4. Special Teams Preview, Projected Starters and Depth Charts
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Special teams reloaded last season, unfortunately they often fired blanks. With the offense struggling, it did not help that kicks and returns lacked flare and were often inconsistent.
Projected Starters – Special Teams
- Kicker – J.J. Molson
- Punter – Austin Kent
- Returners – Adarius Pickett, Mossi Johnson, Octavious Spencer
The kicking game was spotty but that might be due to the inexperience of the freshmen kickers. Though they were the top prospects the year before, J.J. Molson and Austin Kent needed to make adjustments to the college game and struggled throughout last season. This led to Jim Mora making adjustments late in the season.
Stephan Flintoff and Adam Searl took a portion of punting duties while Andrew Strauch had two field goal attempts (making only one). Needless to say, a lot of work needs to be done to right these wrongs.
Punts were a bit of a problem as the Bruins averaged only 35.1 yards per attempt, which was 10th in the Pac-12. Field goals were worse as UCLA’s kickers only made 13 out of 22 (59.1%), good for last in the conference.
Returns were not horrible, but they were not spectacular either. Between both kickoff and punt returns, the Bruins only tallied one touchdown. Returns on punts averaged 6.5 yards (9th in Pac-12) while kickoffs only garnered 21.1 yards (7th in Pac-12). Like everything else with this team, expect the coaches to re-evaluate these weakness and have a new sense of focus with Special Teams.