Utah’s history of having Australian punters thrive in the program influenced freshman Ben Lennon’s choice of the Utes, although he’s not getting the same opportunities that national award winners Tom Hackett and Mitch Wishnowsky received.
How could Lennon have known Utah's offense would be this good?
In three of Utah’s games this season, Lennon has punted only once. He might have gone the entire game last Saturday without kicking, except the Utes were stopped on a 3rd-and-1 play at the Arizona 38-yard line with seven minutes remaining. Utah has punted 28 times in 11 games (compared with opponents’ 62 punts), with only Oklahoma, Air Force and Washington State having given their punters less work.
Hackett once had 11 punts in a 2013 game at BYU. In his three seasons as the full-time punter, he kicked 76, 80 and 61 times, while winning two Ray Guy Awards. Wishnowsky, the 2016 winner and a three-time finalist, had seasons of 64, 52 and 59 punts.
Utah suddenly is out of the punting awards business. That's a healthy development. As coach Kyle Whittingham said after the program's third consecutive honor, “You don't want to punt too often. I don't want to say it's a dubious award ...”
Lennon has done his job well, though. He's averaging 39.6 yards while often kicking with a short field, after the offense moved into opposing territory. More than half of his punts (15) have landed inside the 20-yard line and only four have been returned, for 17 yards.
The low volume of punting is evidence of how this No. 6-ranked Utah team is different from any in the Whittingham era. The Utes were known for winning with their defense and special teams, but the offense’s emergence has altered the formula in 2019. Thanks partly to Demari Simpkins’ two punt returns for 56 yards at Arizona, Utah had an edge in special teams, Whittingham said, after that phase played out evenly for 10 games.
Lennon is content with his limited role, knowing the offense’s success has helped the Utes to a 10-1 record with a chance to win the Pac-12 South title Saturday by beating Colorado. Yet having been unfamiliar with American football while playing professionally in five years of Australian Rules Football, he has found standing on the sideline a bit jarring.
“Yeah, I didn't know that some games you might not even get used, and always thought you'd be involved somehow,” he said. “But obviously, this year we've been fine, so we really haven't needed to use the punter too much, which has been good.”
The 24-year-old Lennon said he tries to “just encourage the boys as much as possible” on the sideline and counsel younger teammates, as Utah's special-teams captain.
Lennon is on the field regularly as the holder for place-kicks — which this year means a lot more extra points than field goals, in another sign of Utah’s offensive efficiency. Freshman kicker Jadon Redding has attempted only 11 field goals (making eight) in 11 games, after Andy Phillips and Matt Gay had at least 25 attempts in each of the previous five seasons. That’s partly attributable to Redding’s shorter range and Whittingham’s strategy.
COLORADO AT NO. 6 UTAH
When • Saturday, 5:30 p.m.
TV • Ch. 4
Redding did kick two short field goals that proved helpful in a 33-28 win at Washington, and he is 48 of 48 on extra points. With the help of Lennon's holding and Keegan Markgraf's snapping, Redding has tied Daniel Pulsipher's 1994 school record for most extra points in a season without a miss.
Redding took over that job after Andrew Strauch missed an extra point in the season opener at BYU, although Strauch has performed well as a kickoff specialist. Simpkins became the punt returner in late September when Britain Covey chose to redshirt. Simpkins broke out at Arizona with returns of 17 and 39 yards.
“We finally got something going in the punt return game, which was great to see,” Whittingham said.
Utah's kickoff coverage has been solid, while opponents have tried to return more kickoffs than usual, often because they've been way behind. Utah usually fair-catches kickoffs that don't go into the end zone, with a 2018 rule change giving teams the ball at the 25-yard line. The Utes have returned only seven kickoffs all season.
“As much as I hate to say it, special-teams impact has been a little bit diminished by the rule changes,” Whittingham said. “Kickoff, and kickoff return, is essentially out of the game almost completely, and it may be completely [eliminated] the next few years.”
Valuing special-teams play as much as he does, Whittingham laments this development. Less punting by his team, though? He’s good with that.
