Punt is higher and allows better coverage vs kick off tee. Punts easily can go 60 yds or more in the air.
I don't know the stats but I can't imagine it is very often a D1 kicker shanking their punts on a freekick. Also I was curious as to why they didn't call a fair catch and I think the rule is that because it is a free kick, it is a live ball. So essentially once it bounces on the ground, they can no longer call a fair catch. So it looks like that kick and coverage could not have gone any better than how it occurred.
How many times did Mertz drop a snap in the game? How many slipping events happened during the game with a guy wearing cleats? Did any player clumsily trip in last 3 games? You know the answers Free kick - even a ‘shank’ would yield a 30 yard kick Coaching worked Be happy
Watching that video really makes we want to get our Special Teams back the way it used to be - back in the day.....
Not sure why questioning this is even a thing. I never thought of it as an option until I saw it play out in real time. When we did it, I thought…”damn, I didn’t think about that. But really smart call”. Again, not sure why this is being questioned. We won.
Napier looked surprised Beamer called timeout after first down. He thought take a knee and game over. Once he realized SC was going to take each of their remaking timeouts, then we tried to burn more time off clock.
I think taking the safety was definitely the correct call, although it did open up the prospect of us losing on a long field goal if there were shenanigans at the end (some type of defensive penalty on us). What was a bit dumb was taking an immediate knee on 1st down. Should have anticipated USCe would use their 3 time outs and killed a few seconds even in 1st down. We didn’t need to risk pulling a Miami, just don’t take the knee right away. Failing to do that is what made it a bit more… interesting… at the end. Our guys/coaches had their hands up like USCe should’t use their 3 timeouts. Which i thought was weird, esp considering we basically took no time on 1st down. Of course they were going to use their time outs.
Gator fans. Sad, but true. A play works exactly as intended to win the game for us, but gator fans think: "Well, maybe Napier could have won it in a different way!! He could have hiked the ball to the running back who could have run back and forth across the field like a chicken with his head cut off, hoping to grope a cheerleader along the way, and kill more clock! What a fool our coach is!!" "Well, maybe our offensive line should have grabbed the Cocks by the nuts and held them motionless while our running back groped the cheerleaders after running back and forth across the field!! That would have killed even more time than just groping cheerleaders!! Forget the penalty!!! That's not illegal!!! Stupid coach!!!" "Well, what a dummy our coach is!! Why did he use our kickoff guy instead of the regular punter to kick the punt!!! I don't care if it worked, or if our kickoff guy nailed the punt, dammit, this needs to be addressed!! No one asked ME!! And why weren't the cheerleaders involved?!?!!" " Why didn't we just throw deep? If our offensive linemen had the cock defensive lineman by the balls, and the cheerleaders were running all over the place trying to avoid being groped, the cock defensive backs would have been so distracted, it would be an easy touchdown!!! Damn that Napier!! We are entitled to RUTS!!" Go Gator armchair quarterbacks, go!!
The shanked punt is a risk in both scenarios, but a higher risk in a long snap play than a free kick. There was no ideal scenario there. Coach went with the higher probability of success and it was the right call.
Because Beamer has more confidence in his Special Teams to deliver a miracle then he does Rattler. Again, their coach made the right call as well.
Fans who need to prove they are smart and fill message boards with *ideas* from youtubers and tweeters.
My issue is that there should never have been a need to decide. I believe the QB could have evaded long enough over four snaps to kill the clock.
