Gopher Football
Kicker & Punter
The main reason why special teams may be the biggest weakness this season lies right here. Last season Minnesota learned just how difficult it was to try to win games by playing two freshmen kickers. The single most alarming situation of last season were the struggles of sophomore kicker Jason Giannini. Things were ugly right off the bat for Jason last season. In his second game against Colorado State he missed 3 extra points in a row (one block, two misses). You’d think that after a game like that there’d be nowhere to go but up, but things really did not improve the rest of the season as Jason went on to miss 5 more extra points. Also of concern for Giannini was field goal kicking. Jason was a solid 7of 7 on 20 – 29 yard chip shots, but that percentage dropped off to a poor 4 of 8 from 30-39 yards. The one obvious exception to the disappointing performance was the big game winning 30 yard FG at Michigan. Twenty years from now we won’t remember the 8 missed extra points, we’ll remember the big game winning kick to snap the losing streak against Michigan.
Coach Mason gave Giannini all of 2005 to try and prove himself, but since that never really happened Mason made the switch to backup kicker Joel Monroe for the Music City bowl game. Joel is a sophomore walkon from Robbinsdale, and for the bowl game he was a perfect 4 of 4 on XP’s and 1 of 1 on FG’s (39 yards). More importantly he was 9 of 9 on XP’s for the season. Joel does not have the leg strength of Giannini, but Joel will likely hold on to the starting job as long as he continues his consistent performance.
The big “˜X’ factor in this years kicking game will be true freshman Eric Ellestad. Just about everyone was surprised last fall when it was announced that that Ellestad had accepted a scholarship offer from Coach Mason, considering the Gophers already had two freshmen kickers on scholarship. I don’t think Mason would put a 3rd kicker on scholarship with the intent to redshirt him, so we’ll see if Ellestad finds himself in the mix. Since Ellestad is rumored to have a strong leg, it’s believed that kickoff duties may be Ellestad’s to lose. But because of the struggles of the Gopher kickers last year, if he can do well enough on extra points and field goals he may find himself with a chance to win that job as well.
Returning as the Gopher punter this season will be sophomore Jason Kucek. Like Giannini, Kucek did not have the most spectacular of freshman seasons. On the year Jason was 9th in the Big Ten in punting average at 39.4 yards per kick. What everyone will of course remember from last year is Kucek’s muff against Wisconsin that allowed the Badgers to block the punt and win the game. Hopefully this season Kucek can put that behind him and improve on his game.
Long Snapper & Holder
Starting his third season as the Gopher long snapper will be junior Robert McGarry. Unlike the kicking positions, long snapper is a spot the Gophers don’t have to worry about. McGarry has been nearly flawless in his two seasons at this spot. Holder is another story. Last year Jason Kucek started off as the holder, but after Giannini started having problems with his extra points, quarterback Bryan Cupito was moved back to holder, a role he had during 2003 and 2004. However, after Cupito was knocked out of the Michigan game with a shoulder injury Kucek returned as the holder and seemed to do fine. Expect Kucek to get the first crack at holder this season and for him to win the spot unless he crumbles during the fall.
Returns & Coverage
Minnesota appears to have a dynamic young punter returner in sophomore Dominic Jones. Last year Jones tied for 5th in the Big Ten in punt returns (with none other than Ted Ginn) with a 10.0 yard average, a few of which were highlight variety. Dominic did have a little bit of a fumbling problem, but that will likely fix itself as he gets more experience. Someone else who could be in the mix is Logan Payne. After Jones muffed a couple of returns Payne was brought in as a calming presenece and contributed 93 punt return yards of his own.
The kickoff return spots are as wide open as could be. The Gophers lose their top 3 kickoff return men from last season, Jakari Wallace, Laurence Maroney and Gary Russell. There are literally a dozen prospects that could wind up with the job, but a few of names to watch would be Dominic Jones, Jay Thomas, Amir Pinnix, Mike Chambers and Logan Payne.
The Gopher coverage units were about in the middle of the pack in conference last year. The only disappointing things in my mind were the two kickoff returns for touchdowns allowed and the lack of touchbacks by our kickers. Touchbacks are really becoming a weapon these days in college football, so hopefully this is an element that freshman kicker Eric Ellestad can provide.
Around the Big Ten
Ranking the Big Ten’s best returning kicker and punter should pretty much be a no-brainer. Wiconson junior punter Ken DeBauche is the returning first team all conference punter, having averaged 44.8 yards per punt last year, 3 yards better than any other returning punter this year. Wisconsin also has a good kicker in Taylor Mehlhaff. The junior hit on 70% of his FG’s last year and has an excellent leg on kickoffs. However, the best returning kicker in the conference is senior Kyle Schlicher of Iowa. Schlicher hit on 17 of his 21 FG’s, with 3 of his misses coming from beyond 40 yards. A possible up and coming kicker is Kevin Kelly of Penn State. Last year in his freshman season Kelly hit on 49 of 50 of his XP’s and 16 of 23 field goals.
Two names stand far above the rest when it comes to the return gamein the Big Ten: Ten Ginn and Steve Breaston. Ginn will be entering his junior (and perhaps final?) season in Columbus, and Breaston is back for what seems like his 8th year in Ann Arbor. Each of these players had kickoff returns for TD’s against our beloved Gophers last year (Breaston almost had two), and not surprisingly they are the top kickoff return men in the conference. Ginn averaged 29.6 yards per return last season and Breaston averaged 28.0
Last Year
I’ve already detailed many of the problems experienced by the Gopher special teams last season above, but to recap, things were not that good. The kicking game was arguably the worst in the conference, and the coverage/return games were only average. Outside of kickoff returns, most of the special teams figures were very young.
Bottom Line
Things really have nowhere to go but up for the Gopher special teams. I think there was enough consistency with Justin Kucek to have faith in his development, but it’s messier over at the kicker spot. Although I think having 3 kickers in the mix will yield good results in the long term, I’m not so sure about the shorter term. The competing figures are only sophomore, freshman, sophomore, so there is still a lot of growing up to do in this group yet. Look for the special teams as a whole to be a little bit better than last year, but I think that place kicking will lag behind the rest of the unit. Hopefully the competition between the three will improve them enough and one of them will step up and show some confidence.
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