Four Downs (post-spring): Special teams

IOWA CITY — We are floating in the backwaters of college football right now. Spring practice is over. Summer workouts begin the first week of June and then fall camp in August. This is the horse latitudes, except the Cubs seem to want to be interesting and fun this year.

But really, for us college football people, it's 115 or so days until games and it might take Iowa that long to see what it has for kicker and punter.

This isn't a doomsday post. We saw kickers Miguel Recinos and Mick Ellis and punters Colten Rastetter and Ben Canby in the spring game. They looked terrific.

They are, however, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bodies Iowa will be sorting through at both positions this fall. As it stands right now, the Hawkeyes will have nine contestants at kicker and punter. That's a lot of reps to chart, so, managers, get your clipboards ready. Footballs will be flying through the air and uprights at a furious pace.

'We may set a record, at least for my career here for the most specialists ever in the 105 count for preseason,' head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'It may be a three-ring circus. We have to figure out how to get the competition to be fair. I just want to give everybody a chance to compete and make sure we get the best guys out there.

'It's a critical part of the football game, and obviously we talk about the 21 (departing) seniors, too, being guys who are specialists. It's a big item on our focus list.'

Can Iowa afford nine kickers and punters in its camp 105 (the maximum number of players allowed to participate in fall camp, per NCAA rules)? Can it afford not to have all nine in camp? The answer is no and probably yes.

Let's go over the list. For fun, we'll call it the 'Leg Brigade.'

Kickers — Sophomores Mick Ellis and Recinos and walk-on freshmen Keith Duncan, Caleb Shudak and Josh Proehl

Ellis: The Texas native redshirted last season after he got a brief look as a true freshman. Ellis attempted one field goal and missed. It was a 29-yarder against Ball State that almost proved to be fatal. He made seven PATs. Let's toss out that season. It's officially a long time ago via college football time. In the spring, Ellis handled short-kicking duties and PATs. Let's assume there's renewal.

Recinos: He booted a 40-yarder in the spring game that had room to spare. Recinos was the backup kicker in 2015. The redshirt sophomore also was listed as No. 2 punter this spring. No idea if he has the rugby punt in his repertoire (Marshall Koehn made that kind of a thing last year). Recinos seems to be on solid footing (no pun intended).

Duncan: The North Carolina native is betting on himself. He passed on four offers from FCS schools to walk on at Iowa. Duncan owns four North Carolina high school kicking records — most career FGs (51), most FGs in a season (22), most consecutive PATs (104) and most field goals beyond 50 yards in a season (5).

Shudak: His dad is Jeff Shudak, a former all-Big Eight kicker at Iowa State. As a senior, Shudak made 5 of 8 field goals with a long of 43 yards. He also made 27/27 PAT's and had 30 of his 33 kickoffs go for touchbacks.

Shudak did tell the Council Bluffs Nonpareil that four kickers would compete for the No. 1 job and that three were guaranteed spots in camp and he was one of those three. That's news.

Proehl: The Solon native connected on 3 of 4 field goals and 40 of 44 PAT attempts as a senior for the Spartans.

Punters — Rastetter (a redshirt freshman walk-on), walk-on freshmen Canby and Jackson Terry and senior walk-on Ron Coluzzi

Rastetter: The Guttenberg native had a terrific spring game, averaging 47.0 yards on three punts. Ferentz did throw this caution out: 'I'm glad you came today. It was a good day, a happy day, but we're kind of going back and forth, respective to that. I think we have the potential; we have the ability, but our consistency has not been anywhere close to what it needs to be during the course of the spring.'

Canby: The Mount Pleasant native averaged 34.3 yards on three punts in the spring game. As a senior at Mount Pleasant, Canby averaged 34.5 yards per punt on 38 punts, with a long of 50 yards.

Terry: The Kansas City, Mo., native gained notice in Kohl Kicking Camps. Quick scouting snippet from Kohl site: Terry has really progressed to a D1 prospect as a punter over the last year and will continue to improve his hand skills and overall tempo. He has had some 'wow' moments during camp events with flashes of greatness. Terry also has been a talented high school kicker, but his upside remains as a punter.

Coluzzi: Coluzzi put up numbers for Central Michigan as a punter and kickoff specialist. He's a graduate-transfer who'll walk-on this fall. Last season at Central Michigan, Coluzzi had 59 punts for a 39.2 average (long of 61; 20 fair catches). He kicked off 64 times with 21 touchbacks.

4th Down

With kickoff experience on the FBS level, maybe Coluzzi is the best bet to specialize at kicker. Koehn made that a big deal the last two seasons, compiling 90 touchbacks the last two seasons.

This is an important job. The best kick coverage is a touchback. When a Power 5 football team kicks off from the 35-yard line, touchbacks should be the expectation.

3rd Down

Desmond King went into 2015 as Iowa's best cornerback. There's always a little worry when the best defensive back on the roster ends up as the punt and kick returner. King clearly won both jobs out of camp and it sure felt as if the coaching staff played 2015 with a mindset to take advantage of everything it could. So, any risk of injury or overuse was thrown to the wind and King ended up honorable mention on both ballots as a return specialist.

King finished second in the league with 14.18 yards per punt return and was fourth in kick returns with 24.4 yards per return.

2nd Down

Linebackers coach Seth Wallace said this spring that, yes, he'd love to find replacements for linebackers Josey Jewell and Ben Niemann on punt coverage. The two were probably Nos. 2 and 3 in snaps played for the defense last season (behind free safety Jordan Lomax). But Wallace also added that he'll play who he needs to play on special teams, meaning that reserves need to show they can handle it.

Four Downs, Post-Spring: 

• Defensive line• Linebackers• Secondary

Five names that might be able to do that: LB Bo Bower, LB Jack Hockaday, LB Angelo Garbutt, S Jake Gervase and S Amani Hooker.

1st Down

With the departures of defensive back Omar Truitt and wide receiver Andre Harris, Iowa finds itself with a few open scholarships going into August. Sophomore free safety Brandon Snyder is probably in line for one. Longsnapper Tyler Kluver will be a junior this fall and might worth a look. He's been perfect for two years in a job where perfection is the expectation.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com