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FSU football: Special teams were costly against Miami

By Kelvin Hunt

WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - OCTOBER 19: Head coach Willie Taggart of the Florida State Seminoles watches his team during the first half of their game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at BB&T Field on October 19, 2019 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - OCTOBER 19: Head coach Willie Taggart of the Florida State Seminoles watches his team during the first half of their game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at BB&T Field on October 19, 2019 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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FSU football had some costly special teams errors against Miami. Why is DJ Matthews not being held accountable at punt returner?

FSU football coach Willie Taggart said wants to hold players accountable when they aren’t playing well. If a player isn’t doing his job he’ll get someone in there that can or wants to do the job.

So my question is why in the world is D.J. Matthews still being sent out there to allow punts to hit the ground and cost FSU tons of field position?

It’s baffling. It’s something that has happened a ridiculous amount of times this year. In fact, Taggart was asked about it recently and he noted Matthews let some balls hit the ground that should have been caught.

You’d think some conversations would be had so Matthews would emphasize at least fair catching the ball right?

Well, not only does he not catch the first punt of the game he allows another punt to hit the ground and it allows FSU to get pinned on its own one yard line.

Miami punted five times and FSU had one punt return on the day and that’s only because Isaiah Bolden grabbed a ball Matthews allowed to hit the ground and returned it.

I’m not sure it was the smartest play since a lot could have gone wrong, but he was at least aware that letting the ball go was going to cost the offense precious field position.

Why on earth is D.J. Matthews being trotted back out there after constantly allowing catchable balls to hit the ground? Is there no one else on the team that can catch a punt?

Here’s where FSU had starting field position due to punts not being fielded:

  • FSU 26 yard line
  • FSU 30 yard line
  • FSU 1 yard line

The other punt that wasn’t returned was a touchback with the Noles starting at their own 20 yard line. The crazy thing is no one asked Taggart about it after the game nor did he address it directly.

To be sure they knew yards would be at a premium in a rivalry game not to mention Miami does field a good defense?

Next. FSU vs. Miami In-depth Recap. dark

How this coaching staff continues to trot Matthews out there is beyond me. I know Tommy Martin didn’t have a great day punting and cost the Noles a lot of field position too. However, he wasn’t the starting punter at the beginning of the season and I’m not sure there’s anyone else they could have put out there.

It was just a bad day all around for FSU special teams.

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