Zoltan/punting vs Utah

From the stadium, I saw only 1 delay of game penalty on Zoltan, and I'm pretty sure that the rugby punt was an option punt, where Zoltan would go for the 1st down if he thought he could get it. 

but i could be mistaken.  first one i thought came in the second quarter on the defensive 40.   second one happened in the 3rd from within the 10 yard line (zoltan was backed up in the endzone).  i just finished downloading the torrent, so i'm going back through shortly.

yes, Warren never had a chance to return any of them. but that punt block was nice and they got close on one or two others.

the return man, i say go for the block more often than not. by trust, i mean trust to make good decisions under pressure. now, if you have breaston, set up returns.

I think it had more to do with the fact that the coaching staff knew that the best chance to pull that game out was to go all out for a punt block.  There was little hope based on what we saw that the offense was going to be able to drive 80-90 yards for one last score.

we tried to block both punts, I can't remember where they both were or the situation.  I agreed with the last one though.  the one before, i'd need to go back and look at.

like i said, i can understand that philosphy, but if thats the case, perhaps we call some more fair catches?  the last thing i want to see is warren getting knocked out of a game/multiple games.  he averaged 0 yards on 2 returns because he was leveled as soon as he touched them. 

A couple things-

Zoltan Mesko is a douchebag. He comes out early before the game and jokes around with the students, Space Emporer (Lol!!) and everyone thinks hes great, but he's really not a good punter at all. His best punt MIGHT have been 40 yards. He's mediocre at best, and the act is really getting old.

When was the last time Michigan blocked a punt? 1982? I was happy we finally went after a couple punts--Warren needs to learn how to fair catch the ball. I just think their punter was great angling the kick and the hang time was ridiculous. I tip my hat to their punter vs. poor return coverage from us.

Ditto on the kickoff returns although I thought on a couple of them it would have been better to bring them out and see if we could have gotton a decent return rather than kneeling it. Harrison had a couple nice returns though but then they took him out for Stonum.

Harrison was injured at some point in the game which is probably why they replaced him on KOR.

I thought our special teams were excellent on Saturday. Kick coverage teams were great. Moundros made a hell of a play on the punt block. KC nailed a 50-yarder. I doubted he had true range above 40, but he cleared that shot with ease. He was serviceable last year, but now he looks like a legit scoring weapon.

I think I got a little down on Zoltan sometime last year.  That Utah kicker/punter was the real deal though.

After the 2003 Iowa punt formation disaster, I'm going to have a difficult time getting used to us using that formation regularly.  The option punt concept should get shelved.  We need to win the battle of hidden yardage any way we can.  And letting Mesko take a normal approach and let it rip will probably improve his punt average by at least 5 yards over the soccer style running kick.  And the likelihood of a block will probably drop.

I will admit, that if we prove that there is some benefit to the formation, I will change my opinion.