Ole Miss Football: A Look At The 2018 Ole Miss Special Teams
OHT is finally winding down the position group depth grades for 2018 Ole Miss football with a look at the Rebels special teams.
So far OHT has dissected the position groups for 2018 Ole Miss football. We broke down the offensive position groups and the defensive groups and graded each one based on their depth. On offense we took a look at linemen, tight-ends, running-backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks. Of course, on the defensive side of the ball we looked at the d-line, line-backers and the secondary. The Rebels are strong in just about every position group until we get to this point.
Special teams can win or lose close games. With graduation came the departure of kicker Gary Wunderlich and punter Will Gleeson. Countless times over the past four seasons we have seen them be clutch in their roles. The gaps left by them are sketchy at best simply because we haven’t seen much of this roster in action. Naturally, you don’t carry many kickers and punters on the roster to begin with but we will look at what we have so far.
Looking At The Roster
Ole Miss Rebels Football
Sophomore kicker Luke Logan is the only familiar name on the depth chart and he handled kickoffs in 2017. Logan kicked FGs while Wunderlich was injured. We can expect Logan to begin 2018 as the kicker for kickoffs and FGs. Besides Logan there are 3 other players on the depth chart who may easily see kickoff and/or field-goal duties.
On the Ole Miss roster there is sophomore Isaac Way and then transfer junior Patrick Nasiatka who was on campus for the spring practices. The last one is freshman Jack Cooper is listed as kicker/punter. Also listed as punter is sophomore Mac Brown. We could see Brown or Cooper handle the punting duties.
The real bright spot of this position group is the return men on kickoffs and punts. Last season AJ Brown and Jaylon Jones handled return duties and did well. If they continue to get touches on returns we did easily see fireworks from both.
Special Teams Grade: C+
We all know this group will have to be solid this season if Ole Miss football wants to find success. Of course, special teams can be a stressful position group so it will be a bundle of nerves for some of these guys when kickoff gets here. Ole Miss football will open the 2018 campaign September 1st when they travel to Houston to take on Texas Tech. Good luck in the up coming season. Hotty Toddy!