Cal Football Season Preview Part 4: Special Teams

After a strong 2022, can Cal maintain with two new specialists on board?

Photo via @calfootball twitter

Part 1: Zombie or Phoenix? Part 2: The Offense Part 3: The Defense

Last year, for maybe the first time in the Wilcox era, Cal special teams were a net positive across the season. Sure, there was plenty of game-to-game variation, but generally speaking the Bears avoided bad mistakes and won the field position battle more often than not. That this result happened in a season in which Cal did not employ somebody with the title of ‘special teams coordinator’ is deeply funny

But will they be able to do the same following personnel turnover? Let’s dive in.

2022 in review

Biggest Strength:

Net punting - In his final year of eligibility, Jamieson Sheahan put it all together in one of the better recent punting seasons Cal has seen. His strong combination of distance and hangtime was the primary factor in Cal finishing the season 31st in net punting and 3rd in the Pac-12, and Cal has more than a few games where good punting swung the field position battle in Cal’s favor.

Biggest Weakness:

Field goals - In a frustrating conclusion to what had otherwise been a solid college career, Dario Longhetto hit just 12 of 18 field goals, which included misses against Notre Dame and Colorado that directly impacted eventual defeats. To be fair, many of the misses were longer kicks and an upright doink, so maybe you chalk it up to variance, but it still hurt Cal’s chances at times.

2023, Unit by Unit

Punting

Presumed punter: Senior Lachlan Wilson

With the departure of Sheahan, Cal has again turned to an Aussie. This time around it’s Tulsa transfer Lachlan Wilson. The good news? Wilson has been a consistently above average punter by distance. The bad news? His punt units have consistently given up long returns, including three touchdowns across three seasons. We’d all better hope that was a reflection on Tulsa’s coverage units and coaching.

Punt returns

Presumed punt returner: Junior Jeremiah Hunter

Jeremiah Hunter put up the best punt return season since the end of the Tedford era and comes in as the surefire option to return punts this season. Hunter was both above average in yards/return, and total number of returns attempted, and there’s little reason to think the all-conference receiver won’t be a plus in the return game this season.

Field Goals/Kickoffs

Presumed placekicker: Sophomore Michael Luckhurst

Already established as Cal’s kickoff specialist, Luckhurst is widely assumed to be Cal’s next field goal kicker as well, and he’s a confident fellow. Cal’s kickoff coverage unit was solidly average last year and I wouldn’t expect anything to change with that unit. The more relevant question is whether Luckhurst’s practice kicking distance will stand-up to in-game rigors. While his pedigree would suggest that he should be a trustworthy kicker, until I see it in a game I don’t assume anything.

Kickoff returns

Presumed kick returner: Mavin Anderson

This unit was probably Cal’s weakest special teams unit last year, but since most kickoffs end with a team starting at the 25 regardless, I don’t think there was any meaningful negative impact. More than anything else, Cal barely attempted to return kickoffs . . . which was mostly just as well, because a handful of attempts went really haywire.

Mavin Anderson was one of Cal’s two primary returners, and with Ashton Hayes having departed, the assumption is that Anderson will be the primary guy. My bet is that regardless of who is back there, you should expect a bunch of fair catches.

Defining questions

Can Cal’s coverage team in sure that Lachlan Wilson doesn’t outkick his coverage?

Cal has a kicker who can boom a kick - in fact, based on Tulsa’s punt coverage stats, I almost wonder if Wilson held back some leg to avoid even more frequent returns.

And there’s reason to expect good results here - Cal’s coverage was largely solid for Sheahan last year. If they can, this could be one of Cal’s stronger special teams units in recent memory.

Does Vic So’oto make any kind of impact as Special Teams Coordinator?

My assumption is no, not really. There is exactly nothing in So’oto’s resume indicating previous special teams experience, so my assumption is that this is a learning-on-the-job situation, and So’oto will mostly oversee whatever processes were in place last year when there was no officially titled special team’s coach.

Can big plays outnumber mistakes?

With Jeremiah Hunter established as a returner and the possibility that Luckhurst has plus college kicker range, Cal really has the potential to make positive special teams plays, rather than just focusing on not making negative plays. But it’s also true that although 2022 was an improvement, Cal didn’t fully iron out mistakes from their system.

Final Outlook

I expect Cal special teams to actually be a clear plus this year.

That’s a risky thing to say when you have two new specialists. But Wilson is a well established college punter and Luckhurst should at least be capable. Combine that with Jeremiah Hunter and you have to feel solidly confident in the specialist positions.

The other aspect of special teams is depth of athleticism. And thanks to Cal’s portal coups, this is one of the deepest teams in recent memory in terms of the sheer number of dudes who are physically ready to contribute to a college football game. When you have like 12 DBs with starting experience at one level or another, surely you can build some pretty excellent kick coverage teams, right?

Cal needs their special teams units to be strengths. I think they have the personnel and depth to make that happen. Expect to see Cal winning the field position battle all season long, and to have a couple special teams games play a big positive role a few times this year.