Will our punting problems cost us a game???

BarrelORum

BarrelORum

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This has to be the most miserable Tech punting team I have ever seen. During the Maryland game, I wouldn't have been surprised if CG went for it on 4th and long and had Ball intentionally try and throw an INT because we might get better field position out of that than punting the ball. Our punting game could have cost us the Maryland game.

They need to have try outs and ask anyone on campus who can kick a ball to come out for it. Nothing against our two guys that do punt, but neither are consistent. If we don't rectify the situation, they could cost us a game.
 
I agree. The situation is pathetic. I imagine some of our players punted in their high schools so you would think we could find somebody.

Thompson did have that ONE great kick so maybe he can step up.

It is FURTHER evidence how awesome our D is playing with such pathetic punt and kickoff coverage.
 
Originally posted by BarrelORum:
During the Maryland game, I wouldn't have been surprised if CG went for it on 4th and long and had Ball intentionally try and throw an INT because we might get better field position out of that than punting the ball.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Better yet he could've just put in Bilbo at QB and called anything other than the qb draw. That way we would've been gauranteed to throw a TD or a deep interception.

Agreed though, we need to figure out our punting. Not sure what is wrong with Hal, because he SHOULD definitely average &gt; 40 yds/punt but maybe the mental game is a little off.
 
Originally posted by law_bee:
...so you would think we could find somebody.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Was extremely surprising, hugely disappointing, and very lucky that it didn't cost us the game, when Chan chose to punt on 4th and short twice in the second half, especially with the punting problems we were experiencing that night.

As far as finding another punter, maybe Bilbo can punt.
wink.gif
 
BOR,

Apparently, you do not remember the Bill Lewis years. Before Rodney Williams showed up our punting was atrocious. I don't remember the names of the punters we tried except Weaver.

I wonder if David Jordan can punt. If not, there has to be some guy playing soccer at SAC that can do better.
 
Originally posted by beeware:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Originally posted by law_bee:
...so you would think we could find somebody.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Was extremely surprising, hugely disappointing, and very lucky that it didn't cost us the game, when Chan chose to punt on 4th and short twice in the second half, especially with the punting problems we were experiencing that night.

As far as finding another punter, maybe Bilbo can punt.
wink.gif
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Actually that isn't too bad of an idea.
 
I think these people must be doing better in practice thant they are in the game. I would really like to see Thompson get it worked out.
 
Originally posted by law_bee:
I think these people must be doing better in practice thant they are in the game. I would really like to see Thompson get it worked out.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">law,

You are probably correct.

That is the same problem that our QB had last year. Good in practice....less than that in the games.

But the coaches cannot be surprised after the first two or three games that a players' game performance does not meet his practice performance. And it should not be allowed to go on for a full season like it was allowed to do last year.
 
Bad punting at best puts more strain on the defense, and at worse can certainly cost us a game.

Now, as romantic as the notion is, going out in midseason to find a former high school punter to come in and take over is just not realistic. Fact of the matter is there are at least three guys on the team that have the talent to be an adequate, if not great punter. That there is a problem is obvious. What the problem is calls for diagnosis and a cure....since we have a long time before the next game I fully expect the situation to be corrected.

Thompson's first two punts were shakey, then he hit that boomer, so I thought he might be settling down some.

I thought that someone might have got a hand on one of his punts - did anyone see that?
 
Originally posted by beeware:


But the coaches cannot be surprised after the first two or three games that a players' game performance does not meet his practice performance. And it should not be allowed to go on for a full season like it was allowed to do last year.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">This is absurd. Higgins' punting was quite respectable for the first 5 games of the season (40.6 yard average). He has struggled for the past 3 games, but he has also been relieved by Thomson in response to his performance in the past 2. Do you even watch our games or do you just quote stats that amuse you?
 
Good points mm42. I thought Higgins had everything under control early on. Wonder what has happened? Kickers are screwy anyway so I'd assume it's a mental thing. Whatever the deal is the coaches aren't letting it linger, but somebody has to produce or it could cost us somewhere.
 
Originally posted by mm42:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Originally posted by beeware:


But the coaches cannot be surprised after the first two or three games that a players' game performance does not meet his practice performance. And it should not be allowed to go on for a full season like it was allowed to do last year.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">This is absurd. Higgins' punting was quite respectable for the first 5 games of the season (40.6 yard average). He has struggled for the past 3 games, but he has also been relieved by Thomson in response to his performance in the past 2. Do you even watch our games or do you just quote stats that amuse you?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Beeware only sees what he wants to see and conveniently ignores the rest. If we lose a game over the next four games, he wil conveniently forget about the games we won.
 
The biggest concern that I have
is that we will have a punt blocked
in a big game. We have been fortunate
that a punt has not already been
blocked.

Higgins is very slow getting his kicks
off. I have not watched Thompson enough
to form an opinion of his punting.
 
Ralph Friedgen allowed his quarterback to under perform in games while he looked good in practice and according to the Maryland message board was doing it in the eighth game against us until he was injured. Maybe Ralph doesn,t know what he's doing, Beeware.
 
For those of you that keep up with this sort of thing, what is the scholarship status of our place kickers and punters? I remember that there was a kicker (or was it a punter?) with good numbers (from the Savanah area?) who was interested in attending GT and had a high SAT and HS GPA, but wanted a scholarship. I recall that when we didn't offer, he went somewhere else. There seems to be a mindset in college coaching these days to try and get by without having to give up scholarships on kickers. The fact that the PAT/FG kicker is frequently the highest scoring player on the team appears to get lost in the rush to sign more quarter backs, running backs and wide receivers. The fact that a strong punter can influence the field position more than any other single player also seem to be overlooked until game day. To me, all that is a very short sighted way to deal with the need to have a kicking game that is effective in all phases. And with several scholarships left unused, it appears (at least to me) that we should have signed one (and perhaps 2) kicker(s) on scholarship to replace the fine ones we lost to graduation last year. Maybe we did. I don't keep up with who is or is not on scholarship. Do any of you know more about the situation?
 
As if the legacy of Coach Dodd wasn't enuf motivation, I would think the lessons learned with Harper Brown, Rodney Williams, and Ron Rice would settle the issue of giving schollys to punters.

One of my favorite all-time GT moments was while leaving the '98 game in Athens, and two very dejected Bubba's were sitting on their p/u tail gate saying: "Weuns gotta gets us a punter like dem, dammit" Priceless. THWG
 
Originally posted by CrackerJacket:
I think the punters are being a bit rushed. The
line needs to keep the rushers out of their face.
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<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">=================================================

I've said it before - but if you watch closely, you'll see both punters get the usual 15 yards back initialy - then they'll cheat up 2-3 yards, making them only ~ 13 yards back. Then when they step into the ball (they also seem to take an extra step in their approach), they're almost into the line.

Unless it gets changed - watch how they do this. This, to me, is the reason a punt will get blocked. They need to get back to a good 15 yards from the line IMO
 
Tis yet another challenge for the CCG era.

Bobby Dodd would have never allowed this to happen. If you wanted to be on his football team you had to be able to kick the football. Down through the years Dodd's teams not only covered kicks well but they had dudes that could boot the football (possibly an overlooked point).

It's a big part of the TECH chemistry that CANNOT be overlooked. We MUST have a kicking game!

edit- and in all fairness this Cismesia kid out of FL looks to be a 'spot on' step in the right direction!

GO JACKETS!!! TO HELL WITH DOOK!!!
 
Were I Superman, I would have punched everyone in the snoz who booed Higgins Thursday night. For one, punting is very much a matter of confidence. His is shaken and booing only makes it worse. Secondly, do you folks know he overcame cancer to fight back and fulfill his dream to be our punter? As for that dummy Beebad, the only way we were going to lose that game was to do something stupid like going for it and failing on fourth down. Chan did the absolute right thing on punting on fourth and short and by not attempting a field goal at the end. To Beebad, and anyone else mentally challanged, we could have lost the game by haing a needless field goal blocked and run back. We could have been tied had we made a field goal and had a kickoff run back. For anyone who thinks a midseason tryout is the answer, they so much as had that in Spring practice and Hal won the job. AS for the coaches going too long like they did last year with poor QB play, they had no one better to play QB last year, and they have no one better to punt this year. And don't boo our kickers if I am around, or I might "lose it" and at least verbally assault you even though I'm not Superman.
 
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