Ducks Attack Speaks With Jackson Rice

[Mops]

http://ducksattack.com/?p=338

[duckgrad99]

Having a great punter is huge. Special teams often makes the difference between winning and losing. Pinning opponents inside the 20 will also help our defense.

[UOducksTK1]

Nice write-up AJ.

Jackson is a stud. It'll be nice to rely on a punter. Up until Syria, our punting has been very inconsistent.

[woundedknees]

The next Bidwell?

[jasnwip]

I think we got a little spoiled with our kicking game the last few years and I almost forgot what it was like not to have a good punter and kicker. This year I got reminded. Our special team were way down and our kicking games were the worst....IMO. It will be great getting these two young guys in and hopefully that can both be All Americans down the road.

We don't talk about the two kickers a whole lot when talking about recruiting but these guys were two of the best in the country at their positions and could have easily been rated four stars. Just more to look forward to....................GO DUCKS

[stewbertwilloughby]

Josh Syria was a great punter. I don't know why people say he sucked. He pinned more punts inside the 10 than anyone I can remember.

[duckgrad99]

Josh Syria was a great punter. I don't know why people say he sucked. He pinned more punts inside the 10 than anyone I can remember.

He was pretty good, but I wouldn't call him great.

[greenyellow]

For me, the punting was fine; it was the kicking for FGs and kickoffs that was bad. Evensen, in particular, seemed to have no control on where his FGs and kickoffs went. His kickoffs were the worst because they always seemed to be either really short or out of bounds. Having kickers that can boom the ball with accuracy would be nice. I think we got that with our kickers now on the roster.

[Coastal Duck]

greenyellow echoes my feelings - on Evensen especially - it HAS to be discouraging for a defense to have only 60 yards to defend instead of a possible 80 (or more on occasion) - HUGE difference. Plus a lot of guys on the STs just want to get down the field and make some serious contact with the opps (same on a ball that goes out of the end zone - just different).

I'll take my chances with a guy returning it all the way versus an automatic spot at the 40 yard line. If you want to keep the ball away from a dangerous return man, squib it away from him - just keep it between the lines!

[woundedknees]

My personal preference on kick-offs is to see the ball deep in or out the back of the endzone, such as we have only seen recently int the 2007 Sun Bowl. Why should that be impossible the rest of the year?

[briarduck]

Great article and I love the fact that this guy is a FB player who punts...

Special Teams/Kickers are often "overlooked" or "taken for granted" by fans and when they don't preform well they find out what a big deal it is to have top notch kickers, so I'm happy as hell we got two really good ones and I hope it translates onto the field!

As far as last years guys our P Syria did a great job while our KO was great then poor, how can Evenson be so inconsistent is beyond me, but Morgan Flint did a great good with FGs so I'm confident that we are set there in the future.

Let hope we have our new Bidwell because that would be huge for us!

GO DUCKS!!

[Oregonian]

All I want is improved kick returns. Ball handling was atrocious. The dropped punt at Cal was a dagger.