Does Kentucky football have a special teams problem? Numbers suggest it’s not that simple.
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Special teams miscues led directly to Kentucky football’s 22-19 loss at Ole Miss.
But the Wildcats do not necessarily have a special teams problem, according to head coach Mark Stoops.
“If I say I’m pleased with my special teams y’all would laugh at me and put headlines in the news,” Stoops said Monday, two days after the frustrating loss in Oxford. “There’s a lot of phases to special teams.”
Kentucky’s “core four” special teams units (kickoff, punt, punt return and kick return) have been “pretty darn solid, pretty impressive” this season, Stoops said. But Stoops knows there are other elements of special teams where Kentucky has fallen short.
“Then there’s the snappers, the kickers and the holders,” Stoops said. “How do you define that? I really don’t know, either. You have the four core, and they are all part of it.
“We need to do what we do. Our guys have done it a thousand times correctly, snapped, held and kicked. Very good. That Saturday is not good, kind of embarrassing, so we’ve got to get those things cleaned up and do the routine.”
Freshman wide receiver Barion Brown leads the country in kickoff return average (47.7 yards). He has already returned one kickoff for a touchdown and just missed two more returns for touchdowns at Ole Miss. While Stoops said blocking on the kickoff returns could be even better, it is hard to find much to criticize there.
Kentucky has surrendered just three punt returns for 9 total yards in five games. The Wildcats rank 33rd nationally in touch-back percentage on kickoffs (67.7). UK has blocked two punts, tied for sixth most nationally.
It might not even be accurate to say Kentucky has a kicking problem.
Super senior Matt Ruffolo has converted seven of nine field goals on the season. His miss on a 39-yard attempt at Ole Miss was struck well but went wide left on a windy afternoon. He had one point-after attempt blocked on a low kick, ending a streak of 43 consecutive extra points converted.
Long snapping was a problem in the win at Florida with a bad snap on a punt resulting in a safety and another botching an extra-point attempt. A low snap contributed to another botched extra-point attempt at Ole Miss on which Ruffolo did not even get to try the kick, but Stoops said the bigger problem on that play was the hold.
“It was a fraction low, but we do that all the time, we have to make that hold,” Stoops said. “Just got to set it like we always do.”
Asked if there was a mechanical problem with the snaps, Stoops paused before saying starter Cade Degraw is dealing with an injury. Backup long snapper Clay Perry has seen action in each of the last three games. He replaced Degraw at Ole Miss after the botched point-after attempt.
Complaints about Kentucky’s special teams play are nothing new during the Stoops era. In two of his first nine seasons as coach, Stoops declined to name a specific special teams coordinator on his staff.
That decision was an easy target for criticism whenever a special teams miscue occurred, but in reality almost no program has a dedicated kicking coach. Running backs coach John Settle and safeties coach Frank Buffano are now listed as co-special teams coordinators, but quality control coach Louie Matsakis, a former college place-kicker and punter, works most directly with Kentucky’s kickers.
NCAA rules prohibit football staffs to 10 on-field assistant coaches. Since Matsakis is not in one of those positions, there are limits on how he is able to work with players.
“I thought (Ruffolo) hit a good kick, so I don’t want to overreact to that,” Stoops said. “What am I going to tell him? I mean, ‘Kick the damn ball through the uprights’? We are only allowed so many coaches. It’s not like a golf person can have an expert. I’m not allowed to have somebody here, just teaching the mechanics of that.”
Stoops acknowledged some concern about the missed field goal being followed so quickly by the blocked extra point at Ole Miss affecting Ruffolo’s confidence. Stoops elected to go for a fourth-and-3 at the Ole Miss 32-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter instead of letting Ruffolo attempt what would have been approximately a 50-yard game-tying field goal.
Still, Stoops said if quarterback Will Levis had not lost a fumble in the red zone on Kentucky’s final drive he would have given Ruffolo the chance for a game-tying field goal had Kentucky faced another fourth down.
Ruffolo took much of the blame for Kentucky’s 2020 loss to Ole Miss too after missing an extra point in overtime of a one-point defeat, but he bounced back from that miscue to become one of the most productive kickers in program history. He ranks eighth on UK’s career scoring list.
Ruffolo converted three field goals in UK’s season-opening win over Miami (Ohio). He hit game-clinching field goals against Florida and Northern Illinois.
So, maybe Kentucky doesn’t have a special teams problem or a kicking problem as much as its special teams units are prone to the same inconsistency that has affected the entire team through the season’s first five games. Improvement is needed, but that is true of positions on offense and defense too.
“I have a lot of confidence in (Ruffolo) to make it,” Stoops said. “He’s had the guts and made a lot of crucial kicks. … I think you don’t want one thing to get in your mind and creep in with these guys. They’ve done it, they’ve done it well. Got to put it behind you and move on.”
Next game
South Carolina at No. 13 Kentucky
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: South Carolina 3-2 (0-2 SEC), Kentucky 4-1 (1-1)
Series: South Carolina leads 18-14-1
Last meeting: Kentucky won 16-10 on Sept. 25, 2021, in Columbia, S.C.
This story was originally published October 4, 2022 at 7:37 AM.
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