Little things that could mean a lot

[cmhatter]

Kickoff coverage ...  the hit is from Joel Miller (not on the 2-deep), but you can see #2 Quentin Washington, #9 Ricardo Dixon,#16 Mistral Raymond, #22 George Baker, & #57 Jaquain Williams...

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and at the time this game was played none of those players were starters cept maybe Q

the vast majority of the special teamers were not contributors on offense or defense.

[Guest]

the vast majority of the special teamers were not contributors on offense or defense.

I don't know what the terms "VAST MAJORITY" or "CONTRIBUTOR" means to you, but it's clear from the videos I posted that many of our defensive starters played on special teams - especially punt return and punt coverage... which tells me that more than half of all special teamers were first or second stringers on offense or defense. And to me first and second stringers contribute on both sides of the ball.

[Who'sYourData?]

and at the time this game was played none of those players were starters cept maybe Q

They were all in the two deep, which was the original statement.

[cmhatter]

ill concede defeat in that some backups (2nd string) were on the ST units

however i will remain solid that 1st string players typically do NOT play ST... i know that there were cases when CJL would get upset with ST performance and replace guys on their units with starters for a play or two.

occasionally we would see a few starters on ST but as the game progressed they would all be taken off ST and replaced with the guys who normally play there... if you have any game replays and you are looking for this type of thing, you will notice it.

i pay very close attention to ST over the passed few years as i have a few buddies who are not starters but regularly play ST positions.

[Stier]

I think this really goes to show that if our best players were playing, and we were that bad, it had to be how we prepared ... which is all about coaching (or lack thereof).

We have a winner!!!

[luv2tri]

JL never hired a special teams coach. He was the special teams coach. That has hurt the program for years. Every time we had our special teams on the field, I held my breath. Hopefully times will change.

[LunchTimeBully]

Bottom line, the special teams was pathetic last year.

[SANJAY]

JL never hired a special teams coach. He was the special teams coach. That has hurt the program for years. Every time we had our special teams on the field, I held my breath. Hopefully times will change.

Coach Hendricks was the special teams coordinator all last year and most of 2008.  As far as I can tell the special teams kept getting worse.

[Guest Scherdin]

And it just wasn't the returning, our kick offs were horrible!  Our kickers could never get it to the end zone, so the other team was usually at the 30-35 yd line to start, making the D have to work even harder.

[IHuckItDeep]

It's all about the blocking.

or Leavitt's unwillingness to put anyone north of the 2-deep on the special teams unit.

this was the most frustrating part of our team last year (lack of field position and giving up way too much field position)  that pretty much cost us the UConn game.

What are you talking about?

Dontavia Bogan was on the 2-deep and was our primary kickoff returner... many of our two-deep were on the special teams as blockers and a lot of our fast defenders were on kick coverage teams.

In fact, I would say of the 44 positions on the four kick and kick coverage teams, 30-35 of them were filled by people on the offense or defense 2-deep.

disagree with that