Draftageddon: The Special Teams Edition

Seth August 30th, 2018 at 9:39 AM

This is the final round of this year's All Big Ten roundtablish preview. It's short and you don't need to read it and we might have skipped it altogether except it's bumping the Offensive Tackles preview off the front page. You're welcome.

Previously:

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KICKER

Ace: Get healthy soon, Rafael Gaglianone’s back.

Seth: Just because we can't escape them this year. Dude's going to break every record because he got a season's worth of kicking into the season he got medshirted.

Ace: …if he gets healthy.

Ace: Otherwise, it’s Quinn Nordin or OSU’s Sean Neurnberger, I think?

Seth: Nope, there's another guy from the Big Ten West. Purdue has twitter legend who transferred from Baylor and was really good last year.

80 Yard Field Goal @SportsCenter @espn @NFL @BleacherReport @CBSSports #SCtop10 @ESPNCFB @FOXSports @YahooSports pic.twitter.com/uXoUuUdtio
— Spencer Evans (@Spencer_J_Evans) September 7, 2016

Ace: That is a long field goal.

Seth: Evans missed three long ones last year and that was it I think. Brohm doesn't kick field goals unless he has to.

Ace: lmao I had my laptop hooked to my speakers and my brother’s dog fell off the couch when I hit play. (She does this not infrequently.)

BiSB: Miguel Recinos was 11/13 for Iowa. And Iowa will kick them some field goals.

Seth: Anyway WILD THING is going to be the best kicker in the country or terrible and there's nothing in between.

BiSB: Yep, he's #1 with a bullet.

Ace: Northwestern had a freshman who went 13/15.

Seth: Charlie Kuhbander. Does he punt too? That's a great punter name.

No offense to banders/benders.

Ace: None taken. I would’ve happily been a punter.

Speaking of which,

[AFTER THE JUMP]

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PUNTER

Ace: I still have nightmares of PSU’s Blake Gillikin. Taken the Punt God mantle. And… OSU’s Drue Chrisman is also up there.

BiSB: Although Drue Chrisman actually averaged more...

Seth: Chrisman is also a god of bottle-flipping:

Water bottle flipping isn't dead pic.twitter.com/zraTNiiOll
— Drue Chrisman (@DChrisman91) July 7, 2017

BiSB: DAMMIT ALL.

Ace: (throws all the things)

THE MYSTERY PUNTER WILL SAVE US.

We’re fine. This is fine. Everything’s fine.

Is anyone else worth noting or should we just list players before we do further damage to ourselves and others?

BiSB: FWIW, There are some Big Ten teams looking at Michigan's "problems" and screaming loudly into the void.

Seth: What happened to Wade Lees, the 40-year-old Aussie Maryland brought in?

Ace: Couldn’t crack a 40 yard average.

Not net.

Gross.

BiSB: Maryland could have brought in the ghost of Richard Nixon as a punter, and we wouldn't have noticed. Takes a LOT to break through in Maryland news.

Ace: Hey man a Maryland punter played a huge role in one of my favorite MGoGIFs.

Seth: I'm putting Lees on my list anyway? Aussie who coffin-cornered well and never gave up returns is more useful than whoever's taking advantage of all the space you get after an Illinois offensive possession. Seventeen kicks inside the 20 to two touchbacks. Also he's older than Ace.

Ace: Maryland: 116th in punt success rate last year.

Seth: Oy.

Ace: Brad Robbins had a better average.

Seth: Yoy. Okay, Lees is off my list.

BiSB: According to PFF, all punters were terrible and should feel terrible.

Ace: PFF might be right after the first couple guys this year.

BiSB: No, them too.

EVERYONE IS AWFUL.

Seth: Alright, kick returner doesn't exist anymore thanks to the anti-Foug, so let's do our punt returners and call it a 'geddon.

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SLOT RECEIVER AGAIN, PRETTY MUCH

Ace: If I’m putting my money where my mouth was during the podcast, I should mention DPJ.

Seth: I feel like you've been talking yourself further than you planned to on that.

Ace: Nah, I’ll again mention how much I saw him play in high school. A few rough plays by a true freshman skewed a lot last year. He also had moments of brilliance.

Seth: I saw the one against King at Ford Field. Play of the game in one of the greatest high school games in the state's history.

Ace: He also had the most punt return yards in the conference last year. DeAndre Thompkins finished one yard short with a much better average.

Seth: Thompkins is probably the best punt returner in the conference, unless Maryland deigns to use one of their running backs there or...what's his name I drafted from OSU?

Ace: KJ Hill.

Seth: It wasn't Hill and wasn't Parris Campbell either. Demario McCall supposedly beat those guys out in practice.

Ace: Oh, he’s got major potential. J-Shun Harris of Indiana is absolutely electric but he’s coming off his third ACL tear. Had two PR TDs in seven games before the injury. If he’s healthy he deserves a spot but talk about an if.

BiSB: Oh man, Athlon has Mikey Dudek as 4th team. WHY would you wish a risky venture like returning punts on poor damn Mike?

Seth: Fourth year in a row I'm going to beat the drum on Shoulda Transferred to Michigan Mikey.

BiSB: Yep, Michigan doesn't have any issues with injury-plagued receivers.

(Too soon?)

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Kicker

Tm	Seth	Ace	BiSB
1	Rafael Gaglianone, UW	Quinn Nordin, MICH	Rafael Gaglianone, UW
2	Quinn Nordin, MICH	Rafael Gaglianone, UW	Quinn Nordin, MICH
3	Miguel Recinos, Iowa	Miguel Recinos, Iowa	Sean Nuernberger, OSU
4	Spencer Evans, PU	Sean Nuernberger, OSU	Miguel Recinos, Iowa

Punter

Tm	Seth	Ace	BiSB
1	Blake Gillikin, PSU	Blake Gillikin, PSU	Blake Gillikin, PSU
2	Drue Chrisman, OSU	Drue Chrisman, OSU	Drue Chrisman, OSU
3	Jake Hartbarger, MSU	Blake Hayes, Certified Australian, ILL	Caleb Lightbourn, NEB
4	Caleb Lightbourn, NEB	Caleb Lightbourn, NEB	Super-Secret Michigan Punter, MICH

Punt Returner

Tm	Seth	Ace	BiSB
1	DeAndre Thompkins, PSU	DeAndre Thompkins, PSU	DeAndre Thompkins, PSU
2	DeMario McCall, OSU	Donovan Peoples-Jones, MICH	Donovan Peoples-Jones, MICH
3	Ty Johnson, MD	J-Shun Harris, IU	Demario McCall, OSU
4	Donovan Peoples-Jones, MICH	DeMario McCall, OSU	Ty Johnson, MD