Virginia football 2012 outlook: Special teams

Few groups in sports will ever have a changing-of-the-guard type movement that will mirror the special teams operation at Virginia next season.

Kickoff specialist Chris Hinkebein, punter Jimmy Howell and kicker Robert Randolph have kicked for the final time for the Cavaliers, albeit with mixed results on their way out.

Kickoffs sailed out of bounds, field goals were missed and two punts were blocked in the final contest against Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Many fans clamored about the job special teams coach Anthony Poindexter has done and attempted to place blame for the final loss on the assistant coach.

Virginia head coach Mike London saw things differently as the defending national champs registered a 43-24 victory in the Georgia Dome.

“When they are older players like that, you expect older guys to perform,” London said. “When they are younger guys and that is happening you would expect them to be all over the place.

“Coach Poindexter embraced being a special teams guy but I think the thing that we had to do this year, and the philosophy may change next year, is playing all the young players that we did on return and coverage units. Instead could be adopting a philosophy like Auburn where [Onterio] McCalebb was on the doggone kickoff team and also on the punt team.”

It was common for Virginia, which went 8-5 and ranked among the worst in the country in net punting and punt returns, to have six or seven freshmen on the field on units.

“This year’s team coming up is going to have guys who are starters on offense and defense who are going to play on special teams,” London said.

Recruited walk-on players will compete with incumbents, also non-scholarship players, but the program could land a major haul with the expected return of former placekicker Drew Jarrett.

While he did not work in the football office, as some speculated during his absence from the program, Jarrett remained close to many of his former teammates and attended all seven home games during his first season away from the sport. Former coach Al Groh burned the redshirt of Jarrett in 2009 and allowed him to convert 17-of 17 extra-point attempts and he redshirted in 2010.

Jarrett told The Daily Progress late Wednesday that he was excited about the possibility of joining the mix at placekicker at Virginia.

“To be honest, Coach London has been very, very busy with the bowl game and recruiting, so I haven’t had a chance to meet with him yet … but I did have a chance to talk to Coach Poindexter before I left for break,” he said. “It is kind of weird how everything played out. I had some teammates talk to me during the season about coming back and, to be honest, I hadn’t planned on doing that.

“When I left the team I hadn’t planned on sitting out a year and coming back; those weren’t my intentions at all, but it kind of ended up being something that was a little interesting to me and I sat down with Coach Poindexter to see if there was something that we could work out and as of right now I am expecting to be back with the team later in January for winter workouts. That is not final, but that is what we are hoping for.”

Speaking from the national coaches convention in San Antonio on Tuesday, London spoke as if Jarrett was already welcomed into the fold, but understands the microscope that Poindexter and the special teams operation undergoes during a 12-game season.

“The punter will be different, the placekicker will be different and the field goal guy will be different and that is probably the area of most scrutiny, the area that the most improvement that’s going to be needed,” London said. “Drew Jarrett, who left for financial reasons, is talking about coming back in the spring and that would be significant because he was promised a scholarship when [former assistant coach Ron Prince] was here and for whatever reason he left and he will be back.”

Special teams, which accounts for 33 percent of the game in London’s eyes, will become even more important moving forward thanks to the brutal lesson that Auburn provided in the 19-point win.

“It is one-play football and if you get one opportunity to block a punt, return a kick, gain significant field yardage because a guy knows the technique down cold, then that’s what we are going to do,” London said.