Football Review: Special Teams, punting

Next, we look at the special teams for the Falcon football team, which were improved over 2010 and really one deficient in one area.  We'll save that one for later today.

Let's start with punting, perhaps the bright spot for our team this year.  Brian Schmiedebusch was the All-MAC punter, and had a fantastic year for BG.  He's a football player--he went to Findlay as a LB--and we can look forward to his work for two more seasons.  The punt is a huge play, and he made numerous kicks this year that flipped field position and made a material impact on the game.

Last year, BG was 4th in net punting at 35.6 yards.  This year, we were second at 38.8.  Schemiedebusch was actually third in punting average, but his punts were difficult to return, and that helped to neutralize some of the opponent's best skilled players.

Here's the key stat.  In 2010, BG had 10 punts over 50 yards.  In 2011, BG had 19.

BG has not been blocked for the last two years.

So, put punting in the +1 category.