that makes you think that you can stop Tedd Ginn come Sept. 10th? Breaston nearly beat ya'll by himself in the Rose Bowl and Ginn is the best return man in the country. Personally I think if ya'll don't stop him you will lose by two touchdowns.

Like it matters, they still have Black Jesus to lead them to victory....

We got a reeeeeeeeeeal fast kicker that can actually kick off out of the end zone.

So there's that.

Ginn's a badass though...no doubt.

As one of many in attendance in Pasedena 6 months ago screaming "just kick it out of bounds"...I sure hope something has changed.

Our trackstar kicker will make all of our tackles.

We have a new guy coaching special teams this year...thats a start

What is the highest your special teams has been ranked since Mack arrived?? It seems that your special teams has really struggled since he became coach. Sadly the Ags special teams have been poor under Coach Fran as well.

As part of our equal opportunity program, our special teams have been made up of special education students for the last few years. It's a wonder we haven't tried girls yet. Maybe we're trying to keep the games close so I can have a heart attack.

BTW, we really were terrible. How come y'all didn't take advantage of it?

Uva Uvum Vivendo Varia Fit

I'm not sure about the rankings.

They can't be very good, though.

Besides the obvious "4 blocked punt" game against NCST...we have seemed to always have trouble kicking the ball off deep and covering kickoffs and punts.

One year (2003?) it seemed that our punt team efffected no visible change of field position for the opponent what so ever.

There has seemed to be a reluctance on Mack's part to give a scholorship to a place kicker or punter...and when Mack has, the guy has either tranfered (that dude that went to TCU to be a receiver) or been somewhat disappointing (the punter that transfered from Vanderbilt).

Hopefully this track star guy with the cannon leg can change some of that.

We'll see.

Rollingwood - First, we have had field goal kickers who could kick extra points and most field goals. It's been a while since we could consistently kick off into the end zone, but everyone's having trouble with that now. Our return game has been unspectacular, but steady. Until the last two years we covered kickoffs well, but we graduated some special teams gunners that were missed. Overall, they have been pretty good since Mack arrived, but we had problems covering kickoffs for the past two years. Punting and punt coverage has been average to good.

Uva Uvum Vivendo Varia Fit

Dub,
As bad as ya'll were we were even worse!!! Our punting game was terrible last year!!!!! Hopefully with some new return men back there this year we will see a better return game. Special teams cost us the game versus OU and the blocked punt against ya'll, probably doesn't change the outcome, sure did not help out.

It seems to me the glaring problem of the Aggie special teams last year was your punters ridiculously slow setup and release.

I cant think of anything else on special teams that really stood out as as sub-par. You guys even ran that fake against OU, one of the best teams in the country, for ..what was it, a 50+ yard TD? That was sweet.

[This message has been edited by ProdigyDub (edited 7/5/2005 7:45p).]

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It seems to me the glaring problem of the Aggie special teams last year was your punters ridiculously slow setup and release.

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I agree.

Two misshandled kickoff returns in the OU game could be considered glaring weaknesses. That seemd to happen quite often.

I went to the Texas spring game and did not see anything to be too excited about in terms of coverage of kicks. The first kickoff got returned for a touchdown by Ramonce Taylor.

That may be the new tactic: run the other guy's kicks back. There is unbelievable speed showing up in Austin from the new recruits. The running back from Port Arthur (?) and that other hurdler from the Houston area are fast and the little kid from San Antonio is spectacular on returns.

remains to be seen if the coaches will let freshmen return kicks. Quan Crosby is also rumored to be somewhat swift.

I think we're going to employ the strategy of kicking it directly out of bounds, then let our defense stop the opponent. 65 yards is easier to defend than 45 yards.

huisache - I wouldn't worry about what you saw at the spring game. That makes at least 4 straight years the opening kickoff has been taken the distance. The coverage is mainly walkons in the spring game.

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It seems that your special teams has really struggled since he became coach.

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Man, that is putting it nicely. I can see special teams causing you to win or lose a game from time to time, but what we saw in the Rose Bowl was inexcusable. It looked like absolutely no adjustments were made whatsoever and we just kept doing the same dumb thing over and over again (similar to NCST or KSU a few years back). We were extremely lucky that Breston didn't take one back for a TD during the game.

As far as the OSU game, that seems to be the big key. I've been hearing about our big legged kickers for 4-5 years now and I'll believe it when I see it. I'd just as soon let them start from the 35 than have to worry about running down Ginn.

Our special teams play in the Rose Bowl was scary. Heck, you didn't even mention the muffed punt that basically turned momentum on us at a critical time in the game.

In answer to the original question.......

Hopefully a lot on kickoff coverage. That was the main special teams weakness last year. If not, we've got problems against Ohio St.

Peace out.

Tressel relies on the kicking game quite a bit, and he has a kicker who was just granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Josh Huston has been hitting 50-yarders with some regularity.

Hopefully, Texas can put this one away early. If this becomes a field position game, or comes down to a field goal battle...

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highwayman
posted 6:22p, 7/5/2005

We have a new guy coaching special teams this year...thats a start

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No matter how many times Patch uses that to describe t.u., I have to chuckle.....




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