Let's Start the Review with Special Teams
STILLWATER -- The other day at Oklahoma State practice in TDECU Stadium on the University of Houston campus I was sitting in the stands with Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy and we had just completed taping the pregame interviews for the Oklahoma State Radio Network when Gundy looking at the field said, "Check that punt out, he's (Tom Hutton) starting to get it and he's going to be a guy that can flip the field."
Gundy could have saved his breath, and I certainly should have saved mine and my writing in August, when I said and wrote that Hutton might be the most exciting newcomer to Cowboy football this season.
I had seen Hutton boom the football in practice and also do a great job of placing punts in order to maximize field position and aid in coverage to stop returns. I had seen the wicked curve that the ambidextrous Hutton could put on his punts, actually bringing them out-of-bounds and drawing them back into fair territory. I also saw the wicked spin he could put on his punts making them very hard for returners to catch.
I either ignored or did not pay enough attention to the shanks that he had and the issues he had with his drop on his punt technique.
Then in the Academy Sports and Outdoors Texas Bowl we saw it all. In the second quarter with Oklahoma State still up 14-0 off the early quick start on offense, the Cowboys had to punt from their own five-yard-line. A time for Hutton to flip the field, boom it out of the end zone, but instead a mis-hit and a shank that by the time the official marked it was a 17-yard punt giving the Aggies a starting point of the Cowboys 22-yard-line. The defense made them work, but six plays later it was 14-7.
In the third quarter, Hutton would show that booming leg and flip the field. The 28-year-old Aussie freshman crushed one 52-yards that was fair caught by the Aggies at their own 14. However, subtract the earlier shank and this boomer and Hutton punted three other times for 37.7-yards. Not good enough, it had to get better and more consistent.
"We didn't play very good in special teams," Gundy told me after the 24-21 Texas Bowl loss. "We had two bad punts and then we missed a very long field goal and then one that he is very capable of making. When you look at it, you make one of those field goals and there's your three points."
Also, those two bad punts led to two Texas A&M touchdowns drives on short fields. That's 14 points!
Oklahoma State will be breaking in a new PAT/field goal kicker next season as Matt Ammendola, who finished with two misses in the bowl game has been very solid. Ammendola missed a 53-yard try after that first turnover and the Cowboys got pushed back massively minus 11-yards after a second play fumble recovery.
He missed a 46-yarder later when the Cowboys tried to draw A&M offsides before actually snapping the field goal attempt and I thought it really caused missed timing on the kick.
Overall, Ammendola was consistent and good with his usual one poor game that Oklahoma State still won this season as he went 1-of-4 versus Kansas. The senior from outside of Philadelpia, Pa. was 20-of-26 on the season on field goals.
As for te rest of special teams, the coverage units were outstanding on both kickoffs and punts. Kickoffs were good with an ocassional issue with kick-offs going out-of-bounds.
Returns were average with kickoff returns averaging 17.8-yards and the longest was 29-yards until Braydon Johnson had a season long 38-yard return in the fourth quarter of the Texas Bowl loss to the Aggies. Punt returns, which are hard to really rev up these days were better with Dillon Stoner getting an 8.2 average on 20 returns. He had a long of 25-yards this season.
Former Alabama deep snapper M.K. Taylor and the departed Patrick Cashmore, who took a full-time coaching job at Pitt State in December, handled special teams this season.
The cry has been for a full-time special teams coordinator/coach on the staff as there hasn't been one since Joe DeForest left. DeForest left and Mike Gundy hasn't forgot that. The two were good for each other as DeForest was Gundy's first hire. He was an ace recruiter that kept that first recruiting class together while Gundy hired his first staff. It was a sensational job. The special teams haven't been as good since DeForest departed.
I get Gundy's end of this. DeForest left to follow Dana Holgorsen and it was frustrating. I get DeForest's part of this, he left to try his hand as a defensive coordinator and wanted to make a run to be a head coach. I also believe that DeForest realizes that he never enjoyed his job and what he was doing more than when he was at Oklahoma State. DeForest is at USC now as linebackers coach, but Trojans head coach Clay Helton just fired both his defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator after the bowl loss to Iowa. What that means for USC staff security I'm not certain.
Gundy needs to realize his special teams have never been better than they were when DeForest was in charge of them.
The physical answers are there. Hutton has shown all the good and just needs to fine tune to be more consistent. He had 58 punts this season and just two touchbacks, 29 were fair caught with no return, three were fumbled, 22 were downed inside the 20, and six were 50-yards or longer. That last number needs to go up.
Incoming freshman Brennan Presley from Bixby is a dynamite returns game candidate. He was electric in that role in high school and should be in college.
Jake McClure, who kicks off, or Alex Hale should be the answer for the PAT/field goal role. The Cowboys will also and have had their eyes out looking for kicking talent that could be added to the program. McClure is on scholarship as is Hutton.
The schemes aspect of it demands more. Special teams used to be a way Oklahoma State made a difference in games against teams that, on paper, looked better than they did and now it is often a disadvantage or neutral scenario.
It can't stay that way. It can't if Oklahoma State is going to take advantage of a potential returning 20 starters on offense and defense and a potential 41 players returning on the two-deep chart. That kind of experience coming back deserves strong special teams.
