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football Edit

All hands on deck for West Virginia football special teams units

Koonz is in charge of the West Virginia Mountaineers football team's special teams units.
Koonz is in charge of the West Virginia Mountaineers football team's special teams units.

West Virginia is looking for any edge it can get in the area of special teams.

It is a department that head coach Neal Brown and company take very serious as it was one of the primary focuses of the Mountaineers leading up to the season. It's also why the head coach has been disappointed with the play of the units to date.

The emphasis has been on technique and effort which will translate into games, something that has yet to occur on a consistent basis yet.

“That’s two things that make plays,” Brown said.

The word edge is important because those are the plays that the Mountaineers label as game-changing ones in that area of special teams. Whether that be pinning a punt inside the two-yard line, a kickoff return for a touchdown or a punt block, those edge plays help to swing football games.

Some of those are occurring such as the pinned punts, but others have been an issue this season including allowing one kickoff return for a touchdown and having another called back by penalty in the opener.

That’s because they are the plays that either steal a possession, increase opportunities or score for your team or statistically help to prevent the other team from scoring. And all of that typically can happen in a single play on special teams due to the nature of it.

Those are more limited than the traditional offensive or defensive plays but are still just as significant in the grand scope of the results from football games.

“You might only get 30 plays of those in the game where you might get 65-70 snaps of offensive and defensive plays but those can be more impactful on the game,” coordinator Jeff Koonz said.

Koonz, who has previously coached special teams at his past stops, fully recognizes the importance of the often forgotten third phase of the game.

Those plays are significant in every game but even more in those close games that can be turned on one single play.

“Everybody has seen the 6-3, 10-7 type ballgames, well those are when special teams are going to matter,” Koonz said.

West Virginia treats special teams as all hands on deck, with even starters available to be used on the various teams depending on their role and what they can accomplish without minimizing their productivity.

Still, expect that when the Mountaineers need a play in that phase there will be more players on the field that you could also see in the starting lineups.

“If we’ve got to get a game changing play or if we got the hands team out there we’ve got to have our guys out there that can get us on the bus home,” Koonz said.

It’s a selfless mentality but one that has worked well for Brown over the years as a head coach. Still, there are areas that still will need addressed from last season such as finding a consistent punter after the graduation of Josh Growden to improve on the net punting statistic, while also finding a way to improve punt returns after the program only was able to muster 55 yards on 12 returns with a long of 16.

Both of those have continued to be inconsistent in 2020, something that must change. And because of that the Mountaineers haven't been shy either when it comes to mixing up their specialists as well utilizing multiple options on kickoff and punter.

The Mountaineers have used both Tyler Sumpter and Kolton McGhee at punter, while Casey Legg has assumed the starting role at kicker after the injury to Evan Staley.

"With our punting, we need more hangtime and so we'll probably continue to use both of those guys in both those roles," Brown said.

As the Mountaineers saw first-hand already in 2020, special teams decide ball-games and that means being in best position to succeed.

“It’s all hands on deck,” Koonz said.

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