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SALT LAKE CITY — Is No. 20 Utah close to holding an open tryout for kickers this season?
Don't count it out of the realm of possibility after back-to-back seasons of lackluster results in the special teams game.
Former place-kicker Matt Gay is with the Los Angeles Rams (with a shiny new ring); and Mitch Wishnowsky is with the San Francisco 49ers and recently signed a new four-year deal to keep him as their punter.
Since the duos departure from the program, though, Utah has struggled to maintain a foothold of consistency in the kicking game, and it's been a game changer for the program — for the worse.
In 2021, Utah found itself in a precarious spot when Oregon State blocked a punt against Utah and returned it for a touchdown to build momentum en route to a victory over the Utes, the team's only conference loss of the season. And then it happened again in the Rose Bowl to flip the momentum to Ohio State's favor — once again for a Utah loss.
Ahead of the 2022 season, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham was optimistic about punter Jack Bouwmeester joining the team from Michigan State and Jordan Noyes earning the starting place-kicking duties. At the very least, it appeared Utah could be better than the year before.
And while neither position group has been outwardly detrimental to the program's success on the field, neither has been what Whittingham and the team has needed from its special teams unit six weeks into the season. At least not in a way that has helped swing the game in Utah's favor.
Bouwmeester has punted the ball 18 times this season and has had only three punts returned for a grand total of 7 yards — not too bad, right? But the junior from Bendigo, Australia, averages 39.3 yards per punt (longest of 48 yards) on an average hang time of 3.92 seconds (the best in the nation this year is 4.38 seconds). That ranks him sub-100 of all punters in the nation.
In comparison, Wishnowsky averaged 45.2 yards per punt (longest of 68 yards) his senior season and ranked in the top 10 of all punters in the nation. In a game of inches, any additional advantage of pinning the ball back further down the field helps.
But punting hasn't been the real issue this season.
Utah's kickers, Noyes and backup Jadon Redding, have struggled to consistently get distance on their kickoffs, which has allowed opposing teams to consistently return the ball — and often for big yards. On Saturday, UCLA had two long returns in the second half to swing the balance in their favor as Utah attempted to maintain close distance on the scoreboard.
On the opening kickoff to start the second half, Redding kicked it 56 yards to the UCLA 9-yard line. UCLA returner Kazmeir Allen returned it 43 yards to Utah's 48-yard line to give the home team easy access to what was its third touchdown of the day and to take a 21-10 lead over Utah.
Early in the fourth quarter, Utah quarterback Cam Rising rushed for a 9-yard score on a QB keeper to make it a 3-point game, 28-25, in favor of the Bruins. The ensuing kickoff by Noyes went 59 yards to UCLA's 6-yard line. Once again, UCLA's Allen had a big run and picked up 33 yards on the return.
And while that return wasn't as costly, in terms of yardage, as the one to open up the second half — UCLA scored on a 70-yard passing touchdown two plays later — it was too far down the field for Whittingham's liking, who said it's a "major emphasis" from the coaching staff to get touchbacks on every kickoff.
"Kickoff coverage was, once again, a negative for us," Whittingham said on Saturday. "Gave them good field position far too often, which has been a theme for this season so far. We've got to somehow get that turned around. We've made every effort, we've got to continue to find ways to to get that corrected."
In the 44 kickoffs between Noyes and Redding, only 16 have been touchbacks and three have been kicked out of bounds, which resulted in a penalty and better field position for the opposing team. Two of those out of bounds kicks came against Southern Utah, which Utah's defense quickly erased, but it's a point that adds to Whittingham's frustration in the kicking game.
"Ideally, we would like to have every kickoff be a touchback and not have to worry about defending the return — put the ball at the 25 and let's go," Whittingham said. "And right now with the way we've be doing it, we're better off kicking it out of bounds and putting it at the 35 and let's go, because teams have been getting it past the 35 with regularity. So it's a definite concern."
Not all of that is on the kickers since the special teams coverage needs to better at containing the return, but a consistent kick for a touchback would help alleviate the problem and give teams less opportunities to build momentum and gain better field position.
In 2018, Gay had 82 kickoff attempts and managed to kick 54 of them as a touchback and five were fair caught. Only 28% of Gay's kickoffs were returned, and of those the average return was only 20.8 yards — just over 4 yards short of where a team starts on a touchback.
For Redding, 55% of all kickoffs (20 attempts) have been returned, and returned for an average of 27.7 yards. Noyes has had 50% of his 24 kickoffs returned for an average of 21.2 yards per return.
"If you've got any eligibility and you can kick, meet me out there at 3 o'clock today," Whittingham joked.
While actual open tryouts have not been officially set, Whittingham is looking for any positive news in the kicking game. But for the time being, it's a thorn in Utah's side, and one the team doesn't readily have an answer for six games into the season.
