2020 Outlook: With Turnover, How Special are UW's Special Teams?
Two years ago, the University of Washington football team put together a 9-4 season in spite of ranking 107th in special-teams efficiency, as tracked by Football Outsiders advanced metrics analytics.
Of the 10 teams ahead of the Huskies, just one had a winning record. Six of those teams had three or fewer wins.
Last year, UW special teams improved dramatically and, even with punter Joel Whitford graduating, appear to have enough pieces to keep moving up.
Kicker: Peyton Henry, junior
Even with a couple of big misses, most notably a game-winning attempt at Oregon, Peyton Henry had a decent 2018 season. He converted on 73 percent of his field-goal attempts (16 for 22), putting him 70th nationally in percentage. He also handled kickoffs.
It appeared the Huskies were looking to replace him when Tim Horn was brought in. Henry responded by making 19 of 21 field-goal attempts. He became just the third kicker in Washington history to post a season of better than 90 percent accuracy. The UW's field goal efficiency jumped up to 26th nationally and second in the conference.
Henry currently ranks as the most accurate field-goal kicker in school history, at .001 ahead of Husky hall of famer Chuck Nelson.
Henry and Horn splitting the kicking duties paid off two-fold. Henry improved on his field-goal percentage and Horn's demonstrated a big leg on kickoffs. Expect more of the same this season.
Kickoffs: Tim Horn, sophomore
In 2018, based upon the Football Outsiders advanced metrics analytics, finished 107th in the country in Special Teams Efficiency. That was not reflective of their 9-4 record. In fact, of the 10 teams just ahead of them only one had a winning record while six teams had 3 or fewer wins.
When they finished 107th in special-teams efficiency two years ago, the Huskies were dead last in kickoff coverage.
Enter Tim Horn. He was the sixth-ranked kicker nationally coming out of high school. Horn took over the kickoff duties from Henry and he lived up to his hype coming, ranking 24th in the country in kickoff efficiency. Henry put 44 of his 78 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks. His returnable kickoffs had average returns of just 20.0 yards.
Expect more of the same from Horn in 2020.
Punter: Race Porter, senior, or Triston Brown, sophomore
2018 Summary
Punting-wise, the UW specials teams found that 2018 was a season to forget. Most notably, punting. Joel Whitford missed games against North Dakota and Utah, and never was completely healthy. Race Porter handled the punting duties in his absence and had a 33-yard net average.
What that meant was the Huskies were losing ground in the field-position battle because the offense didn't get a first down and the defense had less room to defend. UW finished 107th in the country in punting efficiency.
2019 Review
Whitford saved his best for last. In his final season, he became an All-Pac-12 honorable-mention selection. Only two of his 50 punts went for touchbacks. He averaged 45 yards per punt, good enough for second all-time at UW. Porter punted four times and he and Whitford combined to set a school record for punt average with 44.6.
2020 Competition
Porter will compete with junior-college transfer Triston Brown for the punting duties.
Brown's resume: It shows him ranked as the No. 1 JC punter in the country. He also won the 2019 Vegas XXXIV national punting championship.
Porter's resume: Dan Raley noted in his player preview that "Porter pulled eight games as the UW's No. 1 punter in 2018 when Whitford was hobbled by a persistent injury. He averaged an admirable 41.9 yards per kick on 18 of them."
Forecast: Expect the battle to come down to a game-time decision. Brown might have a bigger leg but Porter has punted at D-1 game speed. Porter can also give the Huskies a gadget play instead of a punt because he has excellent speed.
Jaden Green, freshman Long Snapper
2019: The best thing about former snapper AJ Carty was that not many people knew his name. He was consistent as a long snapper. Between 2017 and 2019, he ably handled every long snap for the Huskies and was a semifinalist for the Patrick Mannelley Longsnapper Award.
Resume: Green rated among the top five in the country coming out of high school. According to his GoHuskies.com profile, Green registered a 41-mile-per-hour snap and an average snap time of .65 seconds at the Kohl’s Camp.
Forecast: Expect Green to take over with no trouble for Carty.
Kickoff returner: Sean McGrew, senior
2019: McGrew returned 12 Washington kickoffs for just under 20 yards per touch. He had a long of 42 yards against Cal. The Huskies ranked 30th in the country in yards per return.
Forecast: Look for more of the same from McGrew.
Punt Returner: Kyler Gordon, sophomore
2018: Dante Pettis set the NCAA record for punt-return touchdowns. Pettis finished the season letting the next punt returner know there would be considerable shoes to fill.
2019: The Huskies ranked 35th in the country in punt returns, which include a touchdown return by Aaron Fuller. In fact, Fuller ranked 11th in the country in yards per return with 250 yards on 22 returns. In all, UW had 25 returns for 268 yards, fifth most in the country, for a 10.72 average.
It's interesting to note that in each of the past two seasons the Huskies returned the same number of punts each time:
- 2018: 25 punt returns 458 yards, 4 TD. No. 1 in the country.
- 2019: 25 punt returns 268 yards, 1 TD. No, 35 in the country.
Gordon twice was named special teams player of the week by the coaching staff last season. As a gunner, he downed multiple punts inside the opponent's 2-yard line.
He saw limited duty as a punt returner but was a standout at this in high school. Gordon is instinctive with the ball in his hands and has the ability to make multiple guys miss.
Forecast:
Gordon has all of the tools to flip the field on punts. Expect him to be a top 15 punt- return specialist.
