Competition continues as Huskers look to bolster kickoffs

The kickoff specialist is rarely one of the more intriguing position battles of a team’s offseason. However, given Nebraska’s struggles kicking the ball and covering returns in recent years, that spot has the Huskers’ full attention.

Averaging just 36.0 yards per kick, recording 12 touchbacks on 40 attempts, and giving up the second-most return yards in the Big Ten (498), NU ranked dead last in kickoff coverage last season.

So it was no surprise that head coach Scott Frost and his staff turned over many stones to try and address the issue.

The Huskers brought in three freshmen walk-ons to compete for the kickoff specialist role in Kelen Meyer, Josh Jasek, and Brendan Franke.

As Nebraska gets ready to open its first game week in preparation for its season opener at Illinois, it has yet to name a starter.

During his first Nebraska Coaches Show on the Husker Radio Network, Frost seemed confident his team’s kickoffs would be significantly improved no matter who won the job.

“When you talk about improvements we’ve made, our kickoff unit right now looks a lot better,” Frost said. “The biggest part of that is we have some guys that can really hit it. We haven’t in the past…

“Franke and Jasek and Kelen are all doing a really good job. Those guys have some real talent and a lot of natural ability just to pound the football. Kicking into and through the end zone is going to change our special teams.”

Like Frost mentioned, Nebraska’s inability to record touchbacks has played a big part in its kickoff coverage struggles over the past few years.

After getting touchbacks on 34 of its 72 kickoffs (47.2 percent) in 2018, the Huskers managed just 14 on 66 attempts (21.2%) in 2019 and then 12 on 40 (30.0%) last year.

Penn State led the Big Ten last season with 42 touchbacks on 50 kickoffs (84.0 percent) to put those numbers into perspective.

As a result, opponents have averaged 21.2 yards per return and two touchdowns (and another 87-yard runback that didn’t score) over the past three seasons.

Special teams coordinator Mike Dawson echoed Frost’s confidence that NU’s group of kickoff specialists should provide a marked improvement in leg strength and consistency, and the competition they’ve had throughout the offseason has only fueled each player to get better.

“I’m not letting off the gas,” Dawson said of the KOS battle. “I think that the more we can breed competition within the practices, the better those guys are going to practice. The better they practice, the better they’re going to play in the game.

“That’s not something that we’ve really given up on yet. We’re going to continue to push and make sure that we are as crisp and practice as hard as we can all the way right up until and through the game. We’ll be ready to roll that way.”