There usually isn’t a lot of excitement generated in the preseason by a team’s specialists, but in Duke’s case, there are a lot of weapons on special teams that should have fans excited this season.
The Blue Devils return most of their key weapons from their special teams including All-American honorable mention place kicker Ross Martin. Martin burst onto the scene last season, his first in Durham and scored 106 points, including 20 made field goals and 46 PAT.
Martin only missed one PAT and was 86 percent making 20 of 23 field goals on the season. He was clearly a weapon and one that the Duke Football program had gone some time without. Martin was deadly accurate within 40 yards but still showed the power and accuracy to hit from beyond 50 yards.
He should only get better heading into this season where he was pegged as preseason All-ACC.
Martin is joined in that respect by punter Will Monday who was also selected as a Sporting News All-American third-team member. He joined cornerback Ross Cockrell with that honor.
Monday, a redshirt sophomore, was another effective weapon for the Duke special teams last season. He punted 67 times for a total of 2,991 yards for an average of 44.6 yards per punt. Monday had a season long 79 yard punt against Cincinnati in the Belk Bowl.
The return game poises the most questions for the Blue Devils as they look to replace their primary return men. In 2012, Duke returned two punts for touchdowns but both Lee Butler and Tony Foster are gone.
Duke’s primary choice at returning punts, Conner Vernon, is now with the Oakland Raiders and Butler who suffered several injuries last year which kept him out of he lineup, has graduated. To make matters somewhat more complicated, special teams coordinator Ron Middleton left the program for another job.
That means the Blue Devils have to find who will be their return guys for punts and kickoffs. The good news is there is plenty of talent on this team who could get the job done.
Jamison Crowder showed a lot of potential as a return man as a freshman, but due to some injuries he didn’t handle many of the return duties in 2012. Expect him to be back on punts and possibly kickoffs as his explosiveness and craftiness in the open field makes him a potentially dangerous weapon.
Sophomore running back Jela Duncan, who will be competing heavily for time as one of the top two running backs will likely get a look on kickoffs if not punts as could fellow running backs Juwan Thompson and Shaquille Powell. Duncan has the kind of speed and power that could make him a big threat.
The fact is that no one knows who will handle the duties as the Blue Devils didn’t do returns in the spring game so it will be a bit of a mystery until the season starts. Duke has used some less known guys for the job in the past due to injuries but expect that if the Blue Devils can remain healthy those big-name guys will likely see some time returning kicks.
Overall, David Cutcliffe has set out to improve the special teams and that has been done. One thing to to keep an eye on is that Duke has had to change their long snapper for kicks and punts so if there is an area that could be a weakness due to lack of game experience that may be it.
Otherwise this should be a real strength for this team and could be the difference in close games.
Projected starter at Place Kicker: Ross Martin
Projected starter at Punter: Will Monday
Projected Returners : Jaimson Crowder, Jela Duncan
Key Reserves : Juwan Thompson, Shaquille Powell
More Position Breakdowns:
Defensive Backs
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