Sports Update

By Ben Brake

Special Screams

Kansas State’s special teams give opposing coaches and players major headaches. They have numerous films to study to
make sure they are prepared for what K-State has to offer. When K-State’s starting punt returner and NCAA record holder
David Allen went out in the first game of the season with an ankle injury, coaches felt the worry was over. This was until the
next game against Louisiana Tech when Aaron Lockett took it to the house. He didn’t just take it to the house, but he shut
the door and lockett it. Aaron did the same thing against Ball State and nearly did it twice against the Cardinals after being
ruled out of bounds on the 6-yard line.

This without a doubt has upcoming opponent’s coaches scrambling for punt return films trying to see how to defend the near
automatic score.

With David Allen many coaches thought they knew how to defend the return, until they punted to him. Usually by the end of
the day they were kicking to anything that didn’t move in the stands, anywhere but David Allen’s direction. When David went
out injured many coaches had a sigh of relief until Lockett started doing the same thing.

The special team players do an excellent job of blocking their man. David Allen said that if you make the first defender miss
you have a good chance of having a really good return. Aaron Lockett must have listened to Allen real close. With returns for
touchdowns in back to back games, Lockett is in route to making a name for himself with punt returns.

This says a lot for the special team players. This means they are doing a great job meeting their assignments head on. It’s one
thing to have one punt returner being able to score on punt returns, but when you have two that can do it means that you have
a great speacial teams as well. The credit always seems to go to the punt returner, but he can’t do it without the great blocks.

The credit needs to go to the punt returner, the entire special team, and don’t forget the coaching staff. Without all three
working together, you won’t have anything special.

David Allen and Aaron Lockett do a fantastic job returning punts, but they have great coaches and outstanding teammates to
help them gain their fame. Good job guys!