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University of Minnesota Athletics
2015 Position Preview: Special Teams
8/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Special teams has long been a hallmark of success for coach Jerry Kill's football teams and this year at Minnesota should be no exception, as the Gopher return both punter Peter Mortell and kicker Ryan Santoso.
Mortell, a redshirt senior, was named the Big Ten Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year in 2014 and earned first-team nods from coaches and media. He was the first Minnesota punter to make the All-Big Ten First Team, and the first Gopher specialist to do so since kicker Chip Lohmiller in 1986. Mortell's 45.5-yard punting average led the conference and ranked second in Minnesota history.
Mortell, who is one of 25 punters named to the 2015 Ray Guy Award watch list, has served as the Gophers' primary punter for the last two seasons. In that time he has punted 129 times for 5,712 yards and his career average of 44.3 yards currently ranks first in team history (Adam Kelly who punted from 1983-85 is second with a career average of 43.3 yards). Mortell has 36 career punts that have traveled 50 yards or more and four punts that have gone at least 60 yards. He has placed 46 career punts inside the 20-yard line and his career long of 64 yards (tied for tenth longest in team history) came in a snowstorm against Ohio State in 2014.
The senior, who has already received his degree in marketing from Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, played in 13 games last season and handled all punting and holding duties. He punted 67 times for 3,025 yards, which is third all-time in single-season history. Mortell recorded 21 punts of 50 yards or longer and placed 25 punts inside the 20-yard line. In addition, he had 16 punts that were fair caught and another 12 that went for touchbacks.
Santoso, Logan McElfresh and lefty Jacob Herbers can back up Mortell if needed.
Santoso, who enters his second year as the starting kicker, made 12-of-18 field goals last year. His career long of 52 yards came against Purdue on Oct. 18, 2014, with 4:59 left in the game and lifted Minnesota to a 39-38 home win. He converted 45-of-46 point-after attempts last season and led Minnesota with 81 points. Santoso kicked off 70 times and recorded 38 touchbacks.
A trio of kickers - Andrew Harte, Emmit Carpenter and Justin Juenemann - are capable backups to the big-legged Santoso.
One position that Kill and his staff must fill is the long snapper. Last year, Minnesota used Dave Ramlet for point-after and field goal snaps and Jared Hartman on punt snaps. Ramlet graduated after last season and Hartman decided to forgo his senior year and put his civil engineering degree to use and enter the corporate world.
One thing is already known about this year's long snapper and that is that it will be a freshman. The Gophers are testing redshirt freshman Payton Jordahl and true freshmen Trey Hansen and Chase Samuels in camp to see who will win the position.
Jordahl was ranked the 15th-best long snapper in the nation in the 2014 class, while Hansen was ranked seventh and Samuels tenth in the class of 2015.
Jalen Myrick, who is the fastest player on the team, is expected to handle kick returns this year. Myrick, who had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Northwestern last season, finished the year second in the Big Ten with an average of 28.2 yards.
Craig James is also back this year to return punts. He returned punts in the final nine games of the season last year after Marcus Jones suffered an injury. James returned 16 punts for 139 yards in 2014.
