Indiana punter Haydon Whitehead has been a weapon for the Hoosiers all season. His three punts were crucial in the team's 38-31 victory over Nebraska on Saturday.
The Australian punter has pinned the ball inside the 20-yard line 14 times this season, while only kicking into the end zone twice.
When Indiana's offense hasn't scored points, fifth-year senior punter Haydon Whitehead has trotted onto the field, and each time he strikes the ball with his left foot to send it spiraling toward the opposing team. He has quietly been a weapon for the Hoosiers over their recent stretch of games.
On a game-by-game basis, Whitehead sees the field as a punter on less than a handful of plays. The Hoosiers have averaged 34 points per contest this season, enough to make it difficult, at times, for their punter to stay loose on the sidelines.
“The offense has been rolling, regardless of who’s been at quarterback and who’s been on the field, so it is kind of nice when they keep getting first down after first down," Whitehead said Monday. "Sometimes it can be a little bit like having front row seats to the game.”
Despite a successful season, where Whitehead has arced 14 footballs to drop inside the 20-yard line, the season has been far from perfect.
Against Ohio State, the Australian punter kicked the ball away seven times, but only one left the No. 3 team in the country deep inside their own side of the field. Whitehead netted his lowest punting average of the season against the Buckeyes in a 51-10 blowout at home.
“Especially in such a detailed position, like any of the specialist positions, I think you have to be pretty special to be perfect all the time," Whitehead. "That’s one of the things coach Allen really puts emphasis on, if you have a bad kick as a specialist, just flush it, move on to the next one — forget about it and go back to your basics.”
Over the last three games, nine of his 12 punts have been stopped inside the 20-yard line, and he's only kicked the ball into the end zone twice this season.
Field position is a part of winning football, and without Whitehead at the team's disposal, the final results may have been different for Indiana against Nebraska last Saturday.
Whitehead downed three punts inside the 10-yard line when the Hoosiers took the field in Lincoln, Nebraska, to take on the Cornhuskers. His second punt, in particular, is one that could be attributed to the team's one-score victory.
Whitehead punted the ball and it was fair caught by freshman wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson at the eight-yard line. After a quick three and out, it was Nebraska's punter that made a brutal mistake.
He sent the ball off the side of his foot and sailed it out of bounds at the Cornhuskers' own 35-yard line. The Hoosiers went on to score a touchdown on the subsequent drive, and it started with Whitehead's punt.
“Our kickers are huge, and Haydon continues to do a great job for us," Allen said. "That's part of winning football is having specialists that can do those kinds of things.”
Special teams aren't glamorous, and often players won't get praised for doing their jobs. At the end of the day, it might be better when we don't hear about specialists because it means they haven't made a mistake.
Whitehead has been an asset that is rarely deployed thanks to offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer's potent offense. Even when asked about hello his success, the punter deflects credit and praises the other players on his punting unit.
Like many have already done, Whitehead put the team first, citing both Jaylin Williams and Raheem Layne as players who have raced down the field and downed his punts deep in the opposing team's territory.
He said when the ball is in the air, it is out of his control at that point, and it's up to them to make him look successful.
“The reality is, I’m a really small piece of a bigger puzzle, so those guys do a really good job of making sure that they get their blocks and getting down the field and stopping the ball inside the 10," Whitehead said. "They did a really good job of that on Saturday.”
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