Fall camp starts next week and I’ve got one more roster spot to discuss, special teams. Kind of a mix and match here for spots;
Kicker – starter Harrison Greenberg – This is my guess that going into fall camp Harrison will enter as the starter at kicker. Earlier before spring ball coach Delaney said he wanted to lock in on a kicker and have them set for fall camp, but followed up after camp that he wasn’t ready to make that call. Greenberg in spring ball was the most accurate overall that I saw. The prior complaint on Greenberg was accuracy on longer range kicks (40+ yards). So far with what I’ve seen in practices and spring ball, Harrison was the best choice for fieldgoals under 40 yards. I’ve not seen him kickoff in a while, can’t comment on that. Hopefully opening fall camp Harrison can show that the summer conditioning and strength program has helped with his overall range.
Kicker – backup Chris Lider – Lider’s a more powerful kicker than Greenberg, good with kickoffs that we’ve seen in games, but obviously has had accuracy issues, missing PATs, and not showing good consistency in the short range. While Greenberg needs to show improved range, Lider needs to show improved accuracy overall. I believe he was the least accurate of all 3 kickers in spring ball, from what I saw. Lider’s size and strength also helps with special teams coverage, compared to Greenberg, when needed as a last-effort tackler on kickoffs.
Punter – starter Stephen Shaw – Shaw’s a pretty darn good punter, he’s been listed on some pre-season lists as one of the better punters in the FCS. He’s got a powerful leg and can position punts to the sidelines very well. He’s had some issues with a slower kicking motion which has caused some blocked punts. Other comments this season have also been around consistency, with some ill-timed bad punts. The MSU game last year is a good example, both a blocked punt and then a punt that had no hang time which let MSU return the kick for a TD.
Starter – Kick & Punt Returner Ellis Henderson – Barring any health issues or some unconfirmed academic concern that some have posted on here, Hendu is the main guy for punts and kicks. He’s one of the better returners in the conference and even won a game for the Griz last year on a kickoff return.
Backup – Kick & Punt Returner Chase Naccarato – I believe Naccarato will be the 2nd string guy, there’s others that may challenge him but he’s been considered the back-up option for a few years now. He’s got experience as a returner in high school but hasn’t been asked to do it much at the FCS level.
Coverage Teams
- Overall I think the Punt and Kick coverage teams will be good, the reasoning why is that I like our talent and depth in players that will most likely be rushing down the field to get after the returners. We’ll be looking upon the depth at safety, corner, linebacker, and d-line for the most part, possibly some use of the younger WRs and TEs too. Many will have played ST last year as well, so this should be a good group overall.
- I’m a little more concerned with the fieldgoal blocking and kickoff/punt blocking teams. The reason why is that for fieldgoal blocking we’ll be relying upon an already thin group of O-line and TE players, many of whom had limited (if any) participation on special teams last year. The groups that will cover blocking for our kickoff and punt returners will have this issue a bit as well.
- Short snaps look go be handled by Tonga Takai, if I remember correctly, he backed up as the short snapper last year while Oiland handled most short snaps. Tonga looks to be the main guy this season.
- Aaron Held will probably be the long-snapper, he looked pretty good at it this spring. He’s mostly a snapping specialist, he may do some short-snaps too, we’ll have to see. The trick of course is adding a guy to the travel roster who only handles long-snaps, when in years past it’s been Jordan Tripp.
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Naturally fieldgoal kicking looks to be the biggest concern. Kicking has been shaky since the graduation/departure of Brody McKnight, and now Ben Worst has left to walk-on at Idaho. I think that the kicker who is best within 40 yards will be the guy who lands the job and the coaching staff may just decide that if they have a 4th down in between the 23 yard line and the 35 yard line that they might just go for it more often.
Kicker – starter Harrison Greenberg – This is my guess that going into fall camp Harrison will enter as the starter at kicker. Earlier before spring ball coach Delaney said he wanted to lock in on a kicker and have them set for fall camp, but followed up after camp that he wasn’t ready to make that call. Greenberg in spring ball was the most accurate overall that I saw. The prior complaint on Greenberg was accuracy on longer range kicks (40+ yards). So far with what I’ve seen in practices and spring ball, Harrison was the best choice for fieldgoals under 40 yards. I’ve not seen him kickoff in a while, can’t comment on that. Hopefully opening fall camp Harrison can show that the summer conditioning and strength program has helped with his overall range.
Kicker – backup Chris Lider – Lider’s a more powerful kicker than Greenberg, good with kickoffs that we’ve seen in games, but obviously has had accuracy issues, missing PATs, and not showing good consistency in the short range. While Greenberg needs to show improved range, Lider needs to show improved accuracy overall. I believe he was the least accurate of all 3 kickers in spring ball, from what I saw. Lider’s size and strength also helps with special teams coverage, compared to Greenberg, when needed as a last-effort tackler on kickoffs.
Punter – starter Stephen Shaw – Shaw’s a pretty darn good punter, he’s been listed on some pre-season lists as one of the better punters in the FCS. He’s got a powerful leg and can position punts to the sidelines very well. He’s had some issues with a slower kicking motion which has caused some blocked punts. Other comments this season have also been around consistency, with some ill-timed bad punts. The MSU game last year is a good example, both a blocked punt and then a punt that had no hang time which let MSU return the kick for a TD.
Starter – Kick & Punt Returner Ellis Henderson – Barring any health issues or some unconfirmed academic concern that some have posted on here, Hendu is the main guy for punts and kicks. He’s one of the better returners in the conference and even won a game for the Griz last year on a kickoff return.
Backup – Kick & Punt Returner Chase Naccarato – I believe Naccarato will be the 2nd string guy, there’s others that may challenge him but he’s been considered the back-up option for a few years now. He’s got experience as a returner in high school but hasn’t been asked to do it much at the FCS level.
Coverage Teams
- Overall I think the Punt and Kick coverage teams will be good, the reasoning why is that I like our talent and depth in players that will most likely be rushing down the field to get after the returners. We’ll be looking upon the depth at safety, corner, linebacker, and d-line for the most part, possibly some use of the younger WRs and TEs too. Many will have played ST last year as well, so this should be a good group overall.
- I’m a little more concerned with the fieldgoal blocking and kickoff/punt blocking teams. The reason why is that for fieldgoal blocking we’ll be relying upon an already thin group of O-line and TE players, many of whom had limited (if any) participation on special teams last year. The groups that will cover blocking for our kickoff and punt returners will have this issue a bit as well.
- Short snaps look go be handled by Tonga Takai, if I remember correctly, he backed up as the short snapper last year while Oiland handled most short snaps. Tonga looks to be the main guy this season.
- Aaron Held will probably be the long-snapper, he looked pretty good at it this spring. He’s mostly a snapping specialist, he may do some short-snaps too, we’ll have to see. The trick of course is adding a guy to the travel roster who only handles long-snaps, when in years past it’s been Jordan Tripp.
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Naturally fieldgoal kicking looks to be the biggest concern. Kicking has been shaky since the graduation/departure of Brody McKnight, and now Ben Worst has left to walk-on at Idaho. I think that the kicker who is best within 40 yards will be the guy who lands the job and the coaching staff may just decide that if they have a 4th down in between the 23 yard line and the 35 yard line that they might just go for it more often.
