Special Teams Continues To Be A Concern

After reading through various practice reports, and a report of Saturday's scrimmage, special teams are my biggest concern with our football team, surpassing the defense. I like what I'm seeing and hearing from DeRuyter's unit, and I think we'll get where we need to be on defense. Special teams are another matter, though. We've struggled with punt protection and punt pressure throughout Fall practice so far, although Sherman said they did okay on Saturday. Of course, because we can't have all of our special teams units functioning well on the same day, kicker Randy Bullock continued his struggles, missing two field goals. Of the two units we needed to fix following last season (defense and special teams), special teams may be the most important, because there is such an ability to swing the momentum of a game with a big play on special teams. Special teams is attention to detail and desire, and after the disaster we had on special teams last season, there is no excuse to struggle in that area this year.

Injuries: Having 10 players sitting out because of various injuries is disconcerting. Half of our defensive secondary has been spending a good chunk of their time off the field because of injuries, with SS Trent Hunter and FS Steven Campbell both injured. Cornerback Coryell Judie sprained his ankle Saturday, and didn't play in the second half of the scrimmage. Hopefully, we can get everyone healthy by this week, because the last two-a-day practice was today has been moved to Tuesday. The switch to one-a-day practices should give everyone a little more rest, and help them recover physically as we begin to transition to game week next week.