Texas football doing well on special teams but one specific area has Steve Sarkisian frustrated
Texas’ offense is turning out big plays. The defensive numbers are looking pretty good. How about the special teams? It’s mixed, according to coach Steve Sarkisian. Through five games, the second-ranked Longhorns are averaging 12.8 yards per punt return, which ranks 13th in the 16-team SEC. Oregon State transfer Silas Bolden, as electric as anyone […]
Texas’ offense is turning out big plays. The defensive numbers are looking pretty good. How about the special teams? It’s mixed, according to coach Steve Sarkisian.
Through five games, the second-ranked Longhorns are averaging 12.8 yards per punt return, which ranks 13th in the 16-team SEC.
Oregon State transfer Silas Bolden, as electric as anyone else coaches put back there, is averaging just 6.4 yards per punt return, which ranks ninth among individuals in the league.
Bolden averaged 25.2 yards per kick return at Oregon State and was one of the Beavers’ best all-around offensive weapons. His moment on punt return will come.
WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE: Follow A to Z Sports’ Texas Longhorns channel on YouTube.
See where ESPN’s analysis ranks Texas football’s chances to go undefeated the rest of the season
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian doesn’t care about the polls, and he sure doesn’t care about mathematical projections. But it’s interesting to see which team still has the perceived inside track to go the distance undefeated. Hint: it’s not Alabama or Tennessee. ESPN still projects second-ranked Texas (5-0, 1-0 SEC) to have the best shot at […]
On kick returns, the Longhorns are averaging 23.2 yards per return. Those numbers are skewed a bit since the Texas defense has allowed only three touchdowns all year. The Horns aren’t getting many chances to return kicks, and if Sarkisian had his way, they wouldn’t except to open second halves.
But with this being a bye week, the coach is clearing out every cobweb and scrubbing the baseboards so things look good when play resumes Oct. 12 against Oklahoma.
“I think our return game, it's been frustrating,” Sarkisian said. “In the kick return game, we just haven't gotten any returns. Haven’t had many kickoffs. First of all, when people don't score, they don't kick off. And secondly, we're not getting the returns in the punt return game.
“It was good to see Silas have a have an explosive return Saturday (20 yards against Mississippi State). But again, we still want to remain aggressive there.”
Sarkisian said kickoff specialist Will Stone “had a heck of a first half of the season.”
“I mean, people aren't getting kickoff returns against us, either,” Sarkisian said. “I don't know when the last one we had to go down and tackle.”
Bert Auburn is just 2-for-3 on field goal attempts this season and 31-for-31 on extra-point attempts.
