Brian Kelly calls for a more 'explosive' return game

A year ago, LSU was struggling in every facet of special teams. They were muffing punts, missing kicks and had a multitude of issues every week on that side of the ball. It was painful to watch a team be so bad at doing some of the most routine things in the sport.

This year, however, the Tigers have made a drastic improvement to their special teams. The Tigers have missed just two of their 43 PAT/FG attempts, they haven't muffed nearly as many punts and Jay Bramblett has been very solid punting the ball (even though he hasn't been used too much this year).

Brian Kelly talked about what it means to have both kickers excelling this season, and he highlighted that even though Bramblett hasn't punted much, he's still been able to make some big plays for the Tigers.

"I think it's been competent. I think our kickers have been really good. I think both [Damien] Ramos and Jay [Bramblett] have been really good this year. When you have two strong kickers, I mean when you look at the Missouri game, Jay Bramblett's punt was arguably one of the biggest plays of the game when we pinned them beyond the five yard line and turned that into a pick six. I think when you have two guys that are playing at a high level, you're competent in your running teams, and that's a big step for us."

Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly has acknowledged the improvements on special teams this year compared to last year, but there is still something this LSU special teams has been lacking, and that's the return game.

In Week one, Aaron Anderson was the Tigers starting punt returner, but after fumbling a punt early in that game, he was benched immediately. Since then, we haven't seen him much in any returner role. The freshman Kaleb Jackson has taken over kickoff duty while Gregory Clayton Jr. has taken over the punt return duties, but they've mostly been back their to fair catch or let balls roll into the end zone.

Through six games, the Tigers have returned a total of 11 punts and kickoffs. Eight of those 11 have come on kickoffs, and Jackson is averaging about 17.13 yards per return, which is not very good. The remaining three of those 11 have been on punts, and Clayton has averaged 10.67 yards per return, which is actually a pretty solid average.

Brian Kelly talked about the need to be more explosive on special teams, but says he's seeing signs of a group that's improving.

"We need to be more explosive in some areas. We had a chance to be more explosive on the kickoff, but we had a penalty on it. I think Kaleb [Jackson] back there gives us an explosive guy. We still need to be better in the punt return game. I think we've made progress there, we're certainly not a finished product, but I see signs and we're led by two really good kickers."

Brain Kelly

I think we're all in agreement that this years special teams is much improved from last year. It's been a while since it's felt like special teams lost LSU the game, and that seemed to happen almost every week last year.

We may begin to see some more returns as Coach Kelly is getting more comfortable with the guys he's sending out there, but either way, you can no longer say special teams is a liability for the Tigers.