During this winter evaluation time, do you think HCSF will make any adjustments concerning special teams play? If so, what?
Special Teams
- Thread starter Native Nebraskan
- Start date
... and it’s too bad one of the best ST players this year is in the portal (Stalbird)
edit: he’s going to SDSU
edit: he’s going to SDSU
Special Teams absolutely needs to improve. It’s inexcusable to have poor play in that phase at this point.
The 2nd half of the season, the kick coverage team had the following walk-ons starting:
Luke Reimer
Eli Sullivan
Simon Otte
Reid Karel
Brody Belt
C. Ruth
J. Stalbird
J. Stovall
Was thinking the other day how much it could help to have a guys like Heinrich and Pola-Gates on that unit. Even better one of these new kickers is the real deal.
Yeah I’m drinking the recruiting kool-aid but I’m not kidding myself either on where the program has been on the field. Walk-ons weren’t the only problem on Special Teams. I specifically remember the play in the Iowa game that likely cost us a bowl when JD fielded a ball on a punt at the 2. We Never could flip the field in the 4th Q (until we got a late turnover).
JD let’s the ball go, AM isn’t taking snaps in the endzone, changes playing calling, changed the game completely. So don’t give me “the walk-ons” BS. We can go game by game on stupidity causing problems on special teams and most of it on coaching or scholarship guys. Mostly because the unit didn’t have fully functional coach. But I’d be a cold heartless bastard if I pointed that out.
and if anything we can say walk-ons saved them day on special teams. Could have been a bigger **** show then it was if it wasn’t for our walk-on program. For example, thought Waldoch did a great job kicking. Could really battle BP for the spot this spring
JD let’s the ball go, AM isn’t taking snaps in the endzone, changes playing calling, changed the game completely. So don’t give me “the walk-ons” BS. We can go game by game on stupidity causing problems on special teams and most of it on coaching or scholarship guys. Mostly because the unit didn’t have fully functional coach. But I’d be a cold heartless bastard if I pointed that out.
and if anything we can say walk-ons saved them day on special teams. Could have been a bigger **** show then it was if it wasn’t for our walk-on program. For example, thought Waldoch did a great job kicking. Could really battle BP for the spot this spring
Mulitiple times in two years Spielman has fielded punts he should’ve let go, and that’s some really basic stuff there.
You cherry-pick one play and say as a result it wasn’t because we have walk ons starting... was it Spielman who allowed the kickoff return for TDs against Wisconsin and Iowa?
If we stop Iowa from returning the kick for a TD, we may be bowling as well.
Come on... you know as well as anyone else, starting 8 walk ons on kick return isn’t ideal. I’m not saying coaching was good... but to pick this one play and say the reason ST was bad is not because of walk ons is a bad take, in my opinion.
Edit: I was just as frustrated as you, for the record, when Spielman fielded the punt. He didn’t do us any favors. But he’s not the reason we sucked. He’s just part of the reason.
They all played high school football still no excuse for them not staying in there lanes the basic rule on kickoffs. The Walkons fill a need, they were just undisciplined
Can we find a kicker who can put it in the back of the end zone? That will resolve the piss poor tackling on kick-off returns.
I think his point was the coaching for them has REALLY sucked it appears. We could have had eleven Ronnie Lotts lined up on kickoffs and they would be running the wrong direction and playing like a bunch of seventh graders. Better athletes on the field is great, but if they are still doing stuff like fielding punts in the shadow of the goal line it won't matter.
After rereading his post, You are probably right...
@spinner4, apologies... I took the time to look closer at what you said and I jumped to some mistaken conclusions. My bad, and I’m sorry.
I have defended Frost and his staff and I will continue to do so. But that doesn’t mean I think his staff is beyond criticism.
The coaching on special teams this year was atrocious. There isn’t any other way to put it.
The coaching on special teams this year was atrocious. There isn’t any other way to put it.
And like I said, I was giving an example. That’s no cherry picking. Just an example We can go game by game on where scholarship players and bad coaching hurt us on special teams. JDs play just really stick outs.
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This is a good example. JD made mistakes in the return game all season. He often fair caught when he should have run, and ran when he should have fair caught. I can’t accept that he was the only person we could have put back there. Good coaching would have replaced him.
We've had scholarship guys replace walkons on special teams before and they ended up looking just as bad if not worse than the guy they replaced. There's coaching issues, it's not just the players.
I've never thought of Spielman as a punt returner. Not sure what the staff sees of him in that role. We have several guys on the roster who returned punts in high school that could potentially be better than Spielman. It's not like he makes good decisions either so you can't use that excuse.
Simply put, special teams cost us couple games. I can’t remember which Coach is handling special teams but he needs replaced or someone else handling those duties and yes, we need better athletes on special teams too. All the above is correct. Not just one or the other...it’s both. We should see an improvement next season with redshirts being done with and coaching being changed or adjusted....plus adding a big legged kicker will help too. In the perfect world we get a kicker that constantly puts it into the back of the end zone. That will fix a lot.
That’s a blanket statement that could use some examples, please. Who are you referring to?
he probably means a few games where our true freshmen’s played in their 4 games. I don’t blame them for making some mistakes considering they didn’t play consistently and they are only true freshmen. Again, we need both better coaching and athletes on special teams. We need both.
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Special team coaching is a much bigger problem than personnel. Watch the film and see how poorly the kick off team for example stays in their lanes. You cannot tell me the staff cannot find players that are able to fulfill that standard. That is all coaching. Same with the punt team. Every aspect of special teams was poor the last two seasons. The talent level on the team is NOT THAT Bad that they could not even field players that can follow directions!
Absolutely. That first year they did have several scholarship players and even a couple starters on kick coverage teams and they were worse than they were this year. This year I think the coaching staff decided to go with more walk ons who could dedicate more time to special teams and the coverage units did get slightly better, but they're still pretty bad.
Sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine. Staying in lanes is not a rule for any kickoff team whatsoever once the ball is caught.
So in 2018 we didn’t give up any kickoff return TDs, and the opponents’ average return yards were slightly less than 2019... however, punting was a different story... our punt team gave up 2 return TDs in 2018, and none this season. Big difference in punt return yards as well.
Do we use the same players on punt and kickoff teams?
Like really, how difficult is it to line up on the 10, and if you step back during the punt, let it go... But I will agree that Spielman is just a piece of a much larger problem.
I was talking about both of them combined were worse in 2018. Some players were different, some are the same would be my guess.
Yes, that would help BOATLOADS. Also, if we could learn not to catch punts inside our 5 yd line.....oh boy, that too would help sooooooo much.
Which is why I asked... wasn’t necessarily directed at you, even though I quoted you... special teams were solid on punt returns this year, but our kickoff return coverage was atrocious. I know they are completely different things to defend, just curious who was on both special teams this year... not a big deal. We need to get better. Period.
Again, it’s coaching and talent on special teams. Sure, Frost could have burned some redshirts for special teams but how smart would that have been? I’m glad he didn’t burn any redshirts myself. We will be glad to have these guys an extra year when that time comes around. Just get it fixed for next year...GBR
Quinton Newsome lost his redshirt. But I agree, this year probably wasn’t the year to burn too many.
Luke Reimer (walkon) also burned his.
That’s a guy I’m looking forward to seeing develop along with Caden McCormack as walk-on LBs to push that position group as we welcome in an influx of scholarship talent.
but Q Newsome played quite a bit at CB as well. He wasn’t just a special teams guy which makes a big difference on burning redshirts
It wasn’t just the players. The decision to kick long that resulted in a return for a touchdown was just poor coaching.
The "special teams" **** show we have put on the field under Frost is really almost unimaginable. At one point I saw a stat put up that we were ranked 119th in return yards. Should we even mention field goals? There is nothing that tells me that 119th ranking will change. We need some real players on special teams, we need a coaching change there. Why do we have two LB coaches (and still have terrible LBs) and one of them splitting time as the special teams coach. I really want to see a shakeup here.
Good point about the field goals... do you realize we had 5 different people kicking field goals this year?
Very short-sighted of the coaches to not have 5 kickers on scholarship. I hope we go in that direction moving forward so we never have a problem kicking field goals again.