Does UNLV football finally have hope on special teams?

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023 | 2 a.m.

There are some Las Vegas certainties that are so ingrained, they’ve come to be accepted as a way of life. Like construction cones on surface streets, the house always winning, and UNLV football trotting out sorry special teams units year after year.

One of those things might be changing in 2023, and it’s not the traffic.

For more than a decade, the Scarlet and Gray’s consistently poor special teams have hemorrhaged field position and, ultimately, points. And that’s despite getting the hard part right; in a college football landscape where accurate placekickers are nearly impossible to find, the program has been stable at that position for a long time, going from steady Evan Pantels in 2016-18 to even steadier Daniel Gutierrez from 2019-22.

It's the rest of the units that have been disastrous. Tony Sanchez’s return men couldn’t catch the ball reliably, and sometimes did not understand the basic rules of the sport. Marcus Arroyo’s special teams squads seemed to specialize only in letting opponents block their punts. Every year, week after week, it was a mess.

New head coach Barry Odom is determined not to fall into the trap of dismissing the importance of special teams. On the contrary, he quickly identified it as an area where UNLV could make fast improvements, starting with the coaching.

Instead of handing the job to an unproven young coach, he lured veteran James Shibest, who came with more than 20 years of experience as a special teams coordinator in the SEC and ACC.

The impact was clear on Saturday, as UNLV dominated on special teams in a 44-14 win over Bryant. The Scarlet and Gray averaged 52.7 yards on kick returns while limiting Bryant to 15.8 yards, and new placekicker Jose Pizano knocked in all three of his field goals and all five of his extra points.

Each unit looked organized, there were no penalties, and UNLV notched some explosive plays in the return game. Even considering the level of competition (Bryant is an FCS program), it’s been a long time since the Scarlet and Gray have had such a good day on special teams.

Odom praised the players and Shibest in particular for helping to deliver the victory.

“We spend so much time on special teams,” Odom said. “I think James Shibest is the best special teams coordinator in all of football. He gives our kids the tools to go play well and be impactful, and we’ve got to have that on our side.”

One of the main issues that coaches face with special teams is a lack of quality personnel. Head coaches attempt to limit the snap counts of their offensive and defensive starters, meaning many core players are not available to play special teams; that leaves ST coaches to cobble together their return and coverage squads from the bottom of the depth chart.

Odom isn’t doing that. Junior receiver Jacob De Jesus may be the best position player on the entire roster, and on Saturday he was back returning kicks and punts against Bryant and making game-changing plays.

In the third quarter, De Jesus fielded a kick at the 1-yard line, followed his blocking over the middle and nearly broke it for a touchdown, getting dragged down two yards shy of the goal line.

It would have been UNLV’s first kick return touchdown since 2011. One has to go back even further for the program’s last punt return TD, which happened in 2001.

De Jesus seems a decent bet to snap at least one of those streaks this season.

“Oh man,” De Jesus said, recounting his long runback. “It was perfectly executed by the players and the coaches, the scheme, everybody blocking it well. At the end of the day, I’ve just got to get in the end zone. It was cool to make a big play like that for my team, but next time I’ve got to get in that box.”

De Jesus finished with 127 return yards on two attempts.

UNLV’s next opponent, No. 2 Michigan, is likely to be sturdier in that phase of the game than Bryant was. The Wolverines held East Carolina to 14 yards on one kick return in a 30-3 win; of their other four kickoffs, two went for touchbacks and two were fair catches.

Regardless of the opponent, Odom wants his special teams to continue tilting the field in UNLV’s favor.

“Special teams gave us an advantage all day,” Odom said. “You look at average starting position, we were almost 20-plus yards ahead of our opponent in kicking and the way that resulted, and that’s huge.”

It’s only one week, but when it comes to the state of UNLV’s special teams, the early returns are good.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.