Read's ST Review and Expectations

[4skers89]

He identified and fixed Drew Brown's problem kicking from the right hash. A lot of people wanted Drew benched early on. I would assume the focus for most of the season was implementing new offense and defense and not a lot of practice time devoted to special teams. Next season should give us a better idea of what Reed can do.

 

[Enhance]

Agree that special teams can and should be better overall. Bo really only had one good year out of seven so I am not sure we can use that as a benchmark. This year was better than most all of his other 6 years. I think we will be better next season with a better understanding of talent on hand.

This is a pretty good summary of how I feel, too. Special teams can be an absolute game changer, but, it can also be a complete game breaker. It bit the Redskins in the a$$ last night against the Cowboys with under 2 minutes to go in the game.

For Nebraska, I think it was likely a confluence of scheme, talent evaluation, execution and of course injuries. It's possible their mentality may have been that they have so many things to work on offensively/defensively they wanted to make sure ST just didn't screw anything up.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I am not sure what to think of Read. I honestly have no idea what he does for the team. Punter Sam was good under Bo, so I don't see how things improved there. I think Read did help with Brown, and showed him the flaws in his kicking. Brown was automatic at the last 1/2 of the year. Punt returns were hindered by the loss of DPE, so I will give Read a break there. However, the kickoff return was a complete mess. I couldn't believe that Read had no idea who Stevenson was when Riley told Read that Stevenson was going to return kickoffs. That was so weird to me. Also, I think Read got a little cute on kickoff coverage teams. There were times where instead of having Brown just boot it deep, they would try a high "pooch" style kickoff which would end up being disasters. If you have a kicker who has the wind, try to have the guy kick it through the end zone.

 

[MichiganDad3]

punt return #40

kick return #117

punt return defense #17

kick return defense #108

Even w/o DPE, we were still above average on punt returns. Our punt coverage unit was pretty good. We were not good on both sides of the ball for kickoffs and that needs to improve in 2016.

This year was a ST bust, imo, with the exception of the All-B1G play by Foltz and the mid-season resurrection of Drew Brown. I believe real benchmarks need to be in place before we can expect ST success next year. We need 1) a return specialist recruited, 2) preferred walk-ons going out to local kickers and punters, and 3) Kieron Williams featured in the punt block scheme.

#1 - JD Speilman

#2 - Agree, but why only focus locally? We have one of the top punters in the nation committed in the 2016 class (and also sounds pretty good a kickoffs)

#3 - I don't know if Kieron Williams is the definitive answer, but it would be nice to block a few more punts

Perhaps our punt return performance is biased by a great punter - hang time etc.

 

[MichiganDad3]

Agree that special teams can and should be better overall. Bo really only had one good year out of seven so I am not sure we can use that as a benchmark. This year was better than most all of his other 6 years. I think we will be better next season with a better understanding of talent on hand.

This really bother me. I have always believed that ST makes a big difference, but Bo's ST were always bad until his last year, and now were are back to poor special teams. Rats!

 

[Saunders]

I think the biggest issue with Read, is that it's literally his only job, and for $500k, we wanted VT level special teams units. Bo's special teams units were farmed out to different assistant, and were actually pretty good most of his tenure, except the disastrous 2013 season where we could barely catch a punt. IIRC, they were in Phil Steele's top 10 ST units 5 of 7 seasons (one of the few places to track that stuff), and we routinely had good kicking and coverage units. The return units were decent to good most years too. 2015 wasn't that bad, other than our kick return unit, which was non-existent until Stanly Morgan got the nod. That said, Brown got better, and we did get a bit better in the return units over the year.

 

[Saunders]

To expand further on my above statements, here's a look at ESPN's national Special Teams ratings for the past decade, with Nebraska's ranking for each year.

Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis. The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability). The scale goes from 0 to 100; higher numbers are better and the average is roughly 50 for all categories.

2015: #27

2014: #1

2013: #72

2012: #96

2011: #15

2010: #31

2009: #1

2008: #12

2007: #56

2006: #39

2005: #11

We weren't bad this year, but hopefully with a full time ST guy, we're routinely top 10 under his watch.

 

[Pedro Guerrero]

I can’t remember if we had any botched snaps or kicks blocked this year. I’m pretty sure there was an upgrade in long snapping (even if that one dude’s girlfriend didn’t want us to believe it).

The onside kicks that Brown did at the end of a couple games really left something to be desired and they looked like he had never practiced it a day in his life.

 

[swmohusker]

Agree that special teams can and should be better overall. Bo really only had one good year out of seven so I am not sure we can use that as a benchmark. This year was better than most all of his other 6 years. I think we will be better next season with a better understanding of talent on hand.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, whoa, whoa. Something needs to be improved and it was not the players fault. Progress.

 

[Red Five]

To expand further on my above statements, here's a look at ESPN's national Special Teams ratings for the past decade, with Nebraska's ranking for each year.

Team efficiencies are based on the point contributions of each unit to the team's scoring margin, on a per-play basis. The values are adjusted for strength of schedule and down-weighted for "garbage time" (based on win probability). The scale goes from 0 to 100; higher numbers are better and the average is roughly 50 for all categories.

2015: #27

2014: #1

2013: #72

2012: #96

2011: #15

2010: #31

2009: #1

2008: #12

2007: #56

2006: #39

2005: #11

We weren't bad this year, but hopefully with a full time ST guy, we're routinely top 10 under his watch.

Bo's average: 32.6

Riley's 1st yr: 27

 

[gossamorharpy]

I think any team in the country should realistically expect a drop off when you lost the nations top returner the entire year. No coaching/depth is going to make up for what DPE brings to the table.

 

[adc7236]

I think the biggest issue with Read, is that it's literally his only job, and for $500k, we wanted VT level special teams units. Bo's special teams units were farmed out to different assistant, and were actually pretty good most of his tenure, except the disastrous 2013 season where we could barely catch a punt. IIRC, they were in Phil Steele's top 10 ST units 5 of 7 seasons (one of the few places to track that stuff), and we routinely had good kicking and coverage units. The return units were decent to good most years too. 2015 wasn't that bad, other than our kick return unit, which was non-existent until Stanly Morgan got the nod. That said, Brown got better, and we did get a bit better in the return units over the year.

That is what bothers me the most. I think we are getting very little bang for the buck with him. How is he as a recruiter?

 

[Mavric]

I think the biggest issue with Read, is that it's literally his only job, and for $500k, we wanted VT level special teams units. Bo's special teams units were farmed out to different assistant, and were actually pretty good most of his tenure, except the disastrous 2013 season where we could barely catch a punt. IIRC, they were in Phil Steele's top 10 ST units 5 of 7 seasons (one of the few places to track that stuff), and we routinely had good kicking and coverage units. The return units were decent to good most years too. 2015 wasn't that bad, other than our kick return unit, which was non-existent until Stanly Morgan got the nod. That said, Brown got better, and we did get a bit better in the return units over the year.

That is what bothers me the most. I think we are getting very little bang for the buck with him. How is he as a recruiter?

Was going to bring this up. He appears to basically be a non-factor in recruiting - other than recruiting kickers, punters and long-snappers. Kickers are people too but that means he's probably only recruiting one guy per year (on average).

Can't remember which prominent new-hire head coach said this in the last week but he said he hires an OC, a DC and an OL coach. For the rest of the assistants, if you can't recruit, you don't work for him. Seems like a pretty good strategy to me.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I think the biggest issue with Read, is that it's literally his only job, and for $500k, we wanted VT level special teams units. Bo's special teams units were farmed out to different assistant, and were actually pretty good most of his tenure, except the disastrous 2013 season where we could barely catch a punt. IIRC, they were in Phil Steele's top 10 ST units 5 of 7 seasons (one of the few places to track that stuff), and we routinely had good kicking and coverage units. The return units were decent to good most years too. 2015 wasn't that bad, other than our kick return unit, which was non-existent until Stanly Morgan got the nod. That said, Brown got better, and we did get a bit better in the return units over the year.

That is what bothers me the most. I think we are getting very little bang for the buck with him. How is he as a recruiter?

Was going to bring this up. He appears to basically be a non-factor in recruiting - other than recruiting kickers, punters and long-snappers. Kickers are people too but that means he's probably only recruiting one guy per year (on average).

Can't remember which prominent new-hire head coach said this in the last week but he said he hires an OC, a DC and an OL coach. For the rest of the assistants, if you can't recruit, you don't work for him. Seems like a pretty good strategy to me.

That was Will Muschamp, who just got hired at South Carolina.