Special Teams - Just How Bad?

[Bullshiznitz]

I've seen alot trying to blame one play here or there (Giddens penalty, BJ fumble), but if you look at the overall defense and offense, we outgained WVU 397-364 and won the turnover battle 3-2. You should win those games with numbers like that. The defense and offense played well enough to win. While I know its been a slight broken record this year wth special teams, but last night was atrocious. Just how bad was it?

24 yd punt

21 yd punt

Punt blocked inside own 10 yd line - results in WVU field goal (only 3pts given up thanks to the defense)

Kickoff out of bounds to open the second half

90 yd KO return for a TD allowed

Delay of game penalty on an extra point because the right personnel weren't on the field

Substitution penalty on WVU's last field goal because (again) the right personnel weren't on the field

Avg net punting yards of 29

This wasn't just bad in my mind, this is "someone needs to be fired" bad. The special teams spotted them 10 points, and made WVU's last second field goal go from likely to very likely with a stupid penalty. Its bad enough if its just players not executing properly, but the penalties also show a complete lack of organization with the special teams. That boils down to coaching. And as we all unfortunately now, this wasn't just a one time thing this year, we've made multiple critical errors on special teams throughout the year. I think you can easily single out the Rutgers and WVU games as games we outplayed our opponents but special teams handed them the win. Sometype of change needs to happen here for next year.

[GaUSFBull]

Complete meltdown in every facet of that section of the team. Crazy how all that happened and we only lost by 3, but that's probably because we outgained and didn't turn them over as much. Defense stepped up (mostly) when they needed to last night.

Agreed that some action needs to be taken in the offseason.

[BleacherBull]

We got rid of our last special teams coach (CJL). Why not get rid of the current one? I know special teams are more than just kickers, but maybe we need someone from the outside to come in, make some unbiased assessments, look at the way they train, get rid of marginal performers, bring in some better talent, etc. GB!!

[MaltLiquorBull]

I've seen alot trying to blame one play here or there (Giddens penalty, BJ fumble), but if you look at the overall defense and offense, we outgained WVU 397-364 and won the turnover battle 3-2. You should win those games with numbers like that. The defense and offense played well enough to win. While I know its been a slight broken record this year wth special teams, but last night was atrocious. Just how bad was it?

24 yd punt

21 yd punt

Punt blocked inside own 10 yd line - results in WVU field goal (only 3pts given up thanks to the defense)

Kickoff out of bounds to open the second half

90 yd KO return for a TD allowed

Delay of game penalty on an extra point because the right personnel weren't on the field

Substitution penalty on WVU's last field goal because (again) the right personnel weren't on the field

Avg net punting yards of 29

This wasn't just bad in my mind, this is "someone needs to be fired" bad. The special teams spotted them 10 points, and made WVU's last second field goal go from likely to very likely with a stupid penalty. Its bad enough if its just players not executing properly, but the penalties also show a complete lack of organization with the special teams. That boils down to coaching. And as we all unfortunately now, this wasn't just a one time thing this year, we've made multiple critical errors on special teams throughout the year. I think you can easily single out the Rutgers and WVU games as games we outplayed our opponents but special teams handed them the win. Sometype of change needs to happen here for next year.

100% agree. Special teams has basically "spotted" the opponent free points in several games...and those points have made the difference in the game. This is the first and most obvious thing that needs to be addressed. You could say special teams is responsible for 3 of our losses. 8-4 is much better than 5-7.

[USFBULL18]

Lets get rid of special teams! it only hurts players anyways