Posted by pray4pro on 7/20/2016 11:13:00 AM (view original):
What about not having a Kicker or a Punter? Both my K and P were seniors last year, so I had to play an exhibition game with my redshirt freshman QB playing both duties. Interestingly enough, he was able to average 32 yards per punt on 6 punts and made all 7 extra points. I wish he would've been able to try a field goal though. His kickoffs weren't awful either, usually from the 15-25.
Two problems with this, as one who has experimented:
1) You give up 10-15 yards of field position on every exchange of punts, if you average ~ 30-35 yards and opponent averages 40-45. That probably leads to at least one additional score surrendered per game, and most teams can't afford that.
2) I found that because there are so few touchbacks and shorter kicks, I gave up significantly worse field position on returns, including a number of KR and PR TDs despite having average ST ratings at a level with my opponents.
In other words, even though the stats don't look terrible, the impact on the rest of the game is more than you think. I'll get to experience this with my Gopher squad, as I realized I just forgot to recruit a K/P - whoops.