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Kicking game/Special Teams in 2014
whatshouldicareabout
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,939 
With most of the attention this spring on who's stepping in for the losses of Price, Sankey, ASJ, Kevin Smith (he was an absolute baller last year) and our secondary, not much has been made about losing Coons who was Mr. Reliable last year (15/16 on FGs, 62/63 on XPs). Besides this site which has mentioned him a handful of times, the only other talk on the kicking game was when Jood mentioned that Van Winkle looked healthy and impressive during some of the spring practice recaps. However, there's been virtually nothing on punting or kickoffs.
For all the attention that Coons received as a specialist, not much is made about his punting, despite the fact he was in the upper tier of the conference. In 2014, he had 62 punts, 40.4 yard average, 2 touchbacks, 22 fair catches and 23 were inside the 20. His kickoffs were fair, but only 8 of his 57 were TBs (versus 11 of 33 for Van Winkle). And as mentioned before, he was 15/16 on FGs which is the 2nd best season in UW history (behind Nelson in 82).
Our specialists for 2014 will be Van Winkle, Durkee, Vizcaino (incoming freshman) and Mitch Johnson (walk-on transfer from UCLA). If Van Winkle is healthy, he'll be doing FGs and KOs which should be alright, but he had a bit of an up-and-down spring. Punting, however, is a huge question mark, especially since Durkee was horrible as a true freshman (15 punts, 36.9 yard average, 2 TBs, 5 FC, 4 inside 20) and hasn't punted since September of 2012 (redshirted last year). Vizcaino is a combo kicker, like Coons, so he might be able to step in and punt right away if Durkee is still garbage. Johnson was the backup kicker and might pop in if Van Winkle gets injured again and if he's better than Vizcaino... which means we're doomed.
Does anyone else have any news or information regarding Van Winkle, Durkee and Johnson from this spring or anything on Vizcaino? Or any quotes from Peterman about special teams? And where the hell is kickercoach?
For all the attention that Coons received as a specialist, not much is made about his punting, despite the fact he was in the upper tier of the conference. In 2014, he had 62 punts, 40.4 yard average, 2 touchbacks, 22 fair catches and 23 were inside the 20. His kickoffs were fair, but only 8 of his 57 were TBs (versus 11 of 33 for Van Winkle). And as mentioned before, he was 15/16 on FGs which is the 2nd best season in UW history (behind Nelson in 82).
Our specialists for 2014 will be Van Winkle, Durkee, Vizcaino (incoming freshman) and Mitch Johnson (walk-on transfer from UCLA). If Van Winkle is healthy, he'll be doing FGs and KOs which should be alright, but he had a bit of an up-and-down spring. Punting, however, is a huge question mark, especially since Durkee was horrible as a true freshman (15 punts, 36.9 yard average, 2 TBs, 5 FC, 4 inside 20) and hasn't punted since September of 2012 (redshirted last year). Vizcaino is a combo kicker, like Coons, so he might be able to step in and punt right away if Durkee is still garbage. Johnson was the backup kicker and might pop in if Van Winkle gets injured again and if he's better than Vizcaino... which means we're doomed.
Does anyone else have any news or information regarding Van Winkle, Durkee and Johnson from this spring or anything on Vizcaino? Or any quotes from Peterman about special teams? And where the hell is kickercoach?
Comments
Punting could be a big problem.
Maybe with a strong D and Petersen's aggressive style, he won't punt as much. No idea, just speculating.
http://blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports/2014/04/08/quoting-chris-petersen-on-tim-socha-shaq-thompson-northwestern-and-lavon-coleman/
(On Cameron Van Winkle and Korey Durkee) “That’s probably the knock on all kickers if there’s a knock, is inconsistency. Most guys have decent enough legs and it’s all about consistency. It’s so similar to golf. It’s all great at the driving range, then you go out there with the pressure-whatever – chip, putt – it’s hard. I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys. I think Cameron’s coming along fine. I think surgery went very well. I think we’re being smart with him. He’s not in the groove he needs to be in, but he will get there. And I think Korey’s making progress as well. We’re kind of an unorthodox kicking team, so we’ll figure out however he can punt best. If that means kick grounders, kick it in the air, a combination of both, we’ll do all those things.”
(Unorthodox?) “Just keep watching us and you’ll see that. Or if you study any of our tape at Boise. We’re just kind of unorthodox in the kicking game in everything we do.”
In the grand scheme of things, we kicked about 1-2 FGs per game last year. I trust we can find someone to make extra points for us. And in all honesty, I view any FGs over 40 at Husky Stadium to be a 50/50 proposition anyway. Give me a kicker that can be accurate from 40 and in and I'll take my chances.
What I'm getting at though is that it does not appear that we have a Folk or Anderson on this roster. IF we don't, then the next priority is making sure that we have a kicker in place that is accurate and with an established range.
The bottom line in the kicking game is that you want a reliable kicker that you know will make the kick when asked at least 81% of the time.
I went back and looked at BSU's unorthodox kicking style and they do this lame sideways running rugby style kick that goes 20 yards and rolls on the ground. It's ugly but it matches Durkee's style well, or what little I remember from SDSU in 2012.
Hopefully Vizcaino can boot it 40 yards in the air since that'd be ideal, but it sounds like Petersen has dealt with bad kickers in the past, so maybe he'll figure out a way to make Durkee effective or maybe Vizcaino will find himself as starting KO and P for this year's team.