Inside the Huddle: Erickson, Jamerson spark special teams
September 17, 2015 | Football
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Sept. 17, 2015
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com
MADISON, Wis. -- It was during the 2011 season that a Badger finished ahead of a Honey Badger; Jared Abbrederis led the Big Ten and ranked No. 3 nationally in punt return average, just ahead of LSU's Tyrann Mathieu.
Abbrederis, then a sophomore, averaged 15.8 yards per return, including a 60-yard touchdown against Indiana. It was the second-highest average in school history behind Ira Matthews (16.9).
"I remember watching Abby," said Alex Erickson, "and he was kind of a magician back there the way he would make guys miss and make something out of nothing a lot of times."
Erickson, a senior wide receiver, has been breathing some early life into Wisconsin's special teams by averaging 14.5 yards on his six punt returns through the first two games of the 2015 season.
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"Hidden yardage is huge," he said.
Erickson, who has taken over this specialty from Kenzel Doe, had punt returns of 35 and 28 yards that set up short touchdown drives of 16 and 17 yards against Miami University last Saturday.
"Kenzel was naturally good at it," Erickson said of Doe, who averaged 10.5 yards on 24 returns in 2014. "There are guys who come to life when they get the ball in their hands."
Abbrederis was definitely one of those guys. And so now is Erickson.
"It's one of those things where you have to use your natural ability," he said. "It's kind of hard to teach. It's more of an instinctive thing -- reading blocks and finding holes and just running."
You have to run with an attitude. Erickson used the word "fearless" to describe the mindset.
"You have to catch that ball and be ready to make someone miss," he said. "Especially if they have a good cover team, they're going to be right up on you and you have to be able to catch in traffic."
Erickson's position coach, Ted Gilmore, also tutors the punt returners.
"He has emphasized a lot about catching and keeping our feet under us," Erickson said. "You have to be ready to make guys miss right away and you've got to be ready to go side-to-side sometimes.
"Obviously you have to get north-south as fast as you can. A lot of times if you dance around back there, you're not going to get anywhere. So get north and pick up as many yards as you can."
Miami's Christian Koch punted nine times and averaged 41.2 per kick. Some were line drives.
"You get the ball and there's no one in front of you," Erickson said of the gifts, "so you've got a lot of room to work and you can get north with some speed."
Erickson muffed one punt while attempting to make the catch before it hit the ground.
"They were doing some rugby stuff and punting a little shorter," said Erickson, who recovered his own fumble. "It's tough when they punt short because the coverage is already around the ball.
"So you have your own guys there and you have their guys there and you're trying to catch it in traffic. And sometimes it's hard to communicate (with his teammates) to get them away from the ball.
"You just have to be very aggressive, especially when the punt is short. You have to be able to come up and attack it and get your guys away from it if you're not going to catch it."
Erickson ran up on one punt and let it go. When the ball stopped rolling, it covered 61 yards.
"I wanted to attack it but I didn't want to sell out; you still want to be under control," he said. "I didn't think I had a chance (to catch it cleanly). Then you're just trying to play the bounce."
Ryan Kay is entering his second year as Troy's punter. Opponents have returned only one of his kicks (for 33 yards) the first two games. He's averaging 39.0, with four kicks downed inside the 20.
Kay has shown a tendency to get a lot of height on his punts. Almost half of his 13 kicks have resulted in fair catches (5). Erickson, thus, will have to adjust to the hang time.
"The official who's back there will usually find me in warmups and we'll go over how he wants me to fair catch it," said Erickson, noting they will discuss all potential scenarios.
"We'll also go over how I should block out the sun. And how if I do make a Peter Call (telling his teammates to find the ball and get away from it), I'm dead and I can't return it.
"He just goes over all the basics and he'll protect me if I fair catch. If someone hits me, it will be a penalty obviously. It's nice to know that you're on the same page with him so there's no gray (area)."
Erickson, a prep quarterback, returned kickoffs and punts at Darlington High School. "I wasn't too bad," he said modestly. As a UW walk-on, he really didn't think about becoming a returner.
"I guess that I did a little bit of scout team punt return stuff when I was younger," he said. "Last year, I started backing up a little bit and this year I got the roll.
With the graduation loss of the versatile Doe, the Badgers had two openings to fill. Erickson has been handling the punt returns with sophomore Natrell Jamerson returning kickoffs.
Jamerson averaged 21 yards on four returns against Alabama. His long was 33. He had only one return against Miami for 28 yards and he came quite close to breaking it for a much longer gain.
"It felt good," he said. "I was almost to the `house' but I got tripped up."
As a high school senior (Vanguard in Ocala, Florida), he returned two kickoffs for scores.
"There's such an adrenaline rush," he said of the high that he gets from returning kicks. "Everyone is running after you and you have to make everyone miss.
"I've learned that I have to trust myself and hit it hard and just trust that everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing in front of me."
Jamerson was in the wide receiver rotation as a true freshman last season. He was moved to cornerback in the spring and he's expected to see extended action against Troy in specialty defenses.
"It's very different styles -- you go from running in a straight line to backpedaling and cutting a lot," observed Erickson. "But I've been very impressed with him.
"When he found out that his role was going to change, he embraced it. And he's out here working with Darius (Hillary) and Sojourn (Shelton) trying to compete with the best guys.
"In one-on-ones, he's always trying to line up against the better receivers. With his role on kickoffs, he's got very good speed and he's not afraid to stick his nose in there."
Role-playing is essential to special teams. Against Miami, sophomore Lubern Figaro and freshman Arrington Farrar drove a single defender 10 yards downfield on an Erickson punt return.
"I could see the red (Figaro and Farrar) in front of me driving (their man) and then I watched it on film and it was a very impressive play," Erickson said.
"You appreciate that effort. I'm doing everything I can back there and you know that you have guys doing everything they can to give you some room up front.
"If we've got guys working like that -- finishing to the whistle and the echo of the whistle -- we're going to be fine in all phases of the game."
