tcumaniac
Full Member
To me, one of the most frustrating things about our team all season is how often we choose to return vs taking the guaranteed start at the 25 yard line.
Gary's mindset is clearly that the upside of a big return is worth the risk of not getting it to the 25, which I would agree with in theory (especially with the explosive and fast players we have), but in application it has been absolutely atrocious.
We rank 125th (nearly dead last) in kickoff return average at 15.26 yards per return. If our returner isn't getting stuffed before the 25 yard line, it almost seems inevitable that the return gets called back for holding or blocking in the back.
Not to mention, there's the added risk of injury or turning the ball over. Darius Anderson missed the entire opening drive against Iowa State due to a cut he suffered on the game's first return. And without a massive stop by the defense and an improbable missed field goal by UT's kicker, Reagor's fumble on Saturday could have cost us the game.
I can't find a statistic to defend this (would love if someone can find anything), but I would have to guess when we've returned the kickoff this year, we get the ball past the 25 yard line less than 15% of the time. It just feels like it very rarely happens.
I'm not sure why our returns have been so bad this year (maybe it's because we don't have an actual special teams coach), but we're simply not very good at them. In past years you at least got the feeling that we were one block or missed tackle away from busting out with a big return, but this year it seems like we are getting stuffed almost every time.
At this point we just need to accept that we're not good at returning, eliminate the risk, and just take the ball at the 25 yard line every time.
Gary's mindset is clearly that the upside of a big return is worth the risk of not getting it to the 25, which I would agree with in theory (especially with the explosive and fast players we have), but in application it has been absolutely atrocious.
We rank 125th (nearly dead last) in kickoff return average at 15.26 yards per return. If our returner isn't getting stuffed before the 25 yard line, it almost seems inevitable that the return gets called back for holding or blocking in the back.
Not to mention, there's the added risk of injury or turning the ball over. Darius Anderson missed the entire opening drive against Iowa State due to a cut he suffered on the game's first return. And without a massive stop by the defense and an improbable missed field goal by UT's kicker, Reagor's fumble on Saturday could have cost us the game.
I can't find a statistic to defend this (would love if someone can find anything), but I would have to guess when we've returned the kickoff this year, we get the ball past the 25 yard line less than 15% of the time. It just feels like it very rarely happens.
I'm not sure why our returns have been so bad this year (maybe it's because we don't have an actual special teams coach), but we're simply not very good at them. In past years you at least got the feeling that we were one block or missed tackle away from busting out with a big return, but this year it seems like we are getting stuffed almost every time.
At this point we just need to accept that we're not good at returning, eliminate the risk, and just take the ball at the 25 yard line every time.