ATHENS — Things had a different feel on special teams for Georgia last season.
The slippage was apparent not just in too many missed field goals or too many big returns given up, but by words left unspoken.
“It’s amazing how many times at the end of games people would come up to you and say, ‘Man you were great on special teams, we can’t believe how good you are.’ Well, we didn’t hear that a lot last year after games,” said assistant coach John Lilly, who oversees the punt coverage unit. “We’ve just got to do a good job of getting the right people in the right places and motivating them and doing what we need to do to be successful.”
Georgia this year will have a new kicker (freshman Marshall Morgan) and a new punter (freshman Collin Barber).
And, it hopes, better results across the board on its special teams.
Georgia ranked 116th nationally last season in punt coverage and 88th in kickoff coverage, and 11th in the SEC in field-goal percentage.
“We struggled last year,” said sophomore Damian Swann, who practices on several special teams units. “Hit or miss, that’s where we lost a lot of our games at last year. To be one of the top teams in the country, we’re going to have to be very good in the kicking game.”
Tight end Arthur Lynch said more time hasn’t been allotted to special teams in practices, but there’s more talk about being better at it.
“I just think it’s guys putting more effort into it,” said senior safety Shawn Williams, on the kickoff and punt coverage units.
Kirk Olivadotti, who oversees kickoff coverage, said he has about 14 or 15 players he feels good about using.
“Some young guys haven’t covered too many kicks, so you’ve just got to keep on repping them at those things,” he said.
Georgia will lean on veterans to help shore up the special teams.
“In the past, you’d say, ‘Hey, if your heart’s not in it, don’t get on the team,’ ” coach Mark Richt said. “You want guys whose heart’s in it, but this year we’re saying, ‘You change your heart. You get it where it’s in your heart that you want to be on special teams.’ That’s been more the demand here that we need for these guys to all join in and chip in and get us back to playing the type of special teams that a championship team would play.”
Georgia’s in-state rival also had its special teams issues last year.
Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson hired David Walkosky this offseason as his first special teams coordinator.
“Clearly from an organization standpoint and an emphasis standpoint when it’s that guy’s main objective and main priority, it’s a little bit different,” Johnson said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what happens this fall when we actually start playing.”
Richt didn’t change coaching duties for his special teams, which are divided up among assistants.
New rule
This year, there’s a new kickoff rule to take into account.
It will now be from the 35-yard line instead of the 30 and touchbacks now come out five yards more to the 25.
Georgia coaches want the ball booted out of the end zone.
“Yeah, I’ll give it to them on the 25,” defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said.
He said opponents who got the ball on their own 20 or inside that last year, scored touchdowns about 7 percent of the time.
“To me, a 75-yard drive or an 80-yard drive, that’s still a long way to go,” said Olivadotti, who studied data from last season and talked to coaches he knows in the NFL after its kickoff were moved up to the 35.
Olivadotti said the kickoff coverage this preseason has included “some good, some bad. I think we have a better understanding of how we fit and how we fit around. We’ve just got to keep on getting better at it.”
Georgia allowed two kickoff returns for touchdowns last season when it gave up an average of 23.1 yards per return and surrendered two punt return touchdowns, allowing 14.9 yards a return.
Richt is hopeful that the coverage units are improved, but said “we’ve just got to wait and see.”
Simulating special teams scout teams is the hardest thing to do in the preseason, Richt said.
“They just don’t run as fast as guys do in the game,” he said. “Until we play a couple of games, I’m not sure what we’ve got, but I think we’re going to do well, but I’ve really got to see it to feel better about it.”