re: FPRC's Florida Gators 2014 Football Preview

Analysis of 2014 Gator Special Teams

2013 Review

The 2013 special teams were not as bad as people make out. Yeah, the kicking game, specifically FG kicking, was not good, but the rest of the special teams were solid, just like 2012. Here are the stats from 2013:

2013 KR Defense: #7 nationally, 18.00 Yards per return
2013 PR Defense: #13 nationally, 3.77 Yards per return
2013 Kick returns: #10, 24.82 yards per return, 1 TD
2013 Punt returns: #37, 10.36 yards per return

That is pretty damn solid, and they did that without their best return man (Andre Debose) who was out all year and they lost some of their best special teams players, (Nick Washington, Jeremi Powell, Keanu Neal) to injury.

Areas where they were not good

Punting: #62 nationally, 36.78 yards per punt

That is REALLY surprising when you consider Kyle Christy broke Florida records with his amazing 2012 campaign and 45.8 average punt, and then really came in not playing well in 2013 and was eventually benched for true freshman Johnny Townsend.

Well, it appears things are looking better for Christy, who has reclaimed his starting spot, so things look brighter in 2014, but they weren't so great in 2013.

Kicking

OK, so Florida was 8-8 on FG's kicks between 20-29 yards. That's great. Yippy. That's like an extra point.

Florida was 3-6 on FG's kicked form 30-39 yards. Not good. Florida was 1-8 on FG's kicked from further than 40 yards away. That is REALLY BAD. Especially for a team that couldn't score.

For those that suck at math, that means UF's 3 kickers they tried, were a combined 12-22. That's really bad.

Here's an amazing stat for you about how unlucky Florida was last year - Florida's opponents were 22-23 on FG's against them last year. That is nuts. Opponents were 8-8 from 40 yards or more. Also hilariously high. The only FG that an opponent didn't make was the 1 that UF blocked.

2014 prospects

The KR and PR defense should both be very good units again. UF hired Coleman Hutzler to coach the special teams and he has a good pedigree doing it, and he has a lot of fast, tough athletes to choose from on the defense teams. Those units have all been consistently good for Florida for many many years, and no one sees that changing, especially with another strong 2014 recruiting class coming in with lots of people hungry to see the field.

The KR and PR units both look dangerous, although it is still unclear who exactly will return punts. It would be great to have VH3 back there, but so scary also, because you really don't want to see him get injured. It'll probably be Alvin Bailey or Demarcus Robinson, and in either case, it's a big play waiting to happen. Neither have done it before in a live game, so it'll be interesting to see if they can handle the pressure.

Muschamp has said he is very confident in Austin Hardin as the 2014 kicker. He was only 4-12 in 2013, but he was 4-4 in the spring game and Muschamp said at SEC media days that he is very confident from inside the 30 yard line (about a 47 yard kick). So things are looking up there.

The punting situation is going to be a strength in 2014, with Christy regaining his form and retaking the starting position. The coaches hope to redshirt Townsend.

All in all, this should be a very strong special teams unit once again.

Bonus Stat

Blocked kicks: Florida blocked 12 punts/kicks between 2011 and 2012. They only blocked 2 in 2013, but also had 2 blocked. Hopefully UF will get back to having big plays in this department in 2014.