Hale hit special teams today. Even after losing Harvin, we’re not at the bottom
Anyone who watched last season, especially the first few games, understands how dangerous our blocking was. I’d be stunned if Key wasn’t blowing a gasket over it. Special teams is one of our biggest needs coming back from last year. If you want a bad number, you can find one:
We didn’t block many kicks, or have many big plays on special teams. Knowing what I do about Collins, it’s got to be a point of emphasis, and I’m sure he’s pushing for a massive improvement this season. With kickoffs, kickoff returns, punts, and punt returns, we didn’t excel, even with the best punter in the country.
Seguira wrote up an article on Special Teams back in January:
https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-...ial-teams-in-2021/Z4DULBQ5SVE5LBFWY3R65AATHI/
We blocked no kicks or punts last season according to official NCAA stats. Our 6 kicks blocked lead the NCAA in the wrong direction (we were dead last).
We had 0 blocked punts allowed, in a season where we allowed more blocked kicks than anyone, and were allowing a lot of backfield havoc. Harvin was really a gem, and punted quickly.
Some of our basic special teams stats from last season:
| | Kick | | | | | | | Punt | | |
---|
Rk | Player | XPM | XPA | XP% | FGM | FGA | FG% | Pts | Punts | Yds | Avg |
1 | Jude Kelley | 4 | 5 | 80.0 | 1 | 5 | 20.0 | 7 | | | |
2 | Gavin Stewart | 22 | 24 | 91.7 | 2 | 3 | 66.7 | 28 | | | |
3 | Pressley Harvin III | | | | | | | | 45 | 2161 | 48.0 |
4 | Austin Kent | | | | | | | | 3 | 124 | 41.3 |
[thead] [/thead]
Provided by
CFB at Sports Reference:
View Original Table
Generated 7/20/2021.
| | Kick | | | | Punt | | | |
---|
Rk | Player | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD | Ret | Yds | Avg | TD |
1 | Dontae Smith | 10 | 176 | 17.6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 |
2 | Jahmyr Gibbs | 8 | 205 | 25.6 | 0 | | | | |
3 | Juanyeh Thomas | 3 | 22 | 7.3 | 0 | | | | |
4 | Marquez Ezzard | | | | | 7 | 55 | 7.9 | 0 |
5 | Nate McCollum | | | | | 5 | -1 | -0.2 | 0 |
6 | Josh Blancato | | | | | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 |
7 | Ahmarean Brown | | | | | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 |
[thead] [/thead]
Provided by
CFB at Sports Reference:
View Original Table
Generated 7/20/2021.