So far I’ve assigned an A+ to the Hokie defense, a flat C to the offense. But Special-Teams have been…well…pretty wild is wholly so far this August. But is that necessarily a bad thing? So lets start with Punting, as this is the least……..
concerning of the two kicking elements, as we exit August Camp. Phil Steele had Bowden tabbed as the 86th best High School Punter, for my money that’s a little low. As Bowden received a rare specialist scholarship from Frank Beamer. Schmitt’s numbers are gonna be hard to top, nearly 5,000 career punting yards, and a nfity 42 and change average for last year. But my G2 people tell me that Bowden gets greater hang-time on his kicks, sans the occasional Schmitt shank. It should also be noted that Bowden is nearly a full 75 lbs. lighter than Schmitt, and will enjoy a quicker release and kick for it as well.
So I like our Punt game for 2007. But before I get to the Kicker(s), (as I’m wondering out-loud if 2007 will see more than one Kicker), lets look at recent Pride & Joy play, verses historic Frank Beamer Special-Teams. Last year we blocked, 3 total kicks. Historically Frank Beamer personally coached Special-Teams have averaged 5.65 swatted kicks per season. So that’s no small drop for such a vaunted Special-Teams unit. My spys say that Frank has done all he can to restore Pride & Joy to it’s former stature. In fact I’m told this is the most athletic set of kick blocking (both Punts and PAT or FGA’s I mean), Special-Teams that we have fielded in a long long time, possibly ever. So that’s the good side to 4 blocked scrimmage kicks this summer, as I expect we will snuff out at least 5 kicks this year, possibly even doubling up on our 2006 kick blocking tally.
Then there’s PAT & FG kicking. It is clearly unreasonable to expect any given kicker to trump Pace’s sizzling 95% 2006 campaign. That typed, it is worthy of concern to note that Dunlevy missed 1 PAT, and only went 4 for 12 on FGA’s this summer, while his longest make was only from 41 yards out. So there could be a bit of a cut-off in terms of range once the football is spotted and made ready beyond the 25 yard-line.
One part of our Special-Teams that I really like is the very dynamic versatility we will enjoy on Kick-Offs for 2007. Jared Deveill might want to give Colonel Steve Austin his leg back, because anyone with a 62% Touch-back ratio does indeed have a bionic leg. But Dunlevy is gonna give Frank a very solid 1-2 kick-off punch. When Frank has the wind at his back, he can go for touch-backs (under the new 5 yard further rules) with Develli, when he want’s coverage veses a low yardage Kick-Off return team, he can utilize the altitude that Dunlevy’s kicks enjoy. I like that, and I expect our first ever Kick-Off platoon to do rather well for itself.
So… I’m pretty high on our Kick blocking units, Punting will be better than the NC2A average, Kick-Off’s will be very good. But I’m not as sold on our Field-Goal kicking. So that lower’s my overall Special-Teams letter grade to a high B-. I don’t like it any more than you do, but I expect we see one 2004 NC.State kind of ending to 2007.
I’ll be back later with the schedule, and with the 8 or 10 win forecast, and where you should plan to spend your Hokie Holidays in terms of going bowling this year. b-st.
Loading ...