Ian Shannon

[aubiefifty 16,718]

Gus Malzahn hopeful Ian Shannon can wrap up starting punter job this spring

Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

While Auburn returns the majority of its starters from last season, there are a handful of starting jobs up for grabs this spring.

Sure, quarterback is the most talked about of those battles, but it's not expected to produce a clear winner by the time A-Day rolls around next month. There is at least one position, however, that coach Gus Malzahn would like to see shored up by the completion of spring practice -- punter.

"Ian Shannon has a chance to win that job, and I think he's in a really good spot mentally," Malzahn said Tuesday on the opening day of practice.

Auburn doesn't have many questions about its special teams unit -- even with Tim Horton assuming special teams coordinator duties from Scott Fountain -- with two-time Lou Groza Award finalist Daniel Carlson returning, as well as holder Tyler Stovall and long snapper Ike Powell, and return specialists like Stephen Roberts, Kerryon Johnson, Jason Smith and Kam Martin. The one area that really needs to be addressed is at punter, where Auburn must replace two-year starter Kevin Phillips.

Phillips appeared in 24 games over the last two seasons and averaged 41.56 yards on 100 punt attempts during that time. Last year, Phillips averaged 42.27 yards per punt, which ranked 40^th in the nation and just eighth in the SEC as Auburn finished the year 48^th nationally in punting and ninth in the conference.

With Phillips graduated, Shannon -- a redshirt sophomore -- will is the prohibitive favorite to take over the starting job.

 

Projected Auburn depth chart to open spring practice 2017

Projected Auburn depth chart as the Tigers open spring practice

 

Shannon signed with Auburn in 2015 as the No. 3 punter in the nation but redshirted that season after losing out on the starting job to Phillips, a JUCO signee in the recruiting class, during fall camp. Last season, Shannon punted three times in a reserve role and averaged just 30.67 yards per attempt, with a long of 37 yards and two of the three attempts landing inside the 20-yard line.

While Shannon will be given every opportunity to earn the starting job in spring practice, Auburn does have two other viable options: walk-on Sage Ledbetter, who was a standout at nearby Auburn High, and Carlson, who assumed kicking and punting duties as a freshman in 2014.

Carlson averaged 42.05 yards on 41 punts as a freshman that season but has not attempted a punt in a game since, focusing solely on place-kicking to keep his leg fresher late in the season. During fall camp in 2015, Carlson said he still practices punting some -- a skill to "keep in my back pocket" just in case he is needed in games.

For now, though, the job is Shannon's to lose.

"He got a chance really to set back last year and gain experience," Malzahn said. "He got a couple of reps, so that will be a big factor that if he can wrap that job up in the spring."

[McLoofus 35,182]

Do they keep track of what punters net after returns? I'm guessing that Phillips might rank a little higher than 40th in that regard. We seemed to have settled on a shorter-higher-punts-with-no-returns philosophy and I think I'm okay with it. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

SHannon has got to show much more consistency than he has when he got to punt before. If not, someone else will get a shot. Hopefully he has worked hard enough on his technique to get there...

[LKEEL75 2,566]

3 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Do they keep track of what punters net after returns? I'm guessing that Phillips might rank a little higher than 40th in that regard. We seemed to have settled on a shorter-higher-punts-with-no-returns philosophy and I think I'm okay with it. 

I wish all of these stats people would realize that it is not the distance of the punt but the distance of the return.  If you are avg 50 yards a punt but giving up 15 yards per return, then you are losing.  I know UAt & OK had a couple of returns against us, but prior to the UAt game I think our return average was 0 or maybe even <0.  That is huge in my book.

[oracle79 3,569]

5 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Do they keep track of what punters net after returns? I'm guessing that Phillips might rank a little higher than 40th in that regard. We seemed to have settled on a shorter-higher-punts-with-no-returns philosophy and I think I'm okay with it. 

Of course we're better as not many punts were returned.  Now, I'm curious if they subtract 20 yards from the net when you punt one through the endzone.  That's the most frustrating thing to me in punting other than someone taking it to the house.

 

Rank	Name	G	W-L	Punt Yds	Opp Punt Ret Yds	Punts	TB	Net Yds
1	Utah	13	9-4	3053	157	64	2	44.63
2	Ohio St.	13	11-2	2614	55	57	5	43.14
3	Bowling Green	12	4-8	2791	104	61	3	43.07
4	Texas	12	5-7	3115	93	66	10	42.76
5	Arizona St.	12	5-7	3026	65	69	3	42.04
6	Arkansas	13	7-6	2626	101	59	3	41.78
7	Texas A&M	13	8-5	3056	104	71	0	41.58
8	Memphis	13	8-5	2530	66	58	4	41.10
9	Oklahoma St.	13	10-3	2458	15	59	1	41.07
10	Colorado St.	13	7-6	2469	113	56	4	40.64
11	Florida	13	9-4	3065	284	65	7	40.63
12	Southern Miss.	13	7-6	2371	86	54	5	40.46
13	Missouri	12	4-8	2894	111	66	6	40.35
14	Miami (FL)	13	9-4	2820	158	65	2	40.34
15	Virginia	12	2-10	3279	118	74	9	40.28
16	North Carolina	13	8-5	2134	2	50	6	40.24
17	Louisville	13	9-4	2413	183	55	1	40.18
18	Eastern Mich.	13	7-6	2739	115	63	5	40.06
19	Boise St.	13	10-3	2248	148	51	3	40.00
20	BYU	13	9-4	2459	43	58	5	39.93
21	Auburn	13	8-5	1994	19	48	3	39.90

[LKEEL75 2,566]

Great job @oracle79. So we ended up 3rd in return yards and only 3 touchbacks.  Those are both very impressive stats.  Kicking is an art and is much harder than people want to give it credit for.  Being able to punt and keeping the returns & TBs to a minimum is a sign of a great kicker in my book.

[boisnumber1 2,818]

3 hours ago, lkeel75 said:

I wish all of these stats people would realize that it is not the distance of the punt but the distance of the return.  If you are avg 50 yards a punt but giving up 15 yards per return, then you are losing.  I know UAt & OK had a couple of returns against us, but prior to the UAt game I think our return average was 0 or maybe even <0.  That is huge in my book.

This is true to some extent, but in the SEC when you are in a tough defensive game, you need to a punter who can boom one from time to time - flip the field for you even when your offense didnt do it for you. It can be the difference between winning and losing. Phillips rarely if ever did that I can recall. It was always, ok here comes another 35-40 yard punt. A good punter who can turn one over can be a weapon in a close game. We havent had that weapon in a few seasons. Phillips was punting high and relatively short because that is what he could do, not because it was always the best option. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

15 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

This is true to some extent, but in the SEC when you are in a tough defensive game, you need to a punter who can boom one from time to time - flip the field for you even when your offense didnt do it for you. It can be the difference between winning and losing. Phillips rarely if ever did that I can recall. It was always, ok here comes another 35-40 yard punt. A good punter who can turn one over can be a weapon in a close game. We havent had that weapon in a few seasons. Phillips was punting high and relatively short because that is what he could do, not because it was always the best option. 

We haven't had a boomer since Tubbs.  Our best punter since the Tubbs era has been Steve Clark and he was a 35-40 yard guy who kicked it into the stratosphere.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

3 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

We haven't had a boomer since Tubbs.  Our best punter since the Tubbs era has been Steve Clark and he was a 35-40 yard guy who kicked it into the stratosphere.

We have missed a threat in the punt game since Steven Clark. I thought  remembered Clark booming it MUCH more than 35-40 yards. But you are right. Nevertheless,  whatever the distance of his kicks, a  majority of them were downed inside the 20, with a huge amount downed inside the 5. He was a true weapon in the punting game. We have regressed tremendously punting since Clark. Hopefully Shannon will be a clone of Clark. Then we have a true weapon as a punter again. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

13 hours ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

We have missed a threat in the punt game since Steven Clark. I thought  remembered Clark booming it MUCH more than 35-40 yards. But you are right. Nevertheless,  whatever the distance of his kicks, a  majority of them were downed inside the 20, with a huge amount downed inside the 5. He was a true weapon in the punting game. We have regressed tremendously punting since Clark. Hopefully Shannon will be a clone of Clark. Then we have a true weapon as a punter again. 

Clark was never a boomer. In 4 years at AU, he never really had a great distance year. His last year was his best at 42+, but his others were around 34, 39, and 40. His weapon was how high he got it for little or no return. He was always best on a shorter field, where we could down it inside the 20. If we were backed up to our own endzone, not so great.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

13 hours ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

We have missed a threat in the punt game since Steven Clark. I thought  remembered Clark booming it MUCH more than 35-40 yards. But you are right. Nevertheless,  whatever the distance of his kicks, a  majority of them were downed inside the 20, with a huge amount downed inside the 5. He was a true weapon in the punting game. We have regressed tremendously punting since Clark. Hopefully Shannon will be a clone of Clark. Then we have a true weapon as a punter again. 

Had a serious knack for making the ball stop wherever it first touched the dirt.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Hopefully the 1 or 2 times we punt a game will be at least 40 yards each. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

On 03/03/2017 at 7:29 PM, Auburn2Eugene said:

We have missed a threat in the punt game since Steven Clark. I thought  remembered Clark booming it MUCH more than 35-40 yards. But you are right. Nevertheless,  whatever the distance of his kicks, a  majority of them were downed inside the 20, with a huge amount downed inside the 5. He was a true weapon in the punting game. We have regressed tremendously punting since Clark. Hopefully Shannon will be a clone of Clark. Then we have a true weapon as a punter again. 

Clark is a KC boy, so I actually know him fairly well.  The sad thing is, though he's made a couple of NFL teams, he's never made it to the final roster. He's still around Auburn, doing kicking clinics. I'd love to see Auburn add him as a GA.