Special teams play is 'priority' for Kentucky under Jay Boulware

The kicking game needed to show some big improvements in 2023. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops brought in former Auburn, Oklahoma, and Texas special teams coordinator Jay Boulware to fix some of the problems. We saw that play out on the field.

Barion Brown became one of the best kickoff returners in college football, Kentucky moved into the top half of the SEC in punt return defense, and Georgia Southern transfer Alex Raynor made 10 of 11 field goals one year after the Wildcats missed eight field goals. Jay Boulware switched some things up for the Wildcats.

On Friday, the 51-year-old assistant coach spoke with guest host Jeff Piecoro on Kentucky Sports Radio to discuss Kentucky’s kicking game. The Wildcats emphasize the third phase in practice.

“We start off every practice with a special teams period. That’s where our field goal and field goal block teams get their work,” Boulware told Piecoro.

“It is a priority for us. Very much so. We were brought in here to change the trajectory of where our special teams were headed. I really feel like we did that.”

Boulware told KSR that Kentucky improved from 83rd to 20th in the country in special teams efficiency based on CAI’s analytics-driven rankings. The Wildcats finished third in the SEC despite the lack of total punting yards. The Wildcats’ top goal is to eliminate explosives in the kicking game. Outside of the last two games of the season on kickoffs, they did just that under Boulware. Kentucky ranked just No. 105 nationally in net punting average (36.43), but that was somewhat due to design. The Wildcats could not kick the ball very far with Wilson Berry, but they accomplished their main goal which was to stop explosives. Foes did not record one return over 30 yards against Kentucky as the Wildcats allowed only 6.50 yards per return in 2023 after allowing 13.92 yards per return in 2022.

“We didn’t give up any 30-plus yard returns last year. Zero. And that’s that efficiency thing that you’re talking about. Just because I can punt it further with lower hangtime doesn’t mean that’s what we should be doing,” Boulware said. “That’s what some rollout punts do for you if you’re not able to put the ball in the air with the appropriate hangtime so your coverage units can run underneath it.”

“In this league when you get against some of these great return men, you have to be consistent at ball placement, hangtime, and distance. If you’re consistent with hangtime and distance — which will allow your coverage units to get downfield and make that play — then you can eliminate whoever is across from you.”

When Jay Boulware first arrived, the new assistant coach dug into the tape and realized the rollout punts were part of the reason for some of the big returns allowed. Boulware claims that Kentucky has the rollout option in their scheme, but the traditional pocket punting helped the Wildcats cover better.

In 2024, Kentucky will return both Brown and Raynor on top of adding UT Martin transfer Aidan Laros. The punter was a first-team All-American in the FCS last season averaging 47.3 yards per punt last year with 18 of 52 attempts traveling 50+ yards. Laros also served as the starting field goal kicker and kickoff specialist (64.6% touchback rate) as a redshirt sophomore. The transfer addition will hopefully help with Kentucky’s distance problem on punting. But the top goal will be to win the explosive play battle.

“We want to eliminate the big plays from our opposing teams,” said Boulware. “We don’t want to give teams any momentum.”