'09 FB Class Review: Special Teams

Signing day is behind is and Mullen pulled in quite the haul. His first class is already better than any of Croom's 5 classes, and that is with him being on the job for all of 2 months. Sure, Croom deserves some credit but Mullen did the bulk of the work, gaining commits from several who weren't looking at MSU while Croom was here and preventing the onslaught of decommits that was imminent had Croom been retained. Anyway, we get things started with special teams.

Sean Brauchle
Ht: 5'9" Wt: 175
Scout	*** #100 Juco
Rivals	***
ESPN	Doesn't grade JUCOs

I don't know how relevant offers for a kicker are but FYI Brauchle also had offers from Ohio, Southern Miss, and Hawaii. Played running back in high school, time to dust off the fake FG. 19/25 on FGs as a freshman and 14/19 as a sophomore. Converted a 52 and 55 yarder as a freshman and sophomore respectively. First team JC All American both years.

33/44 on FGs overall. 75%. That isn't as high as I would like it, but on the plus side he clearly has significant range. Maybe the days of the 20 yard line being out of FG range are finally over. 4 years has been long enough.

Heath Hutchins
Ht: 6'2" Wt: 215
Scout	*** #70 Juco
Rivals	***
ESPN	Doesn't grade JUCOS

Hutchins averaged 44 yard per punt during his two seasons in junior college. He led the country as a sophomore with a whopping 46.1 average. Coming out of high school he was the #1 punter at the Ray Guy Punting Academy. I don't know what that means but it sounds nice.


Overall Grade: A
As we all know, special teams were absolutely atrocious in every aspect last year. They were easily one of the worst units in the country. Both the starting punter and kicker have graduated and to be perfectly honest that is addition by subtraction, but even so replacements were needed. It appears special teams will be instantly upgraded at both spots. Hutchins averaged several yards more in JUCO than McAdams did last year and hopefully will finally eliminate the dreaded 5 yard punt and even flip field position every once in a while. Brauchle clearly has a much stronger leg than Carlson did. This will help in two ways: 1) We should be able to kick 35+ yard field goals if Mullen chooses. With Carlson it really wasn't even an option, the Egg Bowl being the exception. 2) Brauchle should be able to get some touchbacks every once in while. We don't think about it but those can be crucial. I believe Carlson kicked one touchback all year. Concerns about Brauchle's accuracy is all that keeps this from being an A+.