West Virginia must improve on punt returns

To Neal Brown, there is no harder job in football than returning punts.

That doesn’t excuse the fact that the Mountaineers have already put two punts on the ground in return situations, one of which was recovered by the opponent.

But it does provide some insight into the challenges that come with being tasked to handle that spot during the course of a game.

The primary punt returner on the season has been redshirt sophomore Reese Smith but he has only mustered 8 return yards on 4 attempts to go along with those two muffs.

The first played a significant role in the outcome of the Kansas game as the ball bounced off Smith and into the arms of a Jayhawks defender after the defense had just recorded a stop. It would take only six-plays later to cash that miscue into a touchdown.

The second wasn’t as costly and was largely affected by the weather as Smith tried to track the ball down in a gusting wind inside of Lane Stadium against the Hokies.

“It was an odd wind. It was really blowing hard toward our locker room but it was almost blowing down at you,” Brown said. “The punter at Virginia Tech is really good. He’s averaging almost 50-yards, but short answer it was really difficult the other night.”

Fortunately, this time the ball bounced out of bounds giving the offense a chance to turn that into points in the 33-10 victory over the Hokies. But the theme remains the same, regardless of the difficulty.

“We’ve got to be better. We put two on the ground, we’ve got to be better,” he said.

Part of the difficulty of fielding punts outside of the elements, comes in how the art of punting has changed so drastically over the years. At one point, the pro-style punt was essentially shot down the middle every time and allowed returners to read the hips of the punter to determine the direction.

Now with the influx of Australian punters that have the ability to kick the ball in a variety of ways it has made things even more challenging when it comes to covering space.

That’s especially true in situations where the punters can spray the ball to all areas of the field with different rotations such as backward end over end, forward end over end and various spirals. That’s part of the appeal to finding those style of punters given the way they can often kick it with either foot.

“With all the Australians they punt it across their body all the time. You’re talking about covering 53-yards all the time,” Brown said.

Regardless the reasoning and degree of difficulty that Brown places on the task, there is no question that West Virginia must improve in that department not just in the realm of cleanly fielding the punts but attempting to generate returns.

Punt return must improve.

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