With the college football season right around the corner, the experts have already spent countless hours breaking down what to expect from the quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, offensive lines, defensive lines, linebackers and secondary units in 2016. However, the majority of them have failed to talk about another key area that often gets overlooked despite its importance: special teams. And we know for sure that specials teams is going to decide more than a few games this season. Here is a look at the top five special teams units in college football.
Kansas State Wildcats
The Wildcats had one of the best special teams units in the entire country again last season. Are you surprised? We all know that a Bill Snyder team will do all of the little things right and that is very evident in this aspect of their game. We are expecting similar results in 2016 even without dynamic kick returner Morgan Burns in the mix. Kansas State welcomes back punter Nick Walsh and kicker Matthew McCrane, and as long as they are under the guidance of coach Sean Snyder, the coverage units should be among the best in the nation once again.
Memphis Tigers
Memphis hired Mike Norvell to replace Justin Fuente as head coach and even though they lost special teams coach James Shibest we aren’t expecting major regression from those units. The Tigers return punter Spencer Smith and kicker Jake Elliott, who both performed at a high level last season. Memphis should also get a boost from return man Jae’Lon Oglesby, who averaged 23.5 yards per kickoff. The Tigers have the talent to field one of the better special teams units in the country and we aren’t expecting Shibest’s departure for Virginia Tech to have too much of a negative impact.
Tennessee Volunteers
The Vols made tremendous improvements as a unit last season and one of the reasons was special teams. They’re receiving a lot of hype heading into this season as a young team on the rise, and having a reliable special teams unit should only help.
One of their main weapons is punter Trevor Daniel, who averaged 45.7 yards per punt last year. Meanwhile, kicker Aaron Medley was excellent with his accuracy and has now hit 41 of his 57 field goal attempts over the last two seasons. Daniel and Medley both return along with kick returner Evan Berry, who averaged a ridiculous 38.3 yards per return. Factor in the presence of punt returner Cam Sutton, who averaged 18.7 yards per return, and it’s clear that Tennessee will have one of the better special teams units once again in 2016. They’ll need this aspect of the game to give them a boost as they try to make the climb in the SEC.
Stanford Cardinal
Kicker Conrad Ukraine hit 18 of 20 field goals, including the clutch game-winner in last year’s win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He should be one of the more reliable kickers in the country this season. The Cardinal will also benefit from the return of punter Alex Robinson, who averaged 42.4 yards per punt a year ago. That’s important as field position will come into play in some of those key battles against USC or Oregon.
Pete Alamar is regarded as one of the best special teams coaches in the entire nation and as long his units build off their performance from 2015, Stanford should have a top-five special teams unit this coming season.
Oklahoma Sooners
If there is one constant for Oklahoma teams coached by Bob Stoops, it is solid special teams units. They have consistently ranked among the best in the country many times during his long tenure. That should be the case again in 2016 with Austin Seibert back in the mix handling both the punting and kicking duties. Seibert hit 18 of 23 field goal attempts and averaged 42 yards per punt. The Sooners are in good hands as long as Seibert is healthy.
It seems like so many teams make costly special teams mistakes that lead to painful losses – either bad coverage, punts or missed field goals – but rarely do you see Oklahoma fall victim to that sort of thing.
