Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

The Ducks have a late addition to the 2018 recruiting class, Aussie punter Tom Snee. Snee was the last visitor this weekend who remained unidentified and committed after being offered a scholarship so Cristobal and ST coach Bobby Williams must think highly of him. While it does potentially take away a spot from the 2019 class, he could really help out our struggling punting unit.

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Nice!

Impressive hang time on those punts.

Huge get for our defense, right?

If anyone was curious as to how bad we were in punting last year: We were really bad. 123rd out of 130. Arizona was the only P-5 team worse than us. 34.35 net average. It's not a return issue either, because only had 131 return yards given up, and half of those came to Dante Pettis on one return.

We weren't any better with Ian Wheeler in 2016: net average of 34.62.

To put that in perspective, Texas averaged 44.19 yards per punt last season. We're spotting teams an extra 10 yards because of some bad punting. We had 65 punts last season, even if we're improving that average to be a middling team that's an extra ~300-350 yards of field position over the course of a season. I will give Adam Stack credit for being good at avoiding touchbacks and limiting return opportunities, but we need more than 35 yard punts.

pezsez1 wrote:Huge get for our defense, right?

You'd sure hope so. I seem to remember Utah's Aussie kickers giving their defense great starting field positions because of how accurate and deep their punters could kick.

This is one of those things that gives me hope about Cristobal despite my big doubts about his game philosophy. Attention to details like LS and Punter.