Special Teams

[Merkin]

UA is 128 out of 129 in net punting.

http://stats.ncaa.org/teams/113529" target="_blank

Could be worse

[SCCats]

You mean hold the guy actually kicking the ball accountable like RR did? I believe he tried 3 different guys

But this argument is silly since you had our record at 4-7 about this point before the season right?

Two things there.

It's RR job to find the talent all over the field. The fact he hasn't (on special teams, elsewhere) is on him. That's it. There's nothing more to be said. Anything else is desultory bullshit.

Point two. Our appropriate record with Dawkins at the helm would have been probably 4-8 (2-1, 2-7) or 5-7 (2-1, 3-6) with I would guess an 80% or better probability.

But our coach misevaluated that one too; a trend, one might say. That is, his ability to misevauluate.

Bump on point 2.

Dawkins still sucks.

[Merkin]

[SCCats]

[Merkin]

[chiefzona]

That’s a lie. I know Ryan very well and he was never coming to Arizona. Ever.

[ChooChooCat]

That’s a lie. I know Ryan very well and he was never coming to Arizona. Ever.

He just loved the breweries in Fort Collins so much he would've said no to Arizona even if offered a full ride?

[chiefzona]

That’s a lie. I know Ryan very well and he was never coming to Arizona. Ever.

He just loved the breweries in Fort Collins so much he would've said no to Arizona even if offered a full ride?

He knew about the rodeo punt. There’s no such thing as a partial. This is bullshit that people pay for. Embarrassing.

[ChooChooCat]

That’s a lie. I know Ryan very well and he was never coming to Arizona. Ever.

He just loved the breweries in Fort Collins so much he would've said no to Arizona even if offered a full ride?

He knew about the rodeo punt. There’s no such thing as a partial. This is bullshit that people pay for. Embarrassing.

I thought by partial he meant preferred walk on who would get a scholarship junior/senior year type deal. Either way you're right this isn't college baseball.

[ASUHATER!]

Scheer isn't perfect but I'd believe him 100 times out of 100 over chief.

[chiefzona]

Scheer isn't perfect but I'd believe him 100 times out of 100 over chief.

Of course. He’s the expert that gets paid to talk up Arizona football and basketball. He’s always dead on.....

[Irish27]

[3goggles]

Maybe we don't win if this horrible call is not maybe but I would def take my chances knowing it would put us in the lead. We went from a touchdown to having the ball on our own 8 yard line! The game was over at that point. Poor officiating played a major roll in this game tonight. I think about this game and the game where Matt Scott gifts ASSU the games. RR should be 4-2 and wristbands!!! We had them on the hook and we let them off the hook.

[3goggles]

Do we know if RR was asked about this call after the game?

[EastCoastCat]

Do we know if RR was asked about this call after the game?

Yes, he said it wasn't a block in the back when he saw it live and on replay.

[Merkin]

[Postmaster]

Ask OK,
that sweet kickoff oat end of first led to 24 straight points for GA

[Sid]

We had our kicker/punter all locked up. Great grades, played in the Trinity league, mom was pumped on Arizona, stellar kid in general from what my best friend told me. Absolute cannon of a leg that gave O-Lutheran fantastic field position every time his number was called. Kid made some monster field goals as well. I’m sure snubbing a well liked kid on one of the better teams in the Trinity league left a wonderful impression on the head coach of O-Lutheran as well. Recruiting 101, don’t piss off high school coaches that you might want to recruit from.

Amazing.....

[Merkin]

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/football/ ... we-learned" target="_blank

The punting has become bad again; the kicking remains bad

Graduate transfer Dylan Klumph was supposed to be a savior for Arizona in the punting game, an experienced leg who came from California with a strong pedigree of accuracy and distance. We saw what he was capable of in the first four games, averaging 44.7 yards on his first 12 kicks.

But Saturday saw Klumph’s worst game as a Wildcat, his 38.0 reminiscent of the kind of punting Arizona had last year when it was last in the nation.

Klumph’s first kick was his longest, but not in a good way. It went 50 yards but sailed into the end zone from midfield, and his next punt was shanked for just 22 yards. Only four of his nine punts went for more than 40 yards and just three were fielded inside USC’s 20-yard line.

The field position game didn’t matter in this one. The same can’t be said about the kicking game, with Lucas Havrisik having another disastrous night...and on his birthday no less.

Havrisik had a 38-yard field goal just before halftime get partially blocked, his fifth miss in nine tries and third straight that wasn’t true. Then he shanked an extra point on Arizona’s final TD, which would have impacted what the Wildcats did had they recovered the ensuing onside kick.

[PieceOfMeat]

It was Havrisik's birthday yesterday?

Ouch.

[azcat49]

For some of us who had the cats +3.5 it was especially frustrating

[ChooChooCat]

Havrisik was much better last year. I'm honestly not sure if it's the coach or what the deal is.

[Merkin]

Reminds me of special teams under Hammerschmidt. He took this fantastic punter (Crier) who showed real NFL potential as a freshman, and made him worse every year. Hammer wanted Crier to get rid of the ball much quicker, which was odd since Crier never had a single punt blocked.

Don't remember who the ST coordinator was when Zendejas was the place kicker but it was just a secondary role to the coach since he was also a position coach too. Due to NCAA limits on coaching staffs, few teams have just a ST position coach.

[FlyonWall]

He just needs to have more consistent form. Instead, he is trying too hard to show his long ball as a differentiator and is changing his form from short to long kicks. The long FG however is icing, not the cake. But because all the fans get so excited seeing a long FG, mistaking it for the main job requirement of being consistent inside of 40-45, my opinion is that he was encouraged to concentrate mostly on kicking long. You see it in his social media posting of long practice kicks, and you see it during pre-game and halftime warmups where he sits out at the 50 yard line and mostly takes 60 yard FG kicks. The form on a short and a long should remain the same, but focusing on the extreme of his range to impress the fans (and ST coaches) who truly don't know squat about kicking fundamentals, yet think they do, is what has caused him to change his form and become less consistent. So thank yourselves for messing up a decent kicker. Another year behind the veteran would have avoided this, but everyone thought they knew better, and now his confidence is trashed and next year is a question. Springer, who only had grad assistant experience prior to this, thought he could avoid the cake and just have icing by his unexplained decision to only have one guy do short and long kicks, avoiding using both players for their strengths. Why?

[Merkin]

^ it really bugs me to see the PK trying those 60-70 yard FGs off a tee in practice.

That is not how you kick during a game since you have 19 6' guys in front of you to kick over. Zendejas gave his own teammate a concussion since he couldn't kick over him.

Changes the trajectory completely.

[FlyonWall]

It isn't the kicking off the tee that is offensive. That is necessary to practice because team FG drills are few and far between. What is problematic is evaluating kicker skills based on those results, because as you aptly point out, there is a huge difference between an unhurried kick off the tee and a kick with a snap, hold, and rush.

[Merkin]

[PieceOfMeat]

woah, we're neck and neck with Bama!?

keep doin what we're doin then!!

[Merkin]

I wonder how many times Bama punted?

[azgreg]

I wonder how many times Bama punted?

27 times.

https://rolltide.com/sports/football/stats#individual" target="_blank

[pc in NM]

I wonder how many times Bama punted?

27 times.

https://rolltide.com/sports/football/stats#individual" target="_blank

... and most of those, probably from near misfield.

[prh]

I wonder how many times Bama punted?

27 times.

https://rolltide.com/sports/football/stats#individual" target="_blank

1 touchback, 6 inside-20, only 7 fair catches. That is terrible

[azgreg]

Didn't we have 27 punts in one game for a total of 115 yards?

[OSUCat]

So, Arizona hasn’t let go or removed special team duties from the existing special teams “coach.”