This is Georgia special teams play, 2013 edition, in an effing nutshell:
Davis, a sophomore, said his emphasis has been securing the football on punts after some flubbed returns last season. Asked if he ever really felt comfortable returning punts last year, Davis replied, “Not really.”
“It’s really my fault,” Davis said. “I never blame anybody. I take full responsibility. I’m the one who got back there and dropped the ball. I didn’t look it in. Going back there and just doing too much and not letting it happen naturally is what caused me to do all that. But this year I’ve been taking a lot more focus on looking it all the way in and securing the ball before I do anything.”
It’s nice that you take full responsibility, Reggie, but there’s a coach or two who ought to share with you. It’s inexcusable to keep putting a kid out there who’s lacking proper fundamentals and knows it.
Get The Picture 
Indifference = lackadaisical = fumbles
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Ain’t it the truth. But they’ve done it over and over. They kept putting Mitchell and others back there after they’d proven they couldn’t do it. IDK who made the decisions on PR the last oh, 3 years. Or who coached them. But I hope they’re gone now. Or at least transformed in their thinking.
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I think the lack of confidence is an even bigger issue. I returned punts for a couple of games in HS and was pretty much terrified. You are looking up and you can feel the coverage coming and they are looking to knock your head off. Slow and white (me) was replaced with someone with a quick first step and way more swagger. You could probably hear my sigh of relief in the last row of the stands. I can’t imagine doing that on the college level without a ton of confidence. It’s lonely back there.
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Well said. It’s not for everybody.
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Very well said, indeed…all the conversation from the sidelines is well and good, but actually doing the job is a complete other thing.
Maybe Davis grows into the job, maybe not…I am just glad it ain’t me back there.
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Needed Kryptonite instead of Argon periodically
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Tough to feel confident when you know the coach only wants to do punt safe and any mistake and your ass is sitting all year.
Try doing your job knowing the first time you can’t clinch a fart all the way you’re on the street.
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Steve Spurrier likes the cut of your jib.
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I was thinking earlier today, if we bring special teams up to average from very crappy and cut our explosive plays / secondary miscues by 75% while performing on par in other areas, we should be at least 10-2 for the season
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I guess we will have to wait and see but the feeling about special teams this year actually feels “special”. I looking forward to seeing what UGA has come up with on that front this year.
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I think this just goes to show how hard it is to find a truly dynamic return man. We need a Logan Gray/Reggie Davis combo. Someone who is sure handed and fundamentally sound while also having God given talent, instincts and guts. Davis has half of it down and at least the part he’s been lacking in can be coached and worked out.
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Also… I expect Davis to be on a short leash with his history and McKenzie waiting in the wings.
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Well I sure am disappointed. You would think the coaches would know the kid feels this way and get someone else out there. If he doesn’t feel comfortable fielding punts then he will screw it up again and again. You first need to have somebody who is fearless. You teach the fearless kid to catch the damn ball first and foremost. After the ball is secured then and only then do you look to run. I’m hoping against hope that Isaiah is a natural at this and that he has some help from the rest of the team. Last year’s Special Team was just a damn bunch of spectators.
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I say it all goes back to mentoring among the coaches. Bobby Bowden never seemed to care much about the kicking game and I think that’s where CMR got the lack of emphasis from. However, to his credit with the Ekler and Pruitt new blood I think Mark has turned the corner. Of course that’s what I also thought when Belin made his 1 year pass through our galaxy.
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I wholeheartedly disagree. When Bobby Bowden was building FSU in the 80s, they came after punts, had sanders returning them and were burning Clemson on the puntarooskie. Also, the basically won a national championship against VT on special teams. His placekickera chokes against da U, but he always took change of possession plays very seriously.
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I don’t think it’s that far-fetched a hope, 69. I think Isaiah can do it.
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This is all armchair nonsense. Everyone drops punts. See LSU. Yet they finished 4th in returns last year in the SEC.
We suck at special teams because our coach won’t let us return punts and is scared to make a mistake. Period.
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The issue isn’t dropping punts. It’s being fundamentally sound.
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You suggest in your post that the kid didn’t get any coaching about catching the ball before taking off, all based off of inference from his quote where he’s trying to take the blame. It’s hard to reconcile that with a head coach who constantly proclaims the only thing he really cares about on punt returns is fielding the ball and not fumbling. I’m SURE someone told him to look the ball all the way in.
Also if “being fundamentally sound” when talking about catching punts means catching the ball, then yes, we’re talking about not dropping punts.
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He admitted he wasn’t doing that. He admitted he was uncertain about fielding punts. The coaches kept putting him out there.
Somewhere along the line, don’t you think there has to be something more than Richt saying it’s important to look the ball in?
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Ok, I read it differently at first but see your point. I still think Davis was just trying to take blame and is answering what sounds right to him. And I severely doubt he went to the coaches and said “I’m not comfortable back here.” But we’ll never know I guess.
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NOW he’s admitting to uncertainty, but perhaps he wasn’t admitting at the time because he didn’t want them to lose what confidence they had in him.
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Scared since ye old Starkville, MS HS Grad left the staff, Fabris drove crazy on directional kicks, but we did have a return game.
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If anything, shouldn’t Reggie be on kickoff and McKenzie on point return? Quick feet vs. straight line speed????
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Point return. I like that.
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Not neccessarily. The skills for punt return more closely allign with the skills required of a receiver, while kickoff return is more akin to running back. On punt return, you need to make the first guy or two miss and then outrun everyone. There is a lot more traffic management on a kickoff return.
There is a reason that, after watching Brandon Boykin return kickoffs, some of us thought he was the best tailback on the team. We were vindicated when they finally let him run the ball. His first carry was an 80 yard TD against Boise State.
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Go back and watch games and tell me how many times we fair caught when we actually could gave returned a damn punt. There is a reason you just return it folks aren’t coaches. Certainly not very good ones.
Do you actually realize how silly you sound? We’re in a blog about fumbling punts and you wanted us to take MORE chances. Then you blame the fumbles on the fact that we didn’t take MORE chances. Yeah…. Just return it! Lol! Smdh
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While everyone loves to see their team get a big punt return,
everything has to be weighed…risk vs return… CMR’s propensity to play it safe with punts was likely based on the knowledge that AM and the offense were so efficient that they could move the ball down the field from just about anywhere. It gave an opportunity to burn clock..and less of an opportunity to turn the ball over. Georgia didn’t struggle for lack of offensive prowess, but defensive. So you keep the O on the field with safe catches on punts. It made sense to me. Depending on how the offense is under Mason, we could see the same philosophy develop this year. I hope so.
It means CMR has so much confidence in the O that he doesn’t need to risk a fumble on a punt.
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That’s the other part of it, and, I agree 100%, but I’m not irrational. I think the just return it folks are probably the same people that think you have to storm the sidelines, in forehead vein popping fashion, to win titles.
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“Go back and watch games and tell me how many times we fair caught when we actually could gave returned a damn punt.”
Don’t you think that’s part of the problem with fielding the punt too, if the other team is already breathing down your neck?
Plus, plenty of other SEC teams seem to be able to actually return punts against the very teams we have so much trouble against.
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I don’t follow other teams with such scrutiny so I can’t really comment on them. All I know is that I attend most Georgia game and then watch replays and I didn’t see many times where we fair caught when there was a legit chance to return it. I guess some peopled idea of legitimate chance means every time the ball is punted. Besides…you generally don’t fumble the damn ball for lack of looking it in if you’re gonna fair catch it. 9 times out of 10 that happens because you get antsy trying to make the first man miss.
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I think the Melvin Ingram fake punt from the SC game in 2011 got in Mark Richts head a little bit. The other team was breathing down the returner’s neck because we were in punt safe A LOT more than other teams. When your primary responsibility on the play is to watch for the fake, you don’t really try to set up a return. Jabo is right, there were very few times that the returner had a chance when they called for a fair catch, but most of that was by design.
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