By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
El Dorado enters the 2018 football season with quite a few holes to fill. One area that appears to be concrete solid, however, is the kicking game. The Wildcats return senior punter Derek Jobe and junior kicker Greysen Hubbard, who anchor the special teams.
“I think we’ll be in the best shape of anybody in our league there,” said Coach Scott Reed. “I think that’s a major strength of ours.”
Jobe, who also plays receiver, averaged 40.4 yards per punt last season, including nine punts downed inside the 20-yard line.
“Derek Jobe was the best punter in our league last year. He’s returning. He is a weapon punting the ball,” said Reed.
Hubbard connected on 8-of-10 field goal attempts with a long of 34 yards. He was 44-of-47 on extra points and also handles the Wildcats’ kickoffs.
“When we started last year, Greysen kicked off to about the 15 or 18-yard line. Now, it’s inside the five,” said Reed. “He was extremely accurate last year as a sophomore.”
An area that’s still a work in progress is the deep snapper. Zac Donahue, Thomas Crawford and Bradley Claypoole are all battling to replace departed senior Peyton Perry.
“Right now, we’ve got to get our snap-hold-kick and our punt snap. We’ve got to work that,” Reed said. “We had (Peyton) Perry for three years and he was really good. We’ve got work to do there. But, the specialist part of it, we’re stronger than we’ve ever been.”
Jobe and backup quarterback Clayton Helm have both worked as the holder for kicks.
Reed said Shun Levingston has worked at fielding punts. Levingston and Devunte Kidd lead a cast of players who could return kickoffs.
“We need to create an advantage in special teams, along with having very good specialists. It matters who you play one week, whether you think you can get something,” said Reed.
“We need to block kicks. We need to put pressure on punters and kickers. We started working on that and we will continue to.”