Duke football 2016 season review: Special teams

The Chronicle's review of the Blue Devils' 2016 season wraps up with an analysis of their special teams unit. Check out our evaluations for Duke's offense and defense if you missed them earlier this week.

Special Teams: C-

Kicking/punting: One of the biggest stories of the season for Duke was freshman kicker A.J. Reed's struggles. Reed converted only three field goals in 10 attempts on the season, and his longest made kick of the season was just a 38-yarder. After four-year starter Ross Martin graduated as the most accomplished kicker in school history, Reed's performance marked a dramatic turn in the wrong direction for the Blue Devils. Duke was alone in last place in the nation with just three made field goals as a team.

Reed missed his last four field-goal attempts of the season, as head coach David Cutcliffe seemed to lose faith in his kicker down the stretch and elected multiple times to go for it in fourth-and-long situations or punt on short fields when most teams would try a field goal. This severely limited the team’s offense and put even more pressure on an injury-riddled team to get into the end zone.

At the end of the day, Duke lost two games by three points, and the Blue Devils would have been in better position to win a few more games had Reed hit more of his kicks. Was Duke’s inability to make field goals the sole factor that kept it out of a bowl? Probably not, but it certainly made things more difficult for a team that was coming off its first bowl victory since 1961.

Redshirt freshman Austin Parker started the season as Duke's punter—taking over for All-ACC performer Will Monday—and averaged 40.9 yards on 38 punts before he broke his clavicle against Louisville to cut his season short. Senior walk-on Danny Stirt took over for the rest of the year and only averaged 36.5 yards per punt, with Cutcliffe sometimes getting creative and asking quarterbacks Parker Boehme and Daniel Jones to punt as well.

Kick/punt Coverage: Duke's kick coverage unit was one of the team's best assets this year. It allowed just 18.7 yards per return and did not give up a kick return for a touchdown, regularly pinning opponents inside their 20-yard line to start drives. The Blue Devils allowed one punt return for a touchdown against Pittsburgh, but otherwise had similar success covering punts. 

Kick/punt returning: The Blue Devils averaged 24.5 yards per kick return, with junior running back Shaun Wilson returning one kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown to spark Duke's upset of Notre Dame Sept. 24. Although Duke lost All-American kick returner DeVon Edwards when he tore his ACL early in the game against the Fighting Irish, Wilson filled in for the rest of the year and did a solid job.