.

This staff's approach to special teams has literally cost us games.
- Not knowing at all what to do on the punt return team. No pressure on the punter whatsoever. Returners setting up way too close to the LOS, forcing them to run back 20+ yards to catch a punt. Calling fair catch on punts without a defender in sight as if they were instructed to do so. Blockers out of position or not even in the picture at all. A muffed punt where a blocker ran into the returner literally cost us the Iowa game.
- The inability to make a FG beyond 40 yards over the last several years, limiting our options to go for it or punt.
- Kickoffs costing us precious field position, from constantly kicking out of bounds to the inability to get a touchback to poor coverage. Field position literally cost us the Big 12 championship game and was the first cause for concern against Iowa this year.

These aren't isolated incidents - they are problems we see every single week, even when we're winning large. I really hate to say this, but Campbell addressing these problems at surface level (getting a kicker that can kick far enough to get touchbacks and kick long FGs) and not addressing the issue at its core, realizing that we need to take special teams more seriously and hire a dedicated coordinator, is going to cost him in the long run.

100% agree. And then To make it worse, Campbell was basically like “yeah, we were just unlucky by a few inches”. I love Campbell but this is a MASSIVE blind spot for him.
 
News flash to the coaching staff - there is a reason our punt returners are retreating to catch most punts…it’s because we don’t pressure the punter. This allows the punter to take his time punting and kick a little lower trajectory punt that goes further, under no pressure, because he knows we won’t return it.
 
After Five Years, I have come to the conclusion that SPECIAL TEAMS are just NOT Coach Matt Campbell's thing, so to speak.....CMC seems far more interested in the offense and defense and completely lets the KICKING GAME meander towards COMPLETE MEDIOCRITY!
 
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News flash to the coaching staff - there is a reason our punt returners are retreating to catch most punts…it’s because we don’t pressure the punter. This allows the punter to take his time punting and kick a little lower trajectory punt that goes further, under no pressure, because he knows we won’t return it.

I can't say for sure without checking the game replay / checking Baylor's punter stats, but I also wonder if the no-pressure "strategy" led to our returner having to run back 10 to 20 yards to field those couple of punts ... maybe BU punter typically doesn't kick that far, so the returner was at point of field where kick typically would land, but punter had more time to boom it, so it made it appear the return wasn't set up properly.

Sorry for the run-on sentence...
 
Even with that....there were like at least two gunners PAST him when he started up field?!?!?! We are marginal in the margins. Special Teams aside....WTF is up with the defense in the first half? Do we just cavalierly send our exact game plan to Baylor for their prep. I haven't looked at stats, but every play they ran in the first half on offense went exactly to script. I think they punted once? They were laughing at us on 4th and whatever...it's like "Hold our beer...we have a play for that" and they worked.
Now....the defensive players deserve a salute for the second half effort and execution. Just so wierd. Always going uphill.

The problem is the inconsistency. If we punted consistently 25 yards at least we can expect that and play it accordingly. When you have a guy who sometimes is punting the ball 50 yards and sometimes its 15...it's pretty difficult to train your gunners exactly where to go. Are they sprinting full speed to get 50 yards out and make contact or are they supposed to stop at the 25 yard mark and push for a fair catch. They are not capable of both sprinting and following the trajectory of the ball in flight.
 
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