year they found a punter, kickoff guy, kick returner and punt returner. Not to mention the improvement from our kicker. I think special teams will be very good this year.
 
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HominidHusker

Senior
Jun 25, 2018
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With so many speedsters added to the roster, you’d think we’d be able to take a few kicks/punts to the house.
 

Cidsports

All-American
Iowa Swarm member
Nov 8, 2001
45,053
9,851
113
special teams were the biggest disappointment of 2018 in my opinion. it's all about attitude, effort and discipline, which a team can directly impact no matter the overall talent level. we were horrible in that phase last season, and it's hard to point to talent or turnover as valid excuses.

in addition to the above, whoever returns punts needs to field them, whether with fair catch or not, in the air or on the bounce. wayyyyy way too many times last year a punt would land and bounce 15+ yards behind our returner, further burying the offense.

It was huge in 2014 in the Black Friday game.
 

oldjar07

All-Conference
Oct 25, 2009
9,472
2,013
113
Special Teams was a comedy of errors at times. The coverage units were especially atrocious. I think the first four times Nebraska returned a kick last season, there was a blocking penalty on the play. You really put your team in hole when your opponent is starting drives on the 35 and you're backed up inside your own 20.

The punt coverage unit looked like it had never practiced ever for the first few weeks. And Caleb Lightbourn was a ******** clusterfvck.

I thought Special Teams Coaching was really bad for a few weeks. Frost brought in a consultant and it did improve as the season went on.
Special teams reflected our whole team last year. Slow, stupid mistakes, and little effort given.