Special teams could play pivotal role for LU against JMU

During most days at practice, Liberty University’s kickers, punters and long snapper gather together on one sideline, doing all sorts of things that don’t exactly look like they belong at a football practice.

Take Wednesday for instance. One by one, Mike Larsson, Matt Bevins, Ben Shipps, Paul Young and Robby Cramer all took off down the sideline, jumping as high in the air as possible on one leg before coming down and doing it again with the other. It looked more like practice for a dance troupe than a football team.

“We’ve started a plyometric workout for the specialists,” Larsson said. “Every Monday and Wednesday, we do a little workout that (strength and conditioning coach Bill Gillespie) has for us. We’re jumping around, skipping up and down, making us more explosive. I think it’s really working.”

So, yes, it looks funny, but it’s effective. One only has to look at the added hang time on Larsson’s punts this season, and his ability to keep the ball in the air long enough for the coverage teams to get downfield, either to cover a punt returner or down a ball deep in the opponent’s territory. Or the fact that Bevins already has three touchbacks this season on kickoffs.

The kick game has been an important part of Liberty’s success in recent years, and any breakdowns Saturday against seventh-ranked James Madison could be disastrous. The Dukes have one of the nation’s most talented return men in Scotty McGee, who has returned a kickoff for a touchdown in each of his first three seasons and leads the nation in return average this year at 45.5 yards per return.

Plus, McGee has a flair for the dramatic. He returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown last year as time expired, lifting the Dukes to a victory at eventual national champion Richmond.

“That was amazing,” Larsson said.

To combat McGee this week, Liberty’s punters have gone through a number of drills that focus on precise positioning of the football. During one drill, the punters lined up in the middle of the field and kicked the ball toward an empty garbage can that was stationed at one of the hash marks about 40 yards away.

“I have no idea what Liberty is going to do,” JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. “But it helps our field position when people do not” kick to McGee. “He’s a very competitive youngster. He’s fearless.”

So how does one go about handling McGee? If Liberty kicks away from him or kicks short, there’s a good chance JMU will get good field position regardless of whether McGee touches it or not. So the choices aren’t appealing. You either concede good field position because of the threat of a long McGee return, or you take your chances with trying to bottle him up deep. And not many opponents have been able to do that.

Liberty coach Danny Rocco said he and special teams coach Marshall Roberts spent more than two hours Monday poring over JMU special teams film, looking for an answer.

“We’ll have more than one,” strategy, Rocco said. “You’ve got to practice. You can’t just go into the game and say, ‘let’s kick the ball over there and see what happens.’ You’ve got to practice the things we’re going to execute. … I’m not going to run away from kicking the ball. But I will have some judgment, hopefully, in the placement of our kicks and the positioning of our coverage teams.”

As always, special teams will likely play a giant role in the outcome of Saturday’s game. Last week, the Flames took a two-score lead in the second quarter thanks to field position set up by a deep Larsson punt. Wes Cheek downed it at the Lafayette 1, and after a quick three-and-out, Liberty got the ball back at the LC 42. Special teams mistakes were the big reason why Liberty fell behind 10-0 in the North Carolina Central game, as some errors in the punt game gave the Eagles great field position, setting up both NCCU scores.

If those same sort of mistakes occur Saturday, McGee and JMU won’t be nearly as forgiving as NCCU.