Kickoff Coverage a Concern for Oklahoma State

The Cowboys rank near the bottom in kick coverage, while Kansas State leads the conference in yards per return.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:00 pm

By: News On 6

Kickoff Coverage a Concern for Oklahoma State

Originally Published: Oct 25, 2010 5:35 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

STILLWATER, Oklahoma -- One of the most troubling matchups for Oklahoma State as they head into Manhattan is in the kicking game.

Kansas State is second in the nation in kick returning, averaging 29 yards per return, while their top return man William Powell ranks second in the nation with 34 yards per return and took a kick 100 yards for a score against Baylor. Conversely, the Cowboys allow 34.3 yards per return, ranking 119 out of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

“[Special team coach] Joe DeForest and I started on that this morning at 6:15,” said head coach Mike Gundy. “We will face a really good kick-off returner. Our players need to come in tomorrow ready to go to work.”

Perhaps part of the reason the Cowboys have been so poor on kick coverage this season is the sheer number of kicks they have had this season. OSU ranks in the top-five nationally in kickoffs per game with 67 this season – which averages to nearly 10 kicks per game.

“We kick the ball off a lot because we score so many points,” said fullback Bryant Ward, who also plays on special teams. “We always go out and practice hard. We just have had some rough patches on kickoffs. We have some wrinkles we need to iron out.”

One solution that has been considered is using starters from other areas of the team on kick coverage, however it’s not a solution that the coaching staff is comfortable with.

“You can take starters and put them out there. But if something happens to them because you don’t ever want to play tentatively, then that guy who was a starter is no longer a starter,” Gundy said. “The guy backing him up could be a freshman. No he’s playing 70 plays a game, not on kickoff, but now on your defense.”

For the players on the kick coverage team, the solution to their coverage woes is not a matter of who is covering them, but how they are covering them.

“It is hard to just tell yourself to keep sprinting because in the back of your mind you are thinking it is going to be a touchback,” Ward said. “You have to always think that it is going to be returned and you can’t let up until the referee blows the whistle.”