Fixing the Dawgs’ ‘scary’ special teams
If Blair Walsh was rushing his kicks, why didn't anyone on the coaching staff notice it? (Associated Press)
Along with the lack of experienced depth in the secondary and the rebuilding project on the offensive line, the aspect of Mark Richt’s Bulldogs causing the most offseason apprehension among fans is special teams, where Georgia will be starting brand-new kickers and trying to turn around last year’s dismal performance.
Plus, doing all of that without the benefit of a special teams coach or coordinator, as Richt stubbornly sticks to the Bobby Bowden model of going without one.
That’s a decision that many have questioned, and the topic came up again over the weekend thanks to a report out of Minnesota, where the Vikings are betting they can fix what was wrong with placekicker Blair Walsh during his disappointing senior season at UGA.
The Vikes’ special teams coordinator, Mike Priefer, told 1500espn.com that after working with Walsh and studying film of last season, he’s figured out how the ex-Bulldog went from one of the nation’s most reliable PKs to making only 21 of 35 field goal attempts.
“He was rushing every kick,” Priefer said. “Every kick he missed, he hit them well, but he was much too fast with his get off time. I don’t know if that was what he was coached to do, maybe that’s what he wanted to do.”
That last bit sounds somewhat like an indictment of Georgia’s special teams coaching … or, more accurately, lack of special teams coaching.
Whether Priefer has nailed it remains to be seen — and there’s still the suspicion that most of Walsh’s problem last season was between his ears — but there’s no doubt Richt’s staff was clueless about how to help their placekicker get back on track, basically leaving it up to the kid to fix himself.
Hopefully, incoming freshman placekicker Marshall Morgan and punter Collin Barber won’t arrive in Athens with any hitches in their mechanics that need diagnosing, because it appears Richt’s staff wouldn’t be able to help them much.
Of course, they weren’t much better at improving any other aspect of special teams play last season, which Richt himself summed up rather generously as “mostly average to scary.”
More scary than average, as the numbers show: Georgia ranked 116th out of 120 teams last year in punt return defense and merely 88th in kickoff return defense, allowing two kickoffs to be returned for touchdowns and another long return by Florida that set up a field goal.
It's off to the races for the Honey Badger against Georgia. (Associated Press)
At least it’s good to know that John Lilly, the assistant coach who oversees Georgia’s punt coverage unit, is still haunted by his team’s performance against LSU in the SEC championship game, where Tyrann Mathieu returned one punt 62 yards for a touchdown and another punt 42 yards to set up a score as the Dawgs quickly lost control of the game in the second half.
“You think about that game every day and what happened there,” Lilly recently told the Athens Banner Herald.
Lilly recognizes that coaching is a big part of special teams play: “We’ve got to do a great job of coaching it,” he told the ABH. “We’ve got to give them a great plan and scheme that fits our personnel and then we’ve got to get the right guys on there and then motivate them. Then, at the moment of truth, we’ve got to make the plays when they’re there to be made.”
He reiterated what Richt has indicated several times, that it’s “all hands on deck,” as the head coach put it, and that starters and other high-profile players need to take the place of the many walk-ons that have populated Georgia’s coverage teams in recent years.
Said Lilly: “You’ve got to put guys in the right place and I do think from a personnel standpoint, I think you’re going to see guys across classes. You’ll see everything from a true freshman to seniors out there. You’ll see everything from a high-draft pick to a guy that might be one in two or three years but hadn’t done it yet. We’ve got to do — I’ve got to do — a great job of motivating them and getting it done. The punter’s got to do a great job of putting the ball where we want it and how we want it there, and I think we’ll be very good again.”
Richt, at least, is talking the talk about special teams … finally. As he put it a few months ago, “If we’ve got to put a bunch of starters on defense on some specials or starters at wide receiver or whatever you’ve got to do — tailback, I don’t care what position. We’ve got to get the best guys out there and understand how crucial it is.”
And he said after spring practice that Georgia most likely will have more live kicking reps in fall practice than in the past because of breaking in a new punter and placekicker. “They need to be under pressure as much as possible and it’s hard to create that pressure unless you’re doing some live situations. But we also just need to see for our own eyes can a guy make a tackle out in the open. Drills are great, but when it gets down to it, you have to have that sensation of being able to corral a guy out there when you’re covering a punt or covering a kick. You need to have your punts rushed full speed to make sure there’s no problems.”
But as David Ching of ESPN’s Dawg Nation noted, “Georgia’s unsightly return defense average doesn’t even include other disasters for the punt team. South Carolina defensive lineman Melvin Ingram rumbled 68 yards for a touchdown on a fake punt, providing points that made a huge difference in the Gamecocks’ 45-42 win. And Vanderbilt nearly pulled off a massive upset a few weeks later when the Commodores blocked a Drew Butler punt in the closing seconds, with Butler’s touchdown-saving tackle being all that preserved the Bulldogs’ 33-28 win.”
Spending more time in practice on live kicks and getting more starters out on the field for kick coverage definitely sounds like a good idea, but beyond that I’d like to see a heightened sense of awareness on the part of both the players and the coaching staff. Last year Georgia was a sucker for a fake punt (not for the first time under Richt). And against LSU you watched the Dawgs punt with a true sense of foreboding because they didn’t seem to know how to counter the Tigers’ return game.
I’d like to see some variation in how the Dawgs approach punting — for instance, on occasion using the rugby kicks that so many teams used to good advantage against us last year. They’re tough to return, and in the SEC championship game, it certainly would have made more sense to kick those, or at the very least squibbers that are hard to pick up, to try and keep the Honey Badger from breaking a long return. Instead, we kicked it right to him and depended on our obviously suspect coverage.
In order for the Dawgs to have a chance of living up to the high preseason expectations that have been placed on this team, there’s going to have to be a major turnaround on special teams. Yes, on-field execution is a key, and that’s on the players up to a point. But coaching is a big part of college football, and the approach taken with Walsh and the punting game last year certainly isn’t going to get it done.
Got something you want to discuss concerning UGA athletics or a question for the Junkyard Blawg? Send it to junkyardblawg@gmail.com.
Find me on Facebook.
Follow me on Twitter.
— Bill King, Junkyard Blawg
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
337 comments Add your comment
SEC Fact Finder
June 27th, 2012
1:37 pm
SEC Fact Finder
June 27th, 2012
1:26 pm
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
8:41 am
Thanks truth detector. Nice that somebody tried to answer that. But no offence, that really didnt answer my question and you went in a different direction. I get that you say the “perception” of Saban’s ST is the difference, (and as far as fans go that would be true probably), but if you look at the actual effectiveness, he has not been any more so that Richt’s team in the past 5 years on the whole.
I do think that putting “starters” on the coverage teams is a factor. However, Georgia has had plenty of starters out there too, and I doubt that every single player on Bama’s punt coverage team is one of the “starting” 22 player on his rosters. The term “regular players” is probabaly more accurate. Such as a 2nd string LB, or a 3rd string WR as the gunner. We do that as well.but I do beleive its a matter of numbers. Bama HAS more depth, so therefore……I’d bet we up the % of regular players on those squads going forward.
A-Dawg, I have removed myself from posting the last 6 months because life on the blogs got too nasty.
As a guy who has seen every team in the SEC and most of the ACC up close and personal, I can tell you that between the Alabama teams along with the UF teams from 3 or 4 years ago were men playing with boys from appearance. Appearance is one thing, going out and executing is another. LSU, Alabama, have players when they walk on the field just make you go WOW. You see very very few players who actually play who are slow and fat or unathletic.
The strenght and conditioning play more of a role in ST than most realize with the high speed contact.
Schemes play a big part as well. I will take guys who will lay it on the line, do their assignments and take coaching very well.
SSIgator
June 27th, 2012
2:27 pm
“Know what else club owner hate, along with all thier patrons? The jerks who hang around way too long and bore everybody”
____________________________________________________
Which is why people such as yourself and other “I know everything about everything (especially UGA football) and if you don’t believe me, just ask me” types are so easily spotted at bars here on the island.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
2:39 pm
I noticed you purposely edited out the part about the attempts as corny immature humor to try to get attention.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
2:42 pm
fact finder, it has been my opinion that the people ON the field have had way more to do with the outcome, than philosophy of how you divide up the coaching responsiblity all along.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
2:53 pm
Yea Joey. One or two. There are plenty of eyerolls when “that guy” is around. Especially if he actually refers to St. Simons as, “here on the island”.
SSIgator
June 27th, 2012
2:55 pm
Why don’t you follow Joey’s lead (assuming he is being sincere) and try coming to the blog with a little different attitude. Then you and your pal Nancy would have less to worry yourselves with. Only a suggestion, but it would seem that life is too short for both of you to get so worked up about college football.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
3:21 pm
Actually, I can discuss college football at any length and it never gets me worked up. Even immature blowhards like you don’t get me worked up. So that advice is just like most of your posts.
The bigger question is: Why don’t YOU follow the lead of the rest of the grown men on “the island” that don’t spend every day of thier short lives posting pointless crap on some other team’s football blogs?
SSIgator
June 27th, 2012
3:37 pm
Suit yourself. It was only a suggestion, but those are rather strong adjectives for someone who claims that he is not worked up. I see the time difference between our two posts and it would seem to indicate that you really put forth some effort structuring your comment. Well done. There was only one typo in it. Have a nice day.
AltamahaDawg
June 27th, 2012
3:46 pm
Actually the time differencial was getting back to reading yours. Asking why YOU spend your day in a Georgia blog is a pretty quick and obvious question.
AlatmahaDwag
June 27th, 2012
4:31 pm
Am I a smartie or what?
Joey
June 27th, 2012
4:54 pm
“corny immature humor”
**************
Yeah Dwag (4:31), you nailed that description . . .
Spokesman for the SEC East
June 27th, 2012
5:02 pm
This article is just another reason why we hope that CMR gets a lifetime contract.
PT
June 27th, 2012
5:10 pm
Richt is a good offensive coach; however, he has an absolutely dismal record on both offensive line development and special teams. In eleven years his best fielded offensive line came from players he did not develope or recruit.
SWAire
June 27th, 2012
6:18 pm
like most UGA fans, I am not anywhere near as concerned about the 5 special teams plays that went bust.
how do we fix Aaron Murray? he had an awful spring, barely threw 3td’s in the 3 scrimmages, and only completed 50% of his passes. And he decayted from 8 interceptions in 2010 to 14 in 2011. At that rate, will aaron break 20 interceptions in 2012?
Jeoy
June 27th, 2012
6:29 pm
Thanks.
Johannis Lee
June 27th, 2012
6:35 pm
Make Grantham the special teams coach. He’s not worth what they’re paying him now, so give him more duties. Then he could make choking sounds whenever the opposing team lines up to punt or placekick.
Or just fire the overgrown punk.
Dare in Winder
June 27th, 2012
6:38 pm
Will Aaron break 20 interceptions in 2012?
Yes. Next question?
kingdaddy
June 27th, 2012
7:40 pm
Tech Nerds must be bored to be hanging out on the Junkyard blog. I can understand there not being anything going on in the Nerd blog, lol. Nothing going on here either…
uncledaddy
June 27th, 2012
8:14 pm
Vandy 28 – UGA 27
Franklin punches Grantham in the back of the head before running to the locker room.
GTBubba
June 27th, 2012
9:15 pm
Guys, take it easy, the pups have excellent special teams, they need to continue their path to spurior special teams. And lay off on their QB, his game is so fine it simply is above improvement.
kingdaddy
June 27th, 2012
9:47 pm
Unck,
Go ahead and put your money on Franklin, lol. Loser…
TheLeg
June 27th, 2012
9:53 pm
As bad as special teams were at Georgia, and they were simply awful, the special teams were not responsible for any losses.
If you recall, Georgia lost the South Carolina game due to Murray’s pcik 6, and sack fumble for td.
The LSU game, you only had the 1 punt return for td, and Walsh shanked the field goal. Murray had 3 turnovers in that game that led to 21 points (1 pcik 6, another interception, and a red zone fumble).
The Mich St game, you might try and blame Walsh for the missed field goal, but that would have only tied it. What killed Georgia there was, again, Murray threw a pick 6, and had 2 more turnovers.
So as bad as special teams were in 2011, and will continue to be in 2012 without any change in coaches, they didn’t lose a game.
Aaron Murray was more responsible than any 1 player for those 3 losses.
The Truth Detector
June 27th, 2012
10:42 pm
I am going to agree with SECFact Finder. Strength and Conditioning allows players to really perform and I have also noticed the difference in players at LSU and Alabama compared to others and hands down those guys look like beast when they walk on the field they look like NFL teams in size, stature, and technique. The special teams look like they could start on any team in any league. The funny thing is most teams are one or maybe one and half deep but those two teams are deep deep deep and they must prove themselves on special teams before they are allowed to even get quality playing time on offense or defense. Yeah Saban and Miles are not known for going out and getting that great kicker or punter but they find players who are going to do things that help them win. We can all look at Saban offering the no.1 snapper in the country a scholarship, he understand that the ball must get to punter or holder in a quick first before any kicks can be made.
Ole Yeller Dawg
June 27th, 2012
10:48 pm
@AltamahaDawg: I reiterate, kicking the ball to the Honey Badger, during the SECCG was a coaching error!!! Especially with the ball on UGA’s 3 yard line! What does Geometry have to do with putting the ball close to the sideline or out of bounds?
What do I think about the other six punts during the same game? First off, eight punts is too many and brings up a red flag (offensive scheme is wrong!) I liken the other six punts to the game of Russian Roulette but instead of one bullet in the chamber of the gun, this game had two bullets in the chamber, because LSU’s special teams were ranked #3 in the nation while as Bill stated, in the article, UGA was ranked 116th in the nation! “Just a matter of time!” odds pointed in that direction!
Instead of trying to hem Honey Badger up against the side line, taking away some field in which to maneuver, UGA’s coaches had the punter trying to punt the ball, in the middle of the field, over his head!
The Sulphur comment wasn’t meant to be a slight… just word association. The name Altamaha, I associate with Brunswick and Darien. I own my own business and I travel this area for that reason but I have very little business in Jesup.
The rotten egg or sulphur smell is associated with paper mills. I hate to disagree with you again but it is indeed Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) used to bleach the paper white then sadly dumped (pollution) into the Altamaha River or other water sources. As far as your 1/4 mile smell theory, erroneous too! I can smell it from Savannah through Brunswick to St Marys. (many paper mills)
Another article for you Bill, “Not Once but Twice” Honey Badger returned a punt 62 yards for a TD with about 5:00 minutes before halftime. UGA’s coaches had the whole halftime to make adjustments but they still tried to out kick Honey Badger in the second half resulting in another long punt return to UGA’s 17 yard line! 2nd red flag “failure to make game time adjustments” no plan “B” very little imagination!
AltamahaDawg, I will not stoop so low as you, with the name calling… it’s not my place or in my character to judge your intelligence but you might consider exercising the right side of your brain a little… that’s where you will find “Imagination”.
all for naught
June 28th, 2012
1:27 am
OLe…LSU SToPPED OUR BOBO OFFENSE and Grantham didnt put his D in a position to win…Quit whining about punts!
Bowden is like Bear
June 28th, 2012
2:51 am
What Bowden did with his ST’s at FSU in of no relevance here. Bowden’s teams at Free Shoes were so superior athletically to any other team in the ACC at that time that his special teamers, even if they were backups, could have started on most of their opponents teams. We don’t have that luxury. Everybody in the SEC, which is 9/12ths’ of the schedule, not including the CG, has playmakers that can come up big on special teams. Our guys continually find themselves undercoached on special teams. Otherwise, that ’soccer punt’ Bill speaks of would find a punter being rushed for all he was worth and then nailed to the turf after he kicked it. He becomes a running back when he starts running with the ball, and even if you miss blocking the kick, the punter is going to be scared to death to do that again….he’s a punter, for christmas’ sake!
Dawg One
June 28th, 2012
6:45 am
FIRE MARK RICHT!!!
Dawg One
June 28th, 2012
6:47 am
FIRE GRANTHAM TOO!!!
AltamahaDawg
June 28th, 2012
8:44 am
Are you asking me what does geometry have to do with punting? Seriously?
I guess we will just disagree on that kick. I believe as a coach you tell your kicker to make sure he does the fundamental well and gets the ball out of his own endzone cleanly, (which he did) preferably high and long,(which it was), over to one side of the field (which it was) don’t just hand the ball to the opponent in excellent field position, (which he didn’t) and play to the ovewhelming odds (which didn’t work). I think Butler kick was perfectely executed.
You would tell him to kick it 65 yard on the fly at precisely a 71 degree angle. As I said, great call. We will just ignore that you have never one time in your life seen that done on purpose in a college football game.
You never answered my question about the other 6 punts. yes punting it a few times is too many. (I wasn;t asking you if you liked the offensive playcalling). But the reality is, we did punt it 8 times. Nobody kicks it out of bounds 8 times. Hypothetical hindsight is just swell. I was talking about the real thing, real time. .
Also watch the replay. It wasn’t trying to ” kick it over his head”. Thats NOT an actual strategy. Football coaches and player know how far punts travel. I have no idea why you keep saying that. NOr was it trying to kick to him. Nor was it the middle of the field. I get that you didnt like the outcome, but you are mistaken on the actual events, so I don’t think your insistance that you knew somebody thought process is really all that likely.
And spare me your feigned indignation. I never one time stooped to name calling with you. If you are going to claim some high road, at least don’t lie about the other guy to get there.
AltamahaDawg
June 28th, 2012
9:15 am
The discharge from into the River in Jesup is not from a bleaching process, so you need to check your info souirce on that. They extact fiber there. What you smelled in Brunswick is not a papermill, (although that smell has barely been noticable for years now). It’s the old Hercules, or Pinova.They don’t use sulpher to bleach pulp there. And the other one is in Midway. Not Savannah. It’s also not a bleaching plant. Even if it was, I assume when you questioned the smell “down there” you meant someplace in proximety to me. I didnt realize you were directing that to me, specifically called AltamahaDawg, as a general statement about the entire region. AND it most certainly was a “slight”. Don’t even pretend.
Obama is a Sith
June 28th, 2012
9:33 am
“Obama is the Sith Lord we have been looking for!!”
-Anakin Sywalker
AltamahaDawg
June 28th, 2012
10:27 am
If I give you the link, and the exact second that Matheiu fields the punt showing that:
- Butler was standing on the back line and executed a perfect punt
- It was NOT intended to “kick it over his head”
- It was NOT towards the middle, it was outside of the hash, which is what you can ask of a punter
- And we had no less than 5 guys converge on him
…..can we put this to rest?
Because it seems to me that if you are saying it’s a flawed “intentions” ……but that’s not actually how it hapened……then all you are really saying is that you just don’t like how it turned out. And we all agree.
AltamahaDawg
June 28th, 2012
11:22 am
My Bad. I mispoke (and comfirmed that with my buddy up there) , there is a bleaching component to the Rayonier Mill, but thats a small part of what they do. The odor and the discharge into River that folks , Including me, object to is not from that process, and not the trace amounts of Sulpher oxide used incidentally.
Ole Yeller Dawg
June 28th, 2012
11:39 am
@AltamahaDawg: What? Georgia Pacific Pulp & Paper 1400 9th street, 4325 Norwich Street Extension, Brunswick, GA 31520. International Paper Co. 1200 W Lathrop Ave Savannah GA 31415 Union Camp Corp Savannah GA. You probably would still argue even if I posted a photo!
I did answer your question about the six other punts, go back and read the post. Russian Roulette: lethal game of chance due to the risk taking element involved. Get it?
Honey Badger’s 62 yard punt return for a TD drastically changed the momentum of the game, it broke UGA’s mental concentration allowing fear to creep in… causing A. Murray errors by trying to win the game all by himself. I would at least like to have seen an attempt to slow LSU’s special team down in some manner.
Altamaha River covers a beautiful and unique region in S.E. GA I have a lot of customers and friends living in the area.
Sorry AltamahaDawg, I disagree with you… I hope today is not the tomorrow you worried about yesterday?
Check out the definition of the word imagination it beats intelligence all day long (*_~)
Snoop Dawg
June 28th, 2012
3:05 pm
Sad story about how our all-american place kicker and punter imploded last year because of lousy coaching. Amazing that Richt’s contract is extended. It’s hideous the money we’re paying these incompetent idiots.
Oh well–the people get the government they vote for. In this case, the coaching staff…
After all, he is such a good Christian man…
Re@Listic Dawg
June 28th, 2012
3:45 pm
Kingdaddy:
Georgia is trying to win championships not be medicore. AM is not a championship type qb. He folds under pressure. AM does not have the it factor to lead the dawgs to the National champonship. Dawgs possibly can get back to ATL this year with the Sec east still down.
Again when has AM stepped up and beat a solid top 25 Team?
AltamahaDawg
June 28th, 2012
4:38 pm
I never said there are not any more paper mills in the area. How do those have anythign to do with that ealier comment on “it stinks down there” . Those don’t. You keep moving the goal post here.
Sort of like you started out saying he had to kick it OOB @ the 50.Anything else was stupid. Now you say, just sort of towards the side, instead of right in the middle, which he didnt.
And why do you keep telling me how bad the punt turned out. I never said anything otherwise. thats never been a poiint of contension..