We've been accustomed to having good, if not exceptional, punters and kickers in the recent past. That tells me that there is not a systemic barrier to having good kick and punt specialists at GT. We can point to valid reasons why we've struggled to recruit good players at some positions, but this is not one of them.
5 feet? That's a massive step. How tall is your punter, 8'6"?
The ball should be kicked at the 12-13 yard point..... that extra stride puts it at 10.5-11. That's the difference in an adrenaline pumped 19 or 20 YO, 6 ft tall, getting the kick off or not.
Maybe we can get DJ U from Clemson to transfer in to do this.
I have seen the play. The returner caught the ball at his own 19, passed the first Tech player at his 28, and ran down the sideline to the endzone past our other 10 guys while they whiffed, tripped over themselves, and stopped trying to catch him.
Certainly, the runbacks are not totally on the punter as there were multiple flaws in the coverage. However, there is the issue of "outkicking the coverage". On the runback for the TD, their returner caught the ball when no Tech cover guys were within 5 yards. Nice to get a good running start.
Both things are true. Punt with no hang time, bad coverage. I hope we get a new ST coach, so Semore can concentrate on the linebackers.
I hope you are not suggesting that we need data or experience to ponticate and bloviate here are you?? If so, my jolly good fellow, you may as well suggest that we close up shop here.
The first step is the extra step, and there is no way it's 5ft on a 6ft tall punter. I'm 6'5 and the farthest I can reasonably stretch my feet apart forwards and backwards is 4' toe to toe, and that is really stretching, not any sort of normal step. The punter would have to literally leap forward on the first step to go 5'.
How is the "first step" the "extra step"? If I take 3 steps while accelerating, my "last step" is going to be longer than my "first step".The first step is the extra step, and there is no way it's 5ft on a 6ft tall punter. I'm 6'5 and the farthest I can reasonably stretch my feet apart forwards and backwards is 4' toe to toe, and that is really stretching, not any sort of normal step. The punter would have to literally leap forward on the first step to go 5'.
I was a punter and place kicker from the time I started playing in 4th grade through high school.
I went back and watched the UCF blocked punt on the game highlights on youtube. It's cut off at the beginning, but looks like it starts as the ball hits shanahan's hands. He takes two steps and it gets blocked, and the first step is less than a yard.
I watched the 1st Clemson blocked punt, he takes 3 steps (4 if you count his jump at the beginning) and the first looks to be a yard. 2nd Clemson blocked punt as well, he takes 4 steps in that one and none are more than a yard except the plant step to kick the ball.
That's my point though, its pretty unfair to say the punter gave up a TD when there were 10 other guys who didn't do their jobs. Could he have done better, absolutely, but the ball was in front of every single one of them and they let it get past them.
I'm left footed, so my plant step is always with my right foot. That step always happens. If it's a 2 step punt, I am stepping first with my left, then with my right and punting. If it's a 3 step punt, I am stepping first with my right, then left, the right again and punting. The first step on the 3 step punt is the extra step, the other two still have to be the same as on a 2 step punt. It's part of the muscle memory of punting the ball, you can't suddenly take a huge step at the end that isn't routine, you'll screw the kick up.
I thought there were a lot of inconsistent trajectories on punts. Some were almost line drives which got down field too fast for coverage and some were boomed that out kicked the coverage. He may have begun to worry about blocks after the first couple of games and just wanted to get the punts off.
Agree that you can't put it all on the punter. But you said "That is not on the punter.", implying that he was blameless in the result. I simply was pointing out that his insufficient hang time was likely a contributing factor. I may have misunderstood your statement.
Lots of time in the film room, plus about 100-150 punts 3 times a week at practice. Yes, I was the deepsnapper for GT from 1969-1971. Coached Freshman Cs & Gs plus Special Teams.The first step is the extra step, and there is no way it's 5ft on a 6ft tall punter. I'm 6'5 and the farthest I can reasonably stretch my feet apart forwards and backwards is 4' toe to toe, and that is really stretching, not any sort of normal step. The punter would have to literally leap forward on the first step to go 5'.
I was a punter and place kicker from the time I started playing in 4th grade through high school.
I went back and watched the UCF blocked punt on the game highlights on youtube. It's cut off at the beginning, but looks like it starts as the ball hits shanahan's hands. He takes two steps and it gets blocked, and the first step is less than a yard.
I watched the 1st Clemson blocked punt, he takes 3 steps (4 if you count his jump at the beginning) and the first looks to be a yard. 2nd Clemson blocked punt as well, he takes 4 steps in that one and none are more than a yard except the plant step to kick the ball.
Btw, based on your name I'm assuming you were the center on the field for those 200+ snaps. I don't recall ever seeing a center snap the ball and then turn around to watch the punter kick, but maybe they did things different back in your day.
I see your point and concur that the first step would tend to cover the same distance regardless of how many steps a punter takes. However, when accelerating you would tend to cover more distance with each subsequent step. For example, first step 2.5 feet, next 3.5 feet, next 5 feet, and so on. It's plausible that the last step in a three-step sequence covers an additional 6 feet that would not be present in a two-step kick.
Fair enough, I probably worded that poorly. I was reacting initially to the comment saying he gave up the TD, which imo unfairly puts all the blame on him as if the punt being in the air .5 seconds longer would have magically made everyone else not bad at open field tackling. The whole unit was to blame.
He looked like he was rushing a lot of those punts to me.
Understandable, given that he was likely told to "speed it up". Hard to differentiate between issues that were the result of poor blocking and those that were strictly the fault of the punter.