Oct 6, 2012; Columbia, SC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks wide receiver Ace Sanders (1) returns a punt for a touchdown against the Georgia Bulldogs as South Carolina Gamecocks linebacker Damario Jeffery (33) and South Carolina Gamecocks wide receiver Bruce Ellington (23) follow in the first half of the game at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-US PRESSWIRE
I said it at the start of the season, I’ve said it almost every week since, and I’ll say it again.
Special Teams will decide South Carolina’s season this year.
Up to this point, the only special thing about that unit has been Ace Sanders returning punts. After what he did against Missouri and Georgia and LSU, I doubt many more SEC teams are going to punt the ball right at him. This gives Carolina two advantages.
One: Opposing punters used to just booming the ball downfield will have to angle their punts and either put less power into them, or angle them so far the they go out of bounds. If the ball stays on the field, and Sanders is anywhere relatively close to it, he’s going to try to catch it.
Two: Along the same lines, focusing a ton of attention on kicking to a spot on the field instead of the kick itself could get in a punter’s head. Brad Wing from LSU is one of the best in the nation, and he was angling kicks all over the field, blasting them to the sidelines and in many cases leaving them short. He called his performance the worst of his career.
Other than Sanders, though, Carolina’s special teams have been garbage.
Hell, just last week, when Wing had the worst game of his career, Tyler Hull averaged less than four yards per punt better than him at 37 ypp. On the season he’s punted 30 times and averaged 38 yards per punt. He’s landed just eight punts inside the 20 yard line this year.
The only bright side to his horrid play? Teams aren’t trying to run back punts against the Gamecocks. Opposing punt returners have averaged just 3.7 yards on only seven returns. Again, when you’re lining up under the ball at the 50 yard line, there’s really no point to try to return it.
If his average doesn’t get pushed to at least 40 by the end of the year, South Carolina might have had another 10 win season, but the didn’t get to Atlanta and they didn’t play in a BCS bowl game.
Since our field goal kicker hasn’t really kicked many field goals, the only thing I’ll say about that part of the special teams is, if a game comes down to a last second made field goal, you know the Gamecocks didn’t kick it.
The other horrendous aspect of SC’s special teams is it’s kick off team. Yes, the whole team is bad, not just the kicker (who’s awful).
The only stat you need to see to understand just how bad he’s been this season is right here: The Gamecocks have returned seven kicks this season. Just seven. SC opponents have returned 20 of them. That’s awful.
It’s not all his fault, though. When he doesn’t blast the ball out of bounds, opposing kick return units still have a good shot at returning the ball to the 35 yard line anyway. A lot of his kicks are right at the goal line or inside the five. Still, those opposing special team units have averaged 24 yards per return. If you only kick the ball to the five yard line, that means opposing offenses are starting at the 3o yard line almost every time… That’s not good.
Things can get better though. Hull does have a few 50 yard punts and targets inside the 10 under his belt. He has the leg, it’s just not really being used correctly all the time. The Gamecocks have a solid kick return unit (when they get the chance to return kicks), and Carolina has been so good on fourth down this year that a horrible field goal kicker hasn’t hurt them at all so far.