International Centre for Special Teams Research

Well, the final regular season meeting of the ICSTR has been held, and judgment rendered on special team play in the UT game, which was, uh, 8 days ago.  Anyway, it was, by far, BG's most productive special teams game of the season, and really the first game where special teams play clearly put the opposition in a position where it was very difficult for them to win.

Of course, BG had three huge plays--2 blocked punts and one fumble recovery, and that combined with some good field position off kickoff returns gave BG 13 positive points.  Even cooler, there were only 2 negative points, which was far and away the best performance of the season.  We'll look at the year, in a second, but just to say that BG's special teams play had a clear role in the victory over the Rockets.


Bowling Green Positive (+13)

BG blocks punt (+3)
BG blocks punt (+3)
BG recovers fumble (+3)
UT kickoff returned to BG48 before penalty (+1)
UT kickoff returned to BG 40 (+1)
UT Kickoff returned to BG 45 (+1)
UT Kickoff returned to BG 40 (+1)

Bowling Green Negative (-2)

BG punt 28 yard net (-1)
BG kickoff return to UT 38 (-1)

Bowling Green Neutral

BG Kickoff returned to UT 32
BG xp
BG Kickoff returned to UT 33
BG Xp
BG kickoff returned to UT 20
UT punt 34 yard net
BG xp
BG kickoff returned to UT 27
BG 22 yard FG
BG Punt 37 yard net
BG xp
BG Punt 38 yard net
BG xp
BG kickoff returned to UT 33

The UT story is pretty much just a flipside.  Tough to win when your special teams don't do any better than this.


UT Positive (+2)

UT kickoff touchback (+1)
BG kickoff return to UT 38 (+1)

UT Negative (-14)

BG blocks punt (-3)
BG blocks punt (-3)
BG recovers fumble (-3)
UT kickoff returned to UT 37 with penalty (-2)
UT kickoff returned to BG 40 (-1)
UT Kickoff returned to BG 45 (-1)
UT Kickoff returned to BG 40 (-1)

UT Neutral

BG Kickoff returned to UT 32
BG Kickoff returned to UT 33
BG kickoff returned to UT 20
UT punt 34 yard net
BG kickoff returned to UT 27
BG kickoff returned to UT 33
UT xp
UT xp
UT 26 yd FG


Now, let's look at the season as a whole.  Below are BG's scores.  The headline is that with the gaudy numbers against UT, BG reached neutral on the season as a whole.  The special teams did improve, finishing in positive territory for each of the last four games.  The really poor special teams games (OU and Kent) in the past, BG played better if not great on the way home.

Now, below are the rankings for the opponents, who finished the year +6 and therefore 1/2 a point better than BG per game.  The UT game the highest number of negative plays made by any BG opponent this year.