2015 Special Teams - An Opportunity

Mar 28, 2015, 2:16 PM

Unless you just crawled out after 3 years in a cave, you have to tip your hat to the job Dabo Swinney has done with recruiting, creating a positive vibe at Clemson, winning as a favorite, and winning bowl games against big time National Brand powers such as LSU, Ohio State & Oklahoma. I am rarely bashful about sharing my thoughts on the program positive and negative, and the Coach Shaw visit to Clemson is just the latest shining example that there is a lot going right right with the Clemson University Football program. Thank you Coach Swinney!

As for 2015, our Tigers will be inserting some fresh talent on the Defensive side of the ball and the team has lost at least three players who simply cannot be replaced with one player of equal talent. We will be looking for some O-linemen to step up not only as starters but as All-ACC performers. This is a lot to ask for but this is Clemson and this is the Dabo regime, and we all expect some break-out 2015 stars. We may not be able to identify them but just as Artavis arrived in 2014, we look forward to the break-outs.

As for Special Teams, I see Clemson with a serious case of untapped potential. The last non-kicker special teams "return specialist" star I can recall is Derrick "The Noodle" Hamilton although Sammy absolutely made a special teams splash as a frosh. With Clemson's level of talent I do not like our conservative Special Teams approach, however returns of kicks and punts is an area IMHO that Dabo and our coaches have chosen to purposefully de-emphasize on a risk vs. reward basis. I see this as an area that Clemson can exploit against most athletically inferior competition in the ACC. And with some new starters on Defense, some additional points could prove useful in 2015 and beyond. What are your thoughts? Are we purposely conservative on punt and kickoff returns? Are there some potential return stars on the 2015 team? I am attaching a link which is an article of Bill Belichick and New England Special Teams coach O'Brien in 2014 super bowl season.

http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/belichick-ive-learned-awful-lot-obrien?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo

Possibly Coach Swinney could pick Coach O'Brien's brain. Just opening up some 2015 pigskin dialogue and interested in T-Net perspectives ...

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Teams has the most room for improvement (although OL cannot miss a beat). Last season wasn't nearly as problematic as the few years prior, but its a very anxious moment until I see a kick-off or a punt safely in our receivers hands. We still had a couple of muffs, but the numbers were down.

Step 2 to the equation is the run back. Would love to see kick/punt returns become a big threat again

And I'm not sure if its even practiced as Special Teams anymore, but I'd love to start seeing some punts blocked by our guys.....the Tigers have proven they can pressure an offensive backfield. Would be cool to see our guys earn a reputation similar to that VaTech enjoyed under Beamer not too long ago.

Having said that, our coaches do a terrific job with the players overall and it shows up on gamedays.

2015 Special Teams - An Opportunity

Good post. I agree of all the areas on the team, Special

that new surprise player who can punt, pass, catch and run

Re: that new surprise player who can punt, pass, catch and run

We also rarely try to block a punt and I would have liked to

Re: 2015 Special Teams - Great Assessment with on exception

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