Husky Special Teams Haven't Been Special, Especially the Punt Coverage

The UW has given up multiple breakaway returns this season.

Indiana's Myles Price (4) returns a punt 65 yards against Washington. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter at Indiana, the University of Washington football team went 3-and-out, bringing Jack McCallister onto the field to punt from his 27.

On a sunny fall afternoon in the Midwest, McCallister's Huskies might have been struggling, but he was having one of his best days. On the opening series of the game, he had launched one a personal-best 62 yards. On this day, he would average a healthy 53.8 on four punts, his best outing involving multiple kicks

This McCallsiter boot sailed 52 yards, with the Hoosiers' Myles Price gathering the ball in at the Indiana 21, with the coverage guys converging all around him.

UW seniors Daniyel Ngata and Carson Bruener were first on the scene, but a block took out Ngata on the right side of Price and Bruener dove and missed on the left.

Among the next wave of tacklers, freshman Peyton Waters overran the returner and reached for him in a futile manner. Redshirt freshman Elinneus Davis dove and couldn't stop him at the Indiana 45.

Price ran all the way to the UW 14 before freshman Adam Mohammed took him out with a sideline tackle, bringing a 65-yard return to an end. Considering where the play began and where it ended, the Huskies experienced a negative 13-yard change of possession.

The Hoosiers scored in four plays, pushing across their last points in a 31-17 victory, made easier by the UW's season-long inability to cover the lanes and get the return specialists on the ground.. This 65-yarder was not the longest runback against the Huskies this season, not even close.

"We have to find a way to be better in special teams," UW coach Jedd Fisch lamented in the postgame media session in Bloomington. "If that means to continue to change personnel, if that means continuing to emphasize hang time, if that means continuing to get off blocks, we're going to have to find a way to do that."

The punt coverage team has been a mix of blockers who can double as tacklers who team up with linebackers, running backs and a defensive back.

Should the Huskies choose to tinker with this punt-coverage team, the changes would come from among defensive tackles Sebastian Valdez and Davis, plus edge rusher Jacob Lane, who form a three-man wedge of blockers for McCallister, who takes long snaps from Colorado transfer Cameron Warchuck; and players who come off the line of scrimmage and release into lanes in linebackers Drew Fowler, Khmori House and Bruener, a safety in Waters, and running backs in Ngata and Mohammed.

Unfortunately for the UW, they've just haven't been very good with this fourth-down, game-day responsibility, whether it be punts or kickoffs.

Northwestern's Joseph Himon II returned a kickoff 96 yards against the Huskies and didn't score. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Washington State's Tony Freeman returned the first punt of the Apple Cup 33 yards to the UW 29, setting up a game-opening field goal in a rivalry outing the Huskies lost 24-19 at Lumen Field.

At Iowa, the Hawkeyes' Kaden Wetjen got loose on a 37-yard punt return to the UW 35 in the second quarter, leading to a touchdown pass and a 17-7 lead in a game the Huskies lost 40-16 in Iowa City.

These special-teams gifts haven't been confined to just losses on the road either. Against Northwestern, the Huskies gave up a 96-yard kickoff return to Joseph Himon II that came to a stop on the 2-yard line in the fourth quarter of their 24-5 victory at home. Somehow Elijah Jackson made a saving tackle and the UW proceeded to pull off a successful goal-line stand.

On the average, the UW gives up kickoff returns of 25.7 yards in comparison to their own 21.3-yard runbacks, and punt returns of 16.3 yards that is nearly triple the Huskies' return rate of 6.7.

"There are certain things that are especially disappointing," Fisch said. "Punt coverage, yes."

It's been a season-long gift that keeps on giving.

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