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Texas Tech football: Special teams vastly improved in 2018

ByMatthew Conner|
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Clayton Hatfield
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 24: Clayton Hatfield

After being a weakness in 2017, the special teams have been one of the biggest bright spots this year for Texas Tech.

What a difference a year makes.  In 2017, Texas Tech’s special teams, especially its kicking game, was a disaster as shanked punts and missed field goals plagued the team all year.  But thus far in 2018, the Red Raiders have enjoyed quite the turnaround in that aspect of the game.

Thursday, Texas Tech placekicker Clayton Hatfield was named as a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award given to the nation’s best kicker.  He is the only Big 12 kicker to be a semifinalist for the honor.

https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/1058012482458042369

After a 2017 season that was derailed by injury, Hatifled has returned for a solid senior campaign. This year, he has missed only one of his eleven field goal attempts while being perfect on extra-point attempts.

After changing his weekly routine so that he only kicks every-other-day, his leg strength has been noticeably better hitting all three of his attempts from 40-plus yards.  Certainly, it has been a return to form for the career 84.3% kicker who made only 6 of 10 field goal tries last year after returning prematurely from a preseason hip injury.

He ranks 8th in the nation in field goal percentage with a 90.9% success rate.  Additionally, Tech ranks 50th in the nation in touchback percentage on kickoffs at 55.56%

But while Hatfield is the only Big 12 kicker still in consideration for a national award, he is not the only kicker on the Texas Tech roster in the running for one. Wednesday, senior punter Dominic Panazzolo was added to the Ray Guy Award watch list for the award given the the nation’s best punter.

The Australian rugby-style kicker has been one of the Red Raiders’ best weapons this season.  He is third among Big 12 punters with an 41.7 yard average but that does not tell the entire story of his season.

As a key in helping Texas Tech win the field position game, Panazzolo has had 18 punts downed inside the 20 yard line.  He was named the Big 12 special teams player of the week following the TCU game and had six punts downed inside the 20 against Iowa State.

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That’s quite the rebound from his week-one performance in which he averaged just 33 yards per punt including a 12-yard shank.  After that game, Kliff Kingsbury openly criticized Panazzolo’s performance to the media but he stuck with the senior and that looks to have been the right more.

The play of Hatfield and Panazzolo has spearheaded a turnaround of the Red Raider special teams.  Tech ranks 12th in the nation in opponent punt return yards allowing a meager 1.3 yards per game (not yards per return).

That is due in large part to Panazzolo’s rugby-style of punting which kicks the ball away from return men and with a trajectory that makes returning the kick risky and unwise.  On the season, only three of Panazzolo’s punts have been returned for a total of just 10 yards.

On the other hand, Tech ranks 100th in the nation in kick return coverage allowing an average of 23.07 yards per return.  But take away the 94-yard kickoff return allowed to Ole Miss’ Jaylon Jones on the team’s second kickoff of the season and Tech’s averaging 18 yards per return which would be good for 23rd in the nation.

Much of the credit must go to new special teams coordinator Adam Scheier who was a quality control assistant at Ohio State last year and has been a special team’s coordinator for 18 seasons. Thankfully, Red Raider fans can finally move on from the disaster that was the 2017 season’s kicking woes.  Hopefully, with Scheier in place, we will never have to watch field goal attempts with our hands over our eyes ever again.

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