Special Teams Woes

It's not all your fault Bonani.

The Bulls are in the midst of a 4-game losing streak and one of the reasons (among many) for the collapse has been the play of special teams. While there are a lot of reasons the team is losing, offense, defense, coaching decisions, the special teams unit continues to come up short and continues to frustrate Holtz and staff.

Special teams has been bad this season, from kick coverage to punt returns, there is a lot of blame to go around as the unit continues to hurt field position for offense and allows others to get decent field position.

Starting with the return game, the USF punt return game is all but gone right now. Terrence Mitchell led the team with 13 returns for 67 yards (5.2 per average) and had a long of 34 yards, but has missed a month as he recovers from a concussion. The next best returner for USF is Victor Marc who has 7 for 57 yards (8.1) but that average is inflated with one 40 yard return. Marc had a costly mistake in the loss to Rutgers trying to field a ball that went into the hands of the Knights. The Bulls have shown no spark in the return game and it continues to hurt their field position on offense. They need more returns and for some energy in the return game to help boost the offense when they come on the field.

The Bulls have been solid in stopping opponents in the return game however, allowing just 6 returns all season for a grand total of 2 yards, so the coverage team is doing their job there. However, they are failing to do anything to stop kick-off returns. USF has allowed 45 kick-off returns for a total of 1100 yards, an average return of 24 yards. Can some of the blame be put on Marvin Kloss, perhaps, or maybe the coverage team should be blamed for not containing returners and allowing the opponent to set up offense in great field position (making life hard for the defense). The USF kick-off return unit has been solid, but has yet to take one back for a touchdown. Lindsey Lamar has 30 returns for 547 yards (18.2 per return) and has a long of just 31 on the season.

Now we look at the actually kickers that are failing to get the job done. We mentioned Kloss, who has done a solid job, but the other kickers are struggling. Place kicker Maikon Bonani and punter, Justin Brockhas-Kann, continue to hurt the team.

Bonani is struggling this season. He is just 12 of 19 in field goal attempts this season, hitting 63.2% of this attempts. He is 3 for 7 between 40-49 yards and 0 for 1 beyond 50, not showing the greatest range. While he is not to blame for the loss to Rutgers, the overall body of work he has put together this season is not impressive. Holtz is staying with him, but it will be interesting to see how much faith he will put in him.

JBK is also struggling. He has punted 39 times, averaging just 37.8 yards a punt, landing 11 inside the opponents 20. The low average (among the worst in the nation) is killing the defense right now. JBK continually puts the ball in bad field position and allows the opposition to get great field position to start drives and puts pressure on the defense. Holtz is sticking with JBK, but the door is open for change.

We don't to come down too hard on special teams, there are other positions that have cost the team all season, but the special teams are not helping, only helping add to the struggles of the team. They have to get it together and start performing, helping in the little things, so the team can win the games.