As great as life is for the undefeated Florida Gators, it’s always easy for coach Will Muschamp to find flaws. One of the issues driving him crazy right now is special teams.
His team is outstanding when it punts or kicks, but the Gators irritate him immensely in the return game. UF is at the bottom of the SEC in kick return average, and its punt returns have been misadventures.
Andre Debose, a junior who is one of the fastest athletes on the roster, was supposed to be the answer, but he hasn’t worked out well. As No. 4 Florida prepared for Saturday night’s game at Vanderbilt, Muschamp was considering at least five players for punt return duty.
“Punt return and kickoff return, we need drastic improvement,” he said.
“We’ve worked on fielding punts and not losing yardage in those press situations. We cannot afford to continue to do that. We have not done a good job. We’ll find somebody different and figure out what we can do there.”
Debose is the only man in UF history to return three kickoffs for touchdowns in his career, but he has been inconsistent. He is averaging 21.8 yards per kick return, which is 12th in the conference.
His choices have been so frustrating that Florida (5-0, 4-0 SEC) keeps pulling him, though it can’t resist going back to him. He had a 38-yard kickoff return in the season opener but otherwise is averaging 5.8 yards. He allowed punts to bounce and roll seven times, muffed two punts and called for a fair catch at his own 15-yard line in the LSU game.
The Gators used defensive back De’Ante Saunders as the punt returner in the first half against LSU, and he opted for a fair catch on all three of his opportunities.
Muschamp also is thinking about cornerback Marcus Roberson, multi-purpose athlete Trey Burton and receiver Frankie Hammond as candidates. He didn’t say who he will go with against Vanderbilt (2-3, 1-2).
“I have a lot of confidence in Andre,” Muschamp said. “Andre got a little banged up last week, and we just got to make some better decisions as far as fielding the ball.”
The good news for the Gators is they probably don’t need to change anything on their own kickoffs or punts. Kicker Caleb Sturgis has touchbacks on half of his 28 tries, and opponents are averaging a meager 18.7 yards per return on the other half.
Sturgis also is 8-for-10 on field goals this year with a pair of 51-yarders.
Florida’s punting has been equally strong. The combination of punter Kyle Christy and a bunch of fast and physical players in coverage is keeping opponents buried at their end of the field. Christy is first in the SEC and fourth in the nation with an average distance of 46.5 yards.
Because of gunners like Chris Johnson and Loucheiz Purifoy, opponents are getting just 2.9 yards per punt return. Following a Christy punt, the other team’s offense is starting, on average, at its own 20-yard line. In last week’s 14-6 win over LSU, Christy’s crew stuck the Tigers inside their own 10 three times.
“I definitely get in a zone,” Christy said. “It’s mostly mental.”
Opponents rarely get points after Christy does his work. They have gone scoreless on 20 of 24 ensuing possessions this year, including 12 straight times heading into Saturday’s game.
Vanderbilt coach James Franklin watched footage of the Gators’ punt coverage this week and said Florida is preventing teams from picking up “hidden yardage” and there isn’t much that can counteract it.
“It’s not like they’re running a scheme that nobody else is doing,” he said. “They have a really good punter that gets really good hang time, and they’ve got 10 really good athletes that are running down the field to cover. There’s no real secret to it.”
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