Charlotte 49ers football looking for something special from special teams
Memorable as the 2019 football season was for the Charlotte 49ers, they didn’t get much help from their special teams.
Whether it was bungled coverage on kickoffs, blocked punts or just underachieving on the routine stuff, special teams often let the 49ers down.
That’s something coach Will Healy has taken steps to address this season, starting with the hiring of a new special teams coordinator.
“We’ve got to make some big strides on special teams,” Healy told The Observer. “I think we’re doing it.”
Healy, whose first 49ers team went 7-6 last season and played in the Bahamas Bowl, brought in Charles Bankins as special teams coordinator, replacing Max Thurmond, who coached special teams and linebackers a year ago. Thurmond is now special teams coordinator at Jacksonville State.
“I thought having a guy who just focused on special teams was important,” Healy said. “Last year, I don’t know if I gave Max the opportunities he needed with coaching linebackers and special teams. That’s a tall task. So having a guy who’s just focused on it, who’s around practice every day, watching personnel and finding the right guys to do it and spending all this time on it, I think has been a really good change.”
Healy hired Bankins from Old Dominion, where he was special teams coordinator and running backs coach. In 2018, the Monarchs were ranked 16th nationally in punt-return defense and 31st in punt-return average. ODU’s Isaiah Harper was Conference USA’s special teams player of the year in 2017 after returning three kickoffs for touchdowns.
“We can’t fix other people’s systems, so we’re implementing our system,” Bankins said. “But I believe in keeping it simple. That’s the whole thing about special teams. A lot of people don’t know who the ‘R3’ is on the kickoff team or who the ‘L3’ is. But they’re going to know on our team and in our program. They’re going to feel special and get that recognition.”
Bankins said the 49ers special teams will go by the “four Bs: Be fanatical, be physical, be precise and stars be stars.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Charlotte’s special teams last season. Solomon Rogers returned a blocked punt 16 yards for a touchdown in a season-opening victory against Gardner-Webb. Jonathan Cruz’s 53-yard field goal against Massachusetts tied for the longest of the season in Conference USA. Backup punter Kyle Corbett’s 69-yarder against Middle Tennessee State was the third longest in 49ers history.
But, just as often, special teams hurt Charlotte, and sometimes the errors were glaring.
Charlotte opponents twice returned kickoffs for touchdowns, including a 99-yarder by Gardner-Webb’s Devron Harper in the season opener. The other came the following week, when special teams mistakes might have been the difference in a 56-41 loss against Appalachian State.
The 49ers had cut a deficit against the Mountaineers to eight points with 3 minutes, 17 seconds remaining and tried an onside kick to get the ball back. Instead, App State’s Darrynton Evans grabbed it and went 45 yards for a touchdown that clinched the Mountaineers’ victory. App State had already scored on a blocked punt return earlier in the game, and Cruz also missed an extra point.
The 49ers had two more punts returned against them for touchdowns — by UMass in the third game and Marshall (after a block).
Most of Charlotte’s special teams problems weren’t as obvious, but they were a consistent burden and produced some dreary numbers. The 49ers’ net punting average of 35.2 yards and punt-return defense of 12.5 yards both ranked last in C-USA and were near the bottom of the national rankings. Other stats included: kickoff return average, 17.3 yards (12th C-USA, 113th nationally out of 130); kickoff coverage net average, 38.1 yards (11th C-USA); point-after touchdown conversion percentage, 93.3 (tied 11th C-USA); field-goal percentage, 76.9 (ninth C-USA).
Only in punt-return average of 7.1 yards (seventh C-USA, 76th nationally) were the 49ers even close to sufficient.
It was a bit of a down year for Cruz, a junior who had a borderline spectacular freshman season in 2018, making 17-of-22 field-goal attempts (including a program-tying record 56-yarder to beat Florida Atlantic) and all 27 of his PAT kicks. He made 10-of-13 last season, about the same as his sophomore season, but he missed three extra points.
“I love Cruz,” Bankins said. “He likes to compete. He’s got a little swagger to him if you bring it out of him. He’s not shy; he just needs to be pushed a little so you can let him be him.”
Bankins said he expects senior running back Aaron McAllister and sophomore receiver Micaleous Elder to again be among those handling kick-return duties. Neither of them broke one off for a touchdown last season, but McAllister averaged 21 yards per return with a long of 45 yards and Elder (18.4 average) returned one 40 yards.
Punter Connor Bowler, whose 41.4-yard average tied for seventh in the league, is back for his junior season. Nafees Lyon averaged just 5.4 yards per return, but he might have often felt like he didn’t have a chance to do much better.
“Nafees had a couple of times where he kind of did it on his own,” Healy said.
Sophomore Doug McLaughlin, who snapped on punts, is back. He’ll compete with sophomore Sam DeLuke on the field-goal team. Quarterback Chris Reynolds will continue to be the holder.
The rest of the special teams will likely be made up of young players who aren’t ready to start on offense or defense.
“Special teams are where you grow your future talent,” Bankins said. “When you’re young, you don’t understand the speed of the game. It’s hard when you’re on offense or defense and you’re only getting one rep or two reps at a time in practice. If you’re on special teams, you’re out there consistently and it helps slow down the game for a young player. Now it’s just one shot at a time in the game, but the game will slow down.”
Healy knows something about Bankins’ special teams coaching skills. During his junior and senior seasons at Richmond (2007 and ’08), where he was a backup quarterback and special teams player, Bankins was the Spiders’ special teams coach.
“(Healy) was the ‘joker’ on our punt-return team, a position nobody knows about,” Bankins said. “He made all the calls on punt-return. He was pretty good at it, too.”
49ers notes
▪ Sophomore offensive lineman Malik Harkness announced on Twitter he was ending his football career due to “health issues that I was born with.” Harkness started three games last season as a redshirt freshman.
▪ Charlotte athletics director Mike Hill texted The Observer that there’s no update on finding a 12th game for the 49ers’ schedule and that they “may not have one. Not clear at this point.” The 49ers have nonconference games scheduled against Appalachian State, North Carolina, Georgia State and Duke, and have been looking for a replacement for Old Dominion, which canceled its season due to the coronavirus.
▪ The 49ers were scheduled to practice Wednesday night, their first practice under the lights this preseason.