Johnny Rugby

Kind of lost in all the excitement was Johnny Rugby. What did you all think? 77 yard punt was awesome. I liked the rugby style punts helping get some coverage down field.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

My brother and I watched him practice before the game. The guy can kick and he did a great job punting into the wind. Samson is solid, let's hope that continues. How long has it been since our kicking game has been good? Too long.

Punts were awesome. I'd rather him sail it back to the end zone than try and finesse them.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

We have a very good day for the kicking game. I was really worried about it until that first punt. After that, I was excited to see the next one...well, I never like punting, but if we do have to punt, it is nice to watch an artist at work. I felt the same way about watching Arellano's booming kicks.



While Samson made his kicks, the trajectory on them was rather low. I expect that if those kicks don't get up a little higher, we are going to start seeing some blocked kicks. Kudos for making the kicks in a pressure-filled game, though. I always get nervous when watching us kick from the hash marks, but he nailed that one late in the game. I am quite sure Nebraska would have swapped kickers in a heartbeat. ;)

I'm just worried about the low trajectory on Linehan's punts leading to him out-kicking the coverage. I get that the roll-out on the rugby style kick is supposed to compensate for that reduced hang-time, but everytime I see that ball flat-lining across the screen I get a knot in my stomach praying that the coverage is there.

snoscythe wrote:
I'm just worried about the low trajectory on Linehan's punts leading to him out-kicking the coverage. I get that the roll-out on the rugby style kick is supposed to compensate for that reduced hang-time, but everytime I see that ball flat-lining across the screen I get a knot in my stomach praying that the coverage is there.

Yeah, I had a similar concern. Fortunately, the kick coverage team was there when the ball was fielded. That type of kicking definately requires the kick coverage team to maintain their assignments. Their isn't much time to adjust if they get out of their lanes.

As some old college coach put it, the Punt is the most important play in football. I thought Johnny Rugby did a good job. I wished that 77 yard punt had been 76 yards though... All in all, I was pleased with the kicking game. I thought that JR did a good job of punting away from the PR - even when they put 2 guys back there, they still only had 1 real PR opportunity that I can think of...

It was a much better game day than I expected from Linehan. In practice he was 1 good punt 1 bad punt pretty consistently, so to have all good punts was very nice.

Longest punt of the weekend 77 yards

Tied for 5th in net average 46 yards per punt net (for qualified punts - 2.5 per game played).

Tied for 2nd place for yards per punt 51.0 (for qualified punts - 2.5 per game played).



Not a bad day punting for the first time. ;)



I would not be hesitant to say he is probably the most dangerous punter if running a fake or a bad snap. And I would imagine a solid tackler if the returner gets past the rest of the players.



All in all I am excited to see how good he can really become.

imuakahuku wrote:
I would not be hesitant to say he is probably the most dangerous punter if running a fake or a bad snap.

This wouldn't surprise me at all if this play pops up at some point in the season especially with the rolling protection wall out in front of him.

I'm okay with a low trajectory as long as a) you're blasting them over the returner's head, or b) they hit the ground before the returner can catch it and start bouncing all screwy. If the returner has to turn around and run after the punt and pick it up, your coverage will get there. If they're trying to pick up a bouncing fastball, there's a good chance for a muff and a fresh set of downs for us. But low trajectory caught out of the air is dangerous.



My other reservation is the pooch punt downed inside the 5. In theory, Linehan can do this because it's just like a rugby foot pass, which he has demonstrated he can do well on many occasions. But we haven't seen it yet.

I think it could be said that it is medium risk, high reward. Meaning, that it will most often work out, but it is unconventional and will backfire occassionally. But so far so good. I. Not sure we will see some of the frequent pinning inside the ten that we have seen for the last few years.