— By Sean Manning, The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mark Scott dropped his head in disappointment after West Virginia’s first punt of the season against Tennessee.
For weeks coaches had worked alignments and protections, only to see a glaring mistake on the Billy Kinney’s first attempt.
As soon as the ball was snapped toward Kinney, the strong-side protection broke down and allowed Tennessee’s Alontae Taylor to barrel through untouched. He got his right hand up to block the punt.
Fortunately for WVU, the ball rolled to Tennessee’s 22-yard line in what ended up being a 34-yard net.
“We had some guys up front that just completely broke down,” said Scott, the Mountaineers special teams coach. “If you go back and watch it, there are four guys who come off that left side completely unblocked.
“We tell our guys to read demeanor to see what a guy might do. Obviously, the main thing everyone is worried about doing is going down and making a play, but you have to worry about protection first.”
Cornerback Josh Norwood and safety Toyous Avery were the flanks along the line and when the ball was snapped, and neither chipped a Tennessee player. Instead, both immediately took off down field to cover the return.
While the result wasn’t as damaging as it could have been, the Vols offense had enough momentum to rattle off a 17-play, 8:47 drive on its ensuing series
“Coach (Dan) Gerberry and coach (Dana) Holgorsen have all done a good job with saying, ‘Protect, protect, protect,’ and on the first punt of the year, that’s not exactly what you want to see,” Scott said.
“Luckily, it wasn’t something that ended up costing us the game. Then again, they block a punt, get a little juiced up and their offense goes on a 17-play drive. It affects the entire team when something like that happens.”
Scott said it was directly addressed and immediately cleaned up. On West Virginia’s second and final punt attempt — on its next possession — safeties Deamante Lindsay and Osman Kamara replaced Avery and Norwood.
Lindsay and Kamara made sure to put their hands on Tennessee’s edge rushers before pushing downfield to cover the kick. Lindsay also made the tackle on the play after Kinney’s 53-yard attempt.
“I don’t foresee that being an issue moving forward,” Scott said. “If we do our job up front and our shields stay big and square and protect inside out, we’ll have time to protect from those outside rushers. It’s all about laying a hand on those guys from the point of attack. If we do, then you’ll see what happened Saturday.”