Kentucky Coach is Confident in Special Teams Unit

Kentucky is gearing up for the first game of the season on Saturday against Southern Miss. With that, there's a lot of talk about the offensive and defensive side of the ball. But an area that looks to be in great shape is the special teams unit, which has had some issues during games in the past. Head coach Mark Stoops seems to be very confident in that unit.

The head coach spoke about the unit among other topics in his press conference on Monday. Stoops has plenty of confidence in starting kicker Alex Raynor, who he says has a strong leg, but someone who could come in and hit very long range field goals is the backup, Jacob Kauwe. “I feel good, obviously. with Alex (Raynor), he’s a guy that’s been very consistent and has a very strong leg, but you look at (Jacob) Kauwe being behind him and, man he has an extremely strong leg. We have a lot of confidence in Alex, and I don’t know what the (yard line) number will be, but if I know Jacob has hit – we tried the 60 (yarder) three times and he hit them all three times, with full units, offense against defense."

That's very impressive, and adds some comfort for the coaching staff in knowing they're in good hands with the depth of the kicking game. With punting, Stoops wants to be more consistent in that area, as well as looking to have some stronger kickoff's this season. "We’ve constantly talked about it, just to be more consistent with the punting game," Stoops said. "I think Wilson (Berry) and Aidan (Laros), bringing in Aidan, he has an opportunity as well. Aidan is also very strong with kickoffs along with Jacob, between Aidan and Jacob our kickoffs should be pretty deep and we should have high kicks and be able to cover, and not run into some of the problems that we did late last year.” As an important note for the punting situation, Stoops confirmed later on Monday during his radio show that Wilson Berry will get the start there.

With starting kicker Alex Raynor, he hit 48 of his 49 extra points last season, and ranked third in the SEC in field-goal percentage, making 90.91% of his attempts. Kentucky seems pretty confident in the special teams unit with the talent and depth, and the position coach Jay Boulware looks to have them ready.