2024 Gophers Position Previews: Special Teams

September's coming soon, so it is once again time to start thinking about football. Ski-U-Blog will analyze every position group on the Gophers' roster: starters, depth, and potential future contributors. The series ends today with a look at the special teams unit.

Likely Starters

A good number of college kickers hit game-winning field goals. Not all of them do, obviously. But there are game-winners every year, whether they are of the walk-off variety or in the last minute or with a bit longer than that and more work to do. However special each kick is to that player, and however much fun it is for his team and for the fans, it is not a unique moment.

How many kickers get to say they won a game for their team? Not put on the final touch, but won it by scoring every point? In the 21st century, it might not take two hands to count them all at the FBS level. And I doubt any of them got to do what Dragan Kesich did, which is go 4-for-5 in 22-mile-per-hour winds at Kinnick Stadium, breaking an eight-year losing streak to one of his school's most hated rivals. He won back Floyd of Rosedale, and he got to lead the charge to pick up the pig.

The win over Iowa was the high point of Kesich's season, but there was plenty of good besides that. Kesich hit six of seven field goal attempts of 45 yards or longer, and he was 17-for-20 on all other kicks. He converted every extra point he tried last year. On kickoffs, Kesich has been a near-automatic touchback since he joined the team in 2020. His performance made him the Big Ten kicker of the year and a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award. If he has another strong year, Kesich could win the award outright before heading to the NFL.

Mark Crawford, one of the oldest players in college football at 30 years old, has been just fine for practically his whole tenure as a Gopher. Last season, he ranked 62nd in FBS in raw punting average (42.5 yards). By Pro Football Focus' hangtime tracking, he ranked 74th (3.82 seconds). Opponents returned roughly one out of every six Crawford punts, and they only averaged 5 yards per return. He landed 25 punts within the 20-yard line against four touchbacks, which is a roughly average ratio. Crawford has an unremarkable leg and is good for a shank or two a year but does the job at a perfectly adequate level overall.

Minnesota would love it if Quentin Redding can finally provide a consistent level of adequacy. While Redding offers a flash every few games, his first two seasons have been plagued with returns like this:

Redding needs to better judge the chances he has to take a kick past the 25 yard line and make a man miss more often. His speed is not elite, but he has shown he can make an occasional impact as a returner. Perhaps new special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky can more out of Redding somehow.

Position Battle

There is one key position that is in question: long snapper. Brady Weeks was excellent for five years, and now his job falls to either Alan Soukup or Ryan Algrim. The true freshman Soukup may have the edge over the redshirt freshman Algrim, since Soukup is actually on scholarship.

Key Backups

Other than Redding, the only players on the roster who returned a kickoff or punt last year (and were supposed to) are Daniel Jackson and Le'Meke Brockington. Figuring out who may back up Redding, or even take his job, basically spitballing.

Justin Walley has taken return reps in warmups before, but it seems imprudent to use such an important player in this role. Kristen Hoskins is a receiver in Redding's mold who could fit the job just as easily. Quentin's brother Evan Redding, a reserve cornerback, could also be in the mix. True freshmen Koi Perich and Simon Seidl are super athletes who returned punts in high school, though Seidl is just 175 pounds and may redshirt. Which one of them gets a look? We can only wait and see.

Minnesota has a punter committed for 2025, East Ridge's Luke Ryerse (brother of former Gophers kicker Grant Ryerse). For now, though, the only other punter on the roster is Apple Valley product Caleb McGrath. McGrath was an All-American recruit and — as I noted last year and will continue to note because it is a truly fun fact — can punt with either foot. Unless Crawford suffers an injury, however, McGrath will not get a chance to show off that skill until next fall.

The Gophers are also counting on a local placekicker to arrive in their next signing class, Daniel Jackson from Alexandria. Jackson will compete against David Kemp, who probably figured when he arrived to campus last year that he would not have a lot to do for a while. He did not kick much for Memphis while he was there and did not do very well, but he has had enough time on the shelf to have perhaps improved.

Notables Unlikely to Contribute

One of my favorite scenarios in sports is the emergency substitute. To be clear, it is bad when multiple athletes get hurt and cannot play. No one should root for that.

But we all love to see the Zamboni driver play goalie, don't we? Isn't one of the lost joys of ultra-long extra-inning games seeing a starting pitcher take the field? Was it not novel to see Jared Allen play long snapper? We don't want weird sports all the time, but weird sports are entertaining.

I would love to be able to tell you who the Gophers' emergency specialists are, but by the nature of this exercise, it is guesswork. Brock Annexstad was the holder at times, but that is a fairly easy job at which to find a substitute. Long snapper is trickier; while it is a position where you need to throw a high-velocity spiral, it would be daft to put a quarterback in a position to tackle someone. Someone surely has snapped before and has told the coaches he can do it in a pinch, but I doubt I can pick out that someone.

The other positions, though? On a roster this big, constructed by a coach who has stated his preference for multi-sport athletes, we can find an ex-soccer player. Obviously, Minnesota's first move if necessary will be to use a kicker at punter and vice-versa. But that is less fun, and in a big enough emergency, they would need to break open that glass.

Here, then, are the lists of Gophers whose biography on the U of M athletics web site mentions high school experience in kicking a ball in an organized sport: tight end Frank Bierman (placekicker), defensive end Adam Kissayi (soccer player), linebacker Eli Mau (placekicker), and defensive tackle Riley Sunram (placekicker). Tailback Fame Ijeboi has a brother playing semi-professional soccer, so I will figure that Ijeboi himself has played soccer as well.

These guys could probably kick extra points in a pinch, but Minnesota would really rather not find out. It is therefore good that graduate transfer Sam Henson is here. Henson was far from prolific at Concordia University (the one on Hamline Avenue in Saint Paul) but did play kicker there for two seasons. The pandemic and an injury took away two others, leaving him with two years of eligibility. It would be a surprise to see Henson attempt a field goal in maroon and gold.