AU FOOTBALL: Boulware still seeking special teams help

Jay Boulware has a slew of incoming freshmen that could very well be in position for immediate starting time at punt returner, kick returner, punter and all over the place on kickoff coverage.

They just aren’t on campus yet, leaving the special teams coordinator with the same low numbers and same cast of characters who struggled throughout the 2009 season.

“We’re faced with the same problems we had last year,” Boulware said. “We’ve got a guy dinged here, and all of a sudden you’re looking at guys like Craig Stevens and Neiko Thorpe and Demond Washington, guys that are playing for us a bunch.”

Auburn’s struggles on special teams were well-documented in 2009, with a rotating door of punt returners — all of whom muffed or fumbled at least one punt — and kickoff and punt coverage that starred more walk-ons than scholarship players.

The Tigers finished 113th out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in punt returns last year, but that alone doesn’t do the comedy of errors justice. By the end of the season, fair catches were considered as positive achievements.

Boulware said he considered it a top priority to find someone, anyone, he can rely on to catch punts this spring before he is forced to look at as many as “eight” freshman candidates in the fall.

“When you’ve got a number of skill players coming in the following season, it always makes me, as a special teams coordinator, a little bit nervous that we’re going to count on eight true freshmen coming in and being the guy,” Boulware said. “So we really want to do a good job of developing our guys that are currently on our roster.”

Boulware’s best option, fittingly, might be in some serious injury trouble.

Philip Pierre-Louis, who saw some time as a punt returner midway through last season, suffered what appears to be a serious knee injury in
Saturday’s scrimmage. Pierre-Louis, who wasn’t at practice Wednesday, had been having a strong spring, drawing rave reviews from wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor, Boulware and his teammates.

Quindarius Carr, who also saw time as a punt returner last season, has been better this spring, Boulware said, and wide receiver Darvin Adams, who didn’t even field punts in practice last year, has been a pleasant surprise.

“They listen to him,” Boulware said. “Not that he’s the leader by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s provided leadership to the group. And the expectation level in practice for them has really gone to another level.”

Considering that he’s the only punter on Auburn’s spring roster, Ryan Shoemaker is Auburn’s starter by default. That could all change in the fall, though, when scholarship freshman Steven Clark, who has an “NFL-type body” at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, Boulware said, arrives for an open competition.

Boulware said he has been impressed thus far by Shoemaker, who made the SEC All-Freshman team in 2007, but lost the job to walk-on Clinton Durst in 2008 and 2009.

“I noticed it during the season when we brought (Clark) in,” Boulware said. “He’s just been getting better and better each and every week. And he continues on that.

“I don’t know if he can maintain it or whatever, but he’s striking the ball really, really well right now.”

Auburn’s depth issues from last season, especially on special teams, haven’t gone anywhere this spring. Before Boulware was forced to dip into
Ted Roof’s starting defense for kickoff and punt coverage midway through the 2009 season, Auburn’s units boasted as many as seven walk-ons.

The results matched the lack of marquee names, as the Tigers ranked 97th in the nation for kick return defense and 106th in punt return defense.

Somehow, Boulware is even lower on bodies for kickoff and punt coverage this spring, as players such as safety Ikeem Means have improved enough to merit consideration with the first- and second-team offenses or defenses.

“To start off the season when we first kick off, it’s going to be guys we played with last year,” Boulware said. “And they’re going to have to come out and step up for us until those true freshmen that we get to work with for a month before we get to play our first game, are actually ready to go.”

No one might be more ready to go than kicker Wes Byrum, who made all but one of his 16 field goal attempts in 2009 and has continued to impress his position coach.

“I remember sitting in front of (reporters) last spring talking about, ‘The kicker didn’t do real well, but the other part did real well,’” Boulware
said. “Well, the other part didn’t do real well, but the kicker did well. So we’re going to try to see if we can put all those parts together this year.”

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