Special teams looking solid for Huntingdon

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon football team closed out the first week of preseason practice Sunday afternoon.

With seven days of practice behind them and just less than three weeks until the first game of the season, head coach Mike Turk said the Hawks are on track.

"We're still very early in the process, but we have gotten a lot done," Turk said. "Being able to scrimmage this weekend was a big deal for us and helped us get an idea of where we are. We're thankful we've been able to accomplish what we have and stay relatively healthy. We still have a lot of work to do, but things are going pretty well so far."

With classes beginning on Monday, Huntingdon will not practice again until Tuesday afternoon. The Hawks will hold their second scrimmage of the preseason on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Much of the preseason has been focused on offense and defense, but Turk said he also likes what he is seeing out of the special teams units.

The Hawks return David Ballard at punter and place-kicker and Cameron Lewis at long snapper for a third straight season and quarterback Taylor Hughes is back at holder for a second season.

Ballard, who was the starting punter and backup kicker as a freshman and the starter at both positions last season, ranks third in program history in punts and punt yardage (94-for 3,222) and is third in punt average (34.3) for punters with at least 90 attempts. His 48 career extra points rank fourth in program history and his four career field goals are fifth.

"Anytime you have that much experience in an area like this, it's a good thing," Turk said. "The place-kicker is at the mercy of the snapper and the holder. When the snapper and the holder are dependable, the kicker has a lot more confidence that the ball is going to be where it is supposed to be. All three of those guys take pride in trying to do their job perfectly each time and that makes a big difference.

"As a punter, David has been consistent for us. He catches it, he gets it out of there and he locates it pretty well. The coverage team has to do its part, but when you kick it where you're supposed to, the other team doesn't get many yards."

Junior Jimbo Turk enters the season as the backup kicker and punter. Turk said freshman quarterback Austin Johnson has also shown early potential as a punter.

In the return game, senior receiver Tyler Robinson leads the group of punt returners. Several players are battling for time returning kicks and punts. Robinson was the return man for all but two punt returns last season and finished with 10 returns for 123 yards and a touchdown. He set the program record for punt return yards in a season and a game (63 against Maryville) and became just the second Hawk to return a punt for a touchdown.

"Tyler is back to return punts and we have four or five guys that we feel comfortable putting back there on punts or kicks. Last year we had Tyler and that was pretty much it on punt returns. So, it's nice to have some options this year," Turk said. "Darryl Vason is leading the way as a kick returner right now, but Brantley Carr, Hunter Olive, Nick Haas and Jamichael Bibb will likely all be involved in our return game."