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Improved Special Teams

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isufanz1

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Apr 11, 2006
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I love the improved special teams and attribute it to finally having a dedicated coach to this part of the game.

Although I love the improvement, I also hate to think of all the games CMC has lost over the last several years by being stubborn and not focusing on this part of the team/game. We have left countless wins on the field because of special teams over the years.
 
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How bad we were often depended on the kicker as pointed out; however, the punt and punt return schemes are infinitely better.
 
Players, formations, plays does apply to special teams too.

Yes, for pk and ko, it's mostly on the player doing the kicking. But everything else requires a bit more of the formations and plays part. In the past it seemed that these areas got the bare minimum amount of attention from a coaching and practice standpoint. Now it seems that there's a lot more effort on these.

The easiest one to see is in the punt game. There have been multiple "hard counts" and protection shifts. These have been successful enough, though the punt yards are less. Prior to this year, I don't remember seeing protection shifting on a punt.
 
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ISU has had some pretty darn good returns in both the punt and kick game. Most of the previous seasons ISU just makes fair catches. ISU is gaining hidden yardage by getting an extra 10 yards here or 7 yards there and occasionally getting a real long return which just puts the other team on their heels. I love it. Huge difference with a special teams coach.
 
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We have both a quality kicker and a quality punter. I think a lot of the past failures can be traced to the specialists we had at the time. Some of that is recruiting and some of it is guys just underperforming.

Love seeing Noel’s improvement in the return game. Big impact today.

Having a Special Teams coach in name hasn’t hurt either. Even though I believe they likely had a guy before but we just didn’t know who. Our new guys seems to be good.
 
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bozclone said:
We have both a quality kicker and a quality punter. I think a lot of the past failures can be traced to the specialists we had at the time. Some of that is recruiting and some of it is guys just underperforming.

Love seeing Noel’s improvement in the return game. Big impact today.

Having a Special Teams coach in name hasn’t hurt either. Even though I believe they likely had a guy before but we just didn’t know who. Our new guys seems to be good.
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Yes, kudos to coach Langs. He does appear to be doing a great job so far.
 
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isufanz1 said:
I love the improved special teams and attribute it to finally having a dedicated coach to this part of the game.

Although I love the improvement, I also hate to think of all the games CMC has lost over the last several years by being stubborn and not focusing on this part of the team/game. We have left countless wins on the field because of special teams over the years.
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I agree wholeheartedly with your first point, but on the second, what is life but a learning experience? I'm sure we've all missed out on countless opportunities because we weren't ready for them. What really matters is whether you draw the right conclusions from those mistakes, and it sure looks like he has.
 
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Having CC be so automatic today reminded me of Mevis. It’s nice not being all that worried when we settle for FGs, and that makes a difference in the outcome.

I believe Mevis had a number of FGs in that 2021 win @ KSU that helped salt the game away.
 
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The place kicker being elite solves a lot of problems.

That said, we are better in every area. Credit to Campbell for addressing the problem. Credit to Jordan Langs for being good at his job. Noel kickoff returns were massive tonight and changed the game. The punt coverage has been better all season long.
 
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CyPunch said:
The place kicker being elite solves a lot of problems.

That said, we are better in every area. Credit to Campbell for addressing the problem. Credit to Jordan Langs for being good at his job. Noel kickoff returns were massive tonight and changed the game. The punt coverage has been better all season long.
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I kinda feel like having a punter who can flip the field helps as well. I wouldn’t know how to quantify that, but I suppose it would have to do with not spending so much time in the shadow of your own end zone—and making the other team do so instead.

The coverage unit knows they have a chance to maximize the value of Perkins’ punts—and the opposing return team often has another ten yards of space on the field to worry about having to block.
 
Cyched said:
Having CC be so automatic today reminded me of Mevis. It’s nice not being all that worried when we settle for FGs, and that makes a difference in the outcome.

I believe Mevis had a number of FGs in that 2021 win @ KSU that helped salt the game away.
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Was looking up and down the roster yesterday to see who we would be losing next year and honestly kicker is the only position where I have a big concern (Tampa will be huge loss, but there are young understudies). We will likely need to hit the transfer market for a kicker after this year. Which makes me wonder, why CC didn't see the field with Nebraska...
 
twojman said:
ISU has had some pretty darn good returns in both the punt and kick game. Most of the previous seasons ISU just makes fair catches. ISU is gaining hidden yardage by getting an extra 10 yards here or 7 yards there and occasionally getting a real long return which just puts the other team on their heels. I love it. Huge difference with a special teams coach.
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Dude, **** the 7 to 10 yards here and there. The combination of competent kicking (FGS and touchbacks), competent punting (15-20 yard shanks anyone), AND coverage is netting us an extra 100 yards a game on average.

Yes, it's technically one of those things that's time consuming to tabulate, but an average game would see at least one shank, 1-2 missed FGs, at least 1 if not 2 long returns (Rajun Cajuns anyone?), and lost yardage from a lack of touch backs. Iowa literally won 1-2 games the last 5 years by gaining 150-200 yards a game between having Tayloe and our complete ******* incompetence.

This goes far beyond having just a competent kicker. We are better in EVERY phase of special teams and I am so thankful for it. We will never truly "be able to know" but I feel confident in having at least one win we wouldn't have had with the STs we saw last year.

It's far and away the most positive part of the season. It's both a relief and infuriating at the same time. The latter meaning Campbell threw away a LOT of games the last several years with arrogance and refusing to admit he couldn't handle it on his own.
 
ZRF said:
Dude, **** the 7 to 10 yards here and there. The combination of competent kicking (FGS and touchbacks), competent punting (15-20 yard shanks anyone), AND coverage is netting us an extra 100 yards a game on average.

Yes, it's technically one of those things that's time consuming to tabulate, but an average game would see at least one shank, 1-2 missed FGs, at least 1 if not 2 long returns (Rajun Cajuns anyone?), and lost yardage from a lack of touch backs. Iowa literally won 1-2 games the last 5 years by gaining 150-200 yards a game between having Tayloe and our complete ******* incompetence.

This goes far beyond having just a competent kicker. We are better in EVERY phase of special teams and I am so thankful for it. We will never truly "be able to know" but I feel confident in having at least one win we wouldn't have had with the STs we saw last year.

It's far and away the most positive part of the season. It's both a relief and infuriating at the same time. The latter meaning Campbell threw away a LOT of games the last several years with arrogance and refusing to admit he couldn't handle it on his own.
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I don't disagree with that. I just think that having Ramirez hitting most of his FGs and Shackford being healthy for kickoffs is the biggest piece. Bigger than any coaching or philosophy changes. We were good at KOR when Nwangwu was here. We were decent at PR when Trevor Ryen was returning punts. Seems like it has taken Noel awhile to grow into that role. Coverage has been up and down over the years, but it's always going to be better when you are getting KOs into the endzone and punts with some hang time.
 
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Frak said:
I don't disagree with that. I just think that having Ramirez hitting most of his FGs and Shackford being healthy for kickoffs is the biggest piece. Bigger than any coaching or philosophy changes. We were good at KOR when Nwangwu was here. We were decent at PR when Trevor Ryen was returning punts. Seems like it has taken Noel awhile to grow into that role. Coverage has been up and down over the years, but it's always going to be better when you are getting KOs into the endzone and punts with some hang time.
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Our coverage units were deplorable and it seemed, for whatever reason, all of the units lacked a cohesion and philsophy that continually played itself out in games. Having the kickers helps, which was something in and of itself how Campbell could repeatedly fail at getting decent kickers/punters/results, but our coverage units are night and day and that's definitely coaching. Especially when we are fielding, on paper, one of our least talented teams of the last 5-6 years.

Not disagreeing, with what you said, just saying I think it's a lot more than simply having kickers and returners. There's something to be said when the entire unit seems to act like and know WTF it's doing out there and that has been a problem for years.

Whatever the reason for the improvements (in totality) the entire fanbase can agree they are thrilled with what they/we are seeing. You can probably find people who disagree on any one topic, but there isn't a soul would would say "I'm so disappointed in our STs play". I literally couldn't handle seeing the dysfunction I saw last the last few years.
 
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Frak said:
I don't disagree with that. I just think that having Ramirez hitting most of his FGs and Shackford being healthy for kickoffs is the biggest piece. Bigger than any coaching or philosophy changes. We were good at KOR when Nwangwu was here. We were decent at PR when Trevor Ryen was returning punts. Seems like it has taken Noel awhile to grow into that role. Coverage has been up and down over the years, but it's always going to be better when you are getting KOs into the endzone and punts with some hang time.
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Who’s Ramirez?
 
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