Really!? really!? You are comparing one skill player on each of these special teams units to linemen ( OL/DL) that play multiple downs consecutively? BTW Kucek (P) was a freshman. More importantly the LS that snapped the ball way over the punters head was a sophomore.
Moot point, but he gave him a perfect snap. I believe the words from the announcer are, "Kucek fumbled the snap. It appeared to hit him right in the hands."
As for the Utah State debacle this year... not sure how that works toward anything that might discredit me explaining the importance of special teams players. I understand you probably enjoyed watching us struggle up to the very last second, but the fact that an entire game was resting on the performance of one kicker to make a field goal (and an easy one at that) is in direct support of my argument, not yours.
I never thought I would have to explain the importance of special teams play to Minnesota fans. Out of any fans, you should know what kind of impact they can have on a game.
Kenzel Doe is absolutely our #1 kick returner. He is a sophomore. But yes, Abby does occasionally come in for some
punts. I suppose I should have been more specific.
I'll abstain that perhaps you have more Freshman and Sophomores that "contribute" to your team right now. Not by very much at all. Wisconsin is very young in many areas and the contributions are great. I guess we could debate all day as to which positions are more important.
However, if you add in the amount of juniors that are contributing as well as the lack of seniors that are contributing on our part (we've got 9 on our whole roster), I think we may have the younger team overall than Minnesota does.
Whatever the subjective "younger team" may be, I don't think the gap is significant enough to serve as an excuse to the fact that you lost by over 3 touchdowns on Saturday and failed to cover a ridiculous spread. You're young, yes, but we're very young too. We've lost close games this year probably because of our youth. We've also had to scramble put things together with 6 brand new coaches and an additional coach firing in Week 2 of the season, a failed transfer QB debacle and our own share of injuries. We're in transition just as much as you are with your new coaching staff in a way. The big difference that you should be concerned about is the fact that one of those young transitional teams got blown out by an equally young transitional team. Rather than spending your time making lots of excuses.
