I hated to see De’Vion down that opening kickoff. At least from my vantage point he was about two yards deep. He was an all SEC performer at that position last year. The kickoff for most college teams is comprised of a lot of guys that this is their only game appearance. We need to take advantage of every opportunity presented us and I would think talent wise it would be one time in the course of any game against any team we would at least be on somewhat equal terms. It was a given that Connor was going to be playing with a small playbook and opportunities to score might be very limited.
He could have broken a long one. He also could have been blasted at the 14 and fumbled. Normally a returner is getting instruction from someone in front of him as to whether to return it or take a knee, since he’s concentrating on the ball in the air (or had better be concentrating).
I’m sure Kniles was getting that advice a couple of years ago on the 109 yard return.
Who is Kniles?
We lost a game earlier this year (Auburn) in large part because we kept starting inside our 15 and could never get the field position turned around. Maybe he breaks one. Maybe he doesn’t. But the 25 is a lot better than the 15.
The good news is that only occurred once yesterday. It would be great if that was the case every week.
Knile Davis on his playoff record setting KoR.
I haven’t looked up the stats, but from what I’ve seen more often than not the smart play is to take the knee. Not many who return the ball from the EZ get past the 25. Most come up short of it. Yeah, you miss the shot at the KO return for the TD, but those are pretty rare. I’m sure lots of factors go into whether a returner is supposed to take the knee & when he gets the green light, but how many times this year have we returned one that came up short of the 25?
You are probably right as far as averages go. De’Vion is averaging 27.9 on 9 returns. Granted the long run bumped the average or it would be 22. Assuming every kick was fielded at the goal then we would be minus 3 yards by returning it. With the limited playmakers this team has, I just thought it might be of benefit to use one of them.
For what it’s worth, Warrens longest return was against Bama, who most likely fielded a KO team full of 4-5 Star players.
It depends upon how high the ball is kicked and the speed of the kickoff coverage. If he were returning against our kickoff coverage (at least at the beginning of the year), he’d be smart to test it every time. IDK, but I’m sure the coaches informed the team of Tulsa’s averages in kickoff coverage to see if it was worth a shot. Same for this coming week against Vandy.
A kick off into the end zone should be viewed as a punt at the 10, let it go…Early in the year we were trying to return KO from the end zone and having to start at the 15-20 costing us 10 to 15 yards and we were fielding punts inside the ten. Terrible decisions.
I do think warren should get more touches, he is a dynamic player.
I’d love to see him the primary slot guy, he’s got the it factor, just needs to put it all together.