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Fielding punts at the 3-yard line

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Mklein13 said:
I'm talking about the 2017 season when people were complaining about Berrios fair catching too much.

This year I'd put George or maybe a guy like Joseph back there.
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My fault. I thought your comment was about Restrepo.
Berrios was more than solid as a punt returner. I agree with you that he was the best option and came through against FSU when needed as a punt returner.
 
AtlAtty said:
My fault. I thought your comment was about Restrepo.
Berrios was more than solid as a punt returner. I agree with you that he was the best option and came through against FSU when needed as a punt returner.
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Nah you are all good. But yes I think we could do better than Restrepo but he's going to be the guy for now so we will have to deal and hope he shows out.
 
We have players with good hands that are faster & have more wiggle (Ray Ray, Jacolby, Harrell). We’re leaving a lot of yards on the table with an uber-conservative approach to kick returns. Even 7-10 more yards of return can make a significant difference in terms of giving the offense room to operate (and not go into a shell).

We should have a threat to house one back there so we put pressure on the opponent in every phase of the game. We’re conceding yards in a game sometimes decided by inches.
 
JayCane20 said:
Luckily we had a few bone-head moments in a game like that where it didn't matter. This being one of them.

Easy to coach and expect him to never get it wrong again.

Tell LT to quit crying to the refs about being held. He was held 20% of the time and ended up on the ground 25% of the time on his own doing. Fix that and maybe the holding will be more evident.
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LT did not play a good game at all.
 
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Canegrad89 said:
We have players with good hands that are faster & have more wiggle (Ray Ray, Jacolby, Harrell). We’re leaving a lot of yards on the table with an uber-conservative approach to kick returns. Even 7-10 more yards of return can make a significant difference in terms of giving the offense room to operate (and not go into a shell).

We should have a threat to house one back there so we put pressure on the opponent in every phase of the game. We’re conceding yards in a game sometimes decided by inches.
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I have posted the below before, but teams are not returning punts nearly as often as they used to for a variety of reasons and Mario seems like the type that would rather play the return game conservatively. The below addresses kickoff and punt returns and you can see that - at least last year - Miami did pretty well despite it not really feeling that way. Maybe if our defense plays better we can get some more punts and have there will be the opportunity to return more of them.

Believe it or not, Miami was actually the 2nd best team on kickoff returns and 30th on punts. There is certainly room for improvement on the punting side, but I don't think it is was as bad as most people thought.

I think the reason that people think Miami was so bad a due to a few things:

1) While the team ranks high/relatively high they have done that through consistency as opposed to breaking off long returns

2) We have been spoiled by players that were really good at it in years past

3) Return averages are down across all of college football. Through a combination of rules changes, analytics and kickers getting better (particularly punters), teams are not returning as much as they used. This article is a few years old now, but it shows how teams are not punting as much as they used to and receiving teams are fair catching much more than they used to.

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Punts
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Looking at the top 50 teams (b/c that is the first page of the results) teams only returned on average 1.333 punts per game. From a quick glance below, you can see there are some outliers (ex: Alabama, Louisiana, Southern Miss, Nebraska) but most teams were right around that 1 punt return per game mark

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Suhrthing said:
Maybe he saw the PF call Rok! Maybe he knew he head a free play Rok. Like a an offsides shot down the field Rok! Did you every think of that ROK!
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Like saw the PF before it happened? Interesting.
 
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I’m concerned about the hits he’s taking returning punts.
Kid is too reluctant to fair catch.
We can NOT afford to lose him.
 
I’d be willing to bet if you found a formula to compare not having a return man back on punts vs having one, the results would be close to identical if you averaged all D1 teams (which means you exclude (FBS vs FCS games).

Lost yards on returns and fielding punts that would have been touchbacks would be close to yards gained. Turnovers that led to scores for the other team would probably be more than scores, punt returns led to.

It would be similar to kickoffs. I think kick returns have proven that if you don’t have a true game breaker, there’s no point in trying. Just fair catch it and take the ball at the 25.
 
He really doesn’t offer much in terms of returns. I agree I prefer George back there for all but this week. This week I want to see him fair catch it to all ****
 
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It was stand on the 10 in HS, 8 in college, and now it seems like the 2. Every game it seems like I am wondering why they are fielding that. 🤷‍♂️
 
Cribby said:
In this game I want X back there and nobody else.
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A&M will likely score 30+ points this yr. We’ll need to take calculated risks to keep up. Petrino & Weigman have dramatically improved their offense. A&M was absolutely beatable last yr. They are a much better team this yr & far more dynamic in the passing game.

TVD’s injury seemed to really bother him in the game against Miami. Hoping it has healed more & he’ll revert to his best form for this game. Being objective here, if TVD plays the same way he did against the RedHawks (because of his hand injury), we may struggle to score 20+ pts (even with the much improved OL & quality stable of RBs). So, we can’t be leaving yards on the table in any aspect of the game. Too often, we’re not even trying to get any yards after the ball is caught (even in situations where attempting a return is a good decision).

We don’t have the luxury of being conservative in this game or we run the risk of being able to say: “Well, at least we didn’t turn the ball over on our kick returns…and we only lost by 18 so that’s not terrible.” When establishing a winning culture, you have to play to win (not keep it close). That means taking calculated risks. They may work & they may not but at least you show the team you’re going all out to win.

I don’t expect TVD to be 100% no matter how hard he tries or how much rehab he gets on his hand. I hope I’m wrong on that. That will limit our offensive output, if it’s correct. So, we’re likely going to have to take some risks to keep up in this game.
 
Mklein13 said:
Nah you are all good. But yes I think we could do better than Restrepo but he's going to be the guy for now so we will have to deal and hope he shows out.
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Most of the speed and electric guys on the roster are freshmen, Washington, RayRay, CJ etc

Hoping we see some chances for guys when we play those few games in between A&M and UNC maybe someone emerges
 
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