Gopher Football
– Rhys Lloyd
As a kicker . . .
Rhys Lloyd made quite a splash for the Gophers in 2003. Cleared to play only one day before the season began, Rhys came in and took over all of the kicking duties that had previously belonged to Ryan Donahue, Ryan Duffy and Ben Utecht. In his first game, Rhys nailed a 52 yard FG, sent several kickoffs soaring into the end zone, and from there never looked back.
Rhys was the kind of kicker Gopher fans have been longing for since, well, probably Chip Lohmiller. Dan Nystrom was a heck of a college kicker, but the one thing he couldn’t do was generate distance on his kickoffs. Lloyd on the other hand grew up playing soccer in England is blest with a huge leg. He can use this leg to generate long kickoffs, and also boot long field goals. What makes Rhys really good though is that he is also very accurate. For the season, Rhys was 14-18 on FG’s with a long of 54. Besides the great leg and accuracy, Rhys is already a proven clutch performer. Two times in his first year kicking Division one the game was put directly in his hands, and both times he came though in fine style. Rhys kicked game winning FG’s in both the Wisconsin & Oregon games as time expired. Both happened to be the two biggest wins of the year for Minnesota.
If you’re looking for any complains with Lloyd’s performance last year, you have to look hard. Kickoffs were good, accuracy was decent (77%), and ability under pressure was definitely there. The only thing that really stands out is that he seemed to maybe get a little lax under “ordinary” situations. He missed extra points in back to back blowouts of Illinois and Indiana, and two of his missed FG’s were under 40 yards. All in all though it’s not a lot to be concerned about, and with a year of experience under his belt, he should be ready to emerge as one of the nations top kickers.
As a punter . . .
Not only was Rhys welcome from a kicking standpoint, he actually was even more welcome as the punter. To say Minnesota was desperate for punting last year is an understatement. 2002 signee Kenny Harper was slated to be the punter (and kicker) of the future, but he abruptly left the team after the 2002 season. That forced Mason to put out ads to students before the 2003 season inviting them to try out. Minnesota eventually settled on All-Big Ten TE Ben Utecht and were all set to move forward with him, but after the first game of the season Utecht got injured. At this point Rhys gave his best shot at punter and ultimately proved he was competent enough to handle the job.
For the year, Rhys ended up having a few nice moments, but overall he was (at best) a below average punter. It’s very easy to see that he’s more suited to be a kicker. A couple games into last season, the coaches apparently gave up on trying to teach Rhys the fundamentals on how to punt. Instead, they let him do whatever he needed to do the job. The result was a run out to his right before the kick. While this is definitely not the most ideal way to kick a ball, his unorthodox style does have its advantages. Besides always making the opponents respect the threat of a fake, Rhys was really able to “aim” the ball with his foot well. Thus, he was pretty effective from punting from within the Gophers own side of the 50 yard line. But on longer punts where distance, rather than accuracy was needed, Rhys did not do as well. He did have a few 50+ yarders to his credit, but for the most part he struggled to consistently punt the ball deep on those occasions.
– Kicking Depth
After losing Ryan Duffy & Ryan Donahue at the beginning of last season, depth suddenly became a serious concern for the Gophers. Thankfully, Rhys Lloyd stayed healthy so the depth was never tested. So far the Gophers have lined up several new kickers. Michael Jacobs joined the Gophers after last season and participated in spring ball. He booted two FG’s during the spring game. Minnesota recently added a new walk on kicker to the mix. Joel Monroe will join the Gophers this fall via Robbinsdale Cooper high school; the same school that produced former kicker Dan Nystrom. This fall the Gophers also add a scholarship kicker, Jason Giannini of North Canton, Ohio.
– Punting Depth
Rhys will come into fall practice as the #1 punter, but you can bet that freshman punter Justin Kucek of Canfield, Ohio will be given every opportunity to win the job. Justin averaged 44 yards per punt as senior in high school last year, and a few people in Ohio consider him one of the nations top prep punters from last years class. The benefits are obvious to have Justin win the job. Not only would a true punter actually be punting the ball, but it would also mean that Rhys could focus 100% on kicking, and that could only help to make him a better kicker.
– Long Snapper / Holder
One potential area of concern will be the breaking in of a new long snapper and holder. Assuming Bryan Cupito wins the starting quarterback job, a new holder will likely have to be found this fall. At the long snapper spot, Peter Prudden’s graduation and the early departure of heir apparent Blake Lillegren have left a gaping hole here. A kicker obviously isn’t any good if you don’t have a guy who can snap the ball. The snapper/holder situation could be an underrated concern heading into this fall.
– Returns & Coverage
These two units couldn’t have been more opposite of each other last year. The return games were very good; the coverage games were very bad. Marion Barber was the top punt returner in the conference, and Laurence Maroney was the second best kickoff returner. Ideally you don’t want your star running backs to be returning kicks, but until someone else steps up and is as good as these two are, don’t expect this to change.
Coverage on the other hand is a different story, and this is an area where Mason made a point in spring practice to work on improving. Minnesota has been near the bottom in both kick and punt coverage for the past three seasons now. Different starters have found their way onto the coverage units, but it has not helped the end result. It appears that if this unit is going to improve the coaches are going to really have to mix things up and look for a situation that works. Bad coverage units are especially troublesome when your defense is weak, and this has been the case for the Gophers the past few years. Continually giving teams short fields to play on is like playing with fire; pretty soon you’re going to get burned. Any improvements the Gophers can make in coverage will go a long way to keeping the other team off the scoreboard.
One thing Minnesota is slowly getting better at is adding quality athletes to the two and three deep on the depth chart. Ideally, 2nd & 3rd stringers make up the bulk of your return and coverage teams. When you have good athletes in these spots, these units will usually improve. Hopefully guys like John Shevlin, Brandon Owens, or others who happen not to be starting can use their energy to become special teams stars. If that happens, it could go a long ways to improving the kickoff & punt coverage.
Around the Big Ten . . .
There are several good kickers in the Big Ten again this year, as there always seem to be. The best kicker in the conference is Ohio State Senior Mike Nugent. Mike was 16-19 on FG’s last year, and is 41-47 the past two years. He may be the best kicker in the country this year. The two other kickers that stand out are Purdue’s Ben Jones and Michigan State’s Dave Rayner. Jones, who will be just a junior this year, led the conference in field goals last season with 25 (in 30 attempts). Gopher fans will remember Dave Rayner from the clinic he put on against Minnesota last year. The Spartan senior was 3-3 of kicks in 40+ yards, including 2-2 on 50+ yarders. He also had another 50 yarder called back because of penalty. For the season he was 22-29. The sleeper to emerge this year and become the Big Ten’s next great kicker is Michigan sophomore Garrett Rivas. As a freshman, Rivas won the kicking job and went on to go 9-12 on FG’s.
The best punter in the conference is Michigan State sophomore Brandon Fields. As a redshirt freshman, Brandon destroyed the rest of the conference in punting, averaging 46.4 yards per kick, nearly two full yards per kick more than the runner up. One of the few bright spots for Illinois last year was the play of their sophomore punter Steve Weatherford. Weatherford was 2nd in the conference in punting last year with an average of 44.5 yards per kick. Like Rhys Lloyd, Steve is another guy who will be pressed into double duty this year. He is expected to replace departed Illinois kicker John Gockman.
Continuing on with their fabulous special teams unit, Michigan State returns the top kick returner in the conference, DeAndra Cobb. The senior to be led the Big Ten in both kickoff return TD’s (3) and returning average (27.2 yards/kick). Cobb and Laurence Maroney were easily to the best kickoff return men in the Big Ten last season. On the punt return side, Michigan’s Steve Breaston and Wisconsin’s Jim Leonhard were even across the board. Both players averaged 13.8 per return and had 2 TD’s. Both were 2nd behind Marion Barber (14.5) in return yardage.
Bottom Line . . .
There are some holes to worry about, but here’s what we already know. At the very least, we have:
1. One of the best kickers in the nation in Rhys Lloyd
2. An adequate punter in Lloyd (with the potential of having a good freshman punter)
3. Two great return men in Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber
The three above items already give the Gophers one of the better special teams units in the conference. The concerns we’re left with are the Holder / Snapper and coverage teams. The Holder & Snapper could be a scary situation right up until the beginning of the season, we’ll just have to wait and see. But the talent really seems to be there for the coverage units to improve. If that happens the rest of the special teams group is good enough so that it should help Minnesota to at least one extra win this year.