With 1:15 left in the 2023 Apple Cup, the Washington State defense looked to have forced Washington to punt. The Huskies knew what they would be getting out of their punter, Mr. Consistency, Jack McCallister. With the ball on the Cougar 29 yard line, had the Huskies chosen to punt WSU would have likely started just inside the Washington 30–they didn’t punt.
Instead Michael Penix handed the ball off to Rome Odunze for a 15-yard gain and a first down and Penix drove the Huskies down the field for the perfect regular season preserving field goal.
_______________________________
_______________________________
McCallister has only had one punt blocked and it was on a missed punt protection block which has been shored up. That wasn’t really a worry of why Kalen DeBoer decided to keep his offense out there on 4th down in the Apple Cup. Of McCallister’s 37 punts teams had 11 return yards. So that wasn’t really a worry either.
McCallister has become a known quantity. When called upon he’ll deliver. He’ll deliver on 4 punts for a 44-yard average in the rain in Corvallis. He’ll deliver one punt in the conference championship game for 54 yards.
Week-in and week-out the Washington punt team, between McCallister, long snapper Jaden Green and the gunners, punt returners must accept that there will be little shot at any sort of a return.
UW had complete faith in McCallister to go out and do his job, but DeBoer also had complete fait in Penix who converted 11 of 15 attempts on the season.
Of the Kings High School’s 37 punts, twenty were were “fair caught”. Of the other 17 only 6 were returned–for a total of 11 yards. He was also on the money, dropping the ball inside the opponents 20 yard line thirty-percent of the times and one punt going into the endzone for a touchback.
Ranking 84th in the nation with a 41.4 per punt average the Seattle-area native won’t blow anybody away–at first glance. However, he jumps up 33 spots with his net average of 40.5. Digging deeper into the numbers is where one can truly appreciate his and the punt coverage unit’s proficiency as they jump to 8th in the nation.
DeBoer and Special Teams’ coach Eric Schmidt chose a more professional approach to punting this season.
“First off, McCallister can’t just go out and boom a kick to get the offense from deep in its own end of the field the way that Race Porter had to in 2021,” said RealDawg.com’s Trevor Mueller.
To Mueller’s point, Porter punted 53 times with an average of 48.5 yards per attempt. However, with Washington’s stagnant offense under John Donovan, Porter had a whole lot more room to work with.
“McCallister has tremendous hang time and gunners are on the returner immediately,” Mueller said. “He consistently doesn’t outkick his coverage. He punts the ball around 40 yards each time.”
Often it’s the friendly face of long snapper Jaden Green to greet the returner–which is a different story altogether.
Last season 5 of McCallister’s 23 punts went for over 50 yards. However, in backing off the distance to coincide with the gunner’s speed so as to not out kick the coverage it’s paid off with next to nothing in return yardage conceded.
Few players on the team can match McCallister’s increased proficiency at their own skill set. In 2022 he only had 1 punt fair caught. .
Along the way, Green is also a secret weapon for eliminating returns.
“He’s had fewer 50-plus yard punts, but he’s also increased his per punt average by a half a yard,” Mueller stated.
Last season 21-percent of McCallister’s punts went for over 50 yards, dropping to 10-percent this season. It wasn’t the only thing that dropped, as he dropped 30-percent of his punts inside the opponents 20 yard line.
The Washington Huskies Special Teams have become one of the best in the nation, according to Pro Football Focus, and a big reason is one of the most unheralded, yet most consistent players.
