Texas Longhorns Football Report Card: Special Teams

We continue our Texas Longhorns Football Report Card with special teams.

Texas special teams took on a whole new identity in 2014. Anthony Fera handled the kicking and punting duties in 2013. His graduation left both jobs open to new faces. This left Longhorn fans with an uncertain feeling on his replacements for the 2014 season. It was a feeling that troubled fans early in the season.

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Nick Rose assumed the place-kicking duties. Everyone knows he has a strong leg. Rose handled the kickoff duties the previous two years. Most of those went out of the back of the end zone. But as far as kicking field goals, he had never attempted one in a game. He had three extra point tries to his name.

Rose started off shaky, missing field goals in four of Texas’ first five games. His miss against BYU on the Longhorns first drive of the game seemed to take the air out of the sail. We all know what happened after that. Against Baylor, Rose had a kick blocked that was returned for the only score of the first half. While the blocked kick was not his fault, it swung momentum in Baylor’s favor and helped the Bears escape Austin with a win.

Rose settled down after that, missing just three kicks in the final eight games. He even had a game-winning kick versus Iowa State. Still, you always wondered whether he was going to make a kick or not.

William Russ handled the punting duties to start the season. By all accounts he had a very good season. Russ averaged 42.3 yards per kick. This was good enough to place him fourth all-time in school history in punting average. He had kicks of 50 yards or greater in seven of the ten games he played in. He had two kicks travel 64 and 66 yards, respectively.

For some reason Russ was replaced by another senior, Michael Davidson. Maybe it was Charlie Strong giving a guy who had spent his college career on the sidelines a chance to see the field. There wasn’t much of a drop off with Davidson. He averaged 42 yards per kick.

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Texas Longhorns

The coverage teams did a commendable job. Only one kick was returned for a touchdown. It was a big one, however. Oklahoma’s Alex Ross returned a kick 91 yards for a score. This happened to be one of the few kicks Rose did not put deep into the end zone. The short kickoff shifted the momentum back to the Sooners after Texas had taken the opening kick and marched down the field for a field goal.

The punt coverage teams did well to prevent many big returns. This is impressive considering how many 50 and 60 yard punts the Texas punters had. This unit gave up just two punt returns of 45 yards or more.

Jaxon Shipley and Quandre Diggs were reliable as expected returning punts. The kickoff return men, no matter who was back there, did not generate much in the way of field position. Marcus Johnson had a costly fumble on a kick return against BYU.

The special teams unit finally had a coach designated to coach it. I’m not sure how much of a difference this made, but the unit performed well at times. Let’s put it this way – it wasn’t a liability like some of the other units were this season.

Grade: B-

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