Minnesota 2024 spring position preview: Special Teams

To wrap up our spring position previews, we move onto the final position group for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the special teams unit.

Last year, the Gophers special teams was the best of the Gophers' three facets of the game. Dragan Kesich was terrific both in extra points and his field goal attempts while Mark Crawford averaged a solid 42.5 yards per punt. The return game was also solid with Quentin Redding averaging 15.7 yards per kick return and 13.5 yards per punt return.

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This offseason, the Gophers welcomed Bob Ligashesky to the program as the team's new special teams coordinator, bringing nearly 40 yards of coaching experience with him to the Gophers. He'll replace Rob Wenger who left the program following the 2024 season to pursue other opportunities.

The good news for the Gophers is while they did introduce a new special teams coordinator, they will only have to replace one key member of their 2023 special teams unit in long snapper Brady Weeks.

Below, we take a look at the rest of the Gophers special teams unit.

The Oak Creek, Wisconsin native was the Big Ten Bakken-Anderson Kicker of the Year in 2023 after going 23-of-27 in field goal attempts and 27-for-27 in extra-point attempts while finishing with 96 points, the ninth most points in a single-season in program history. He also earned All-Big Ten First Team honors from the conference and the Associated Press a well as being a semifinalist fo the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award.

The Australian punter will likely be the starter at punter once again in 2024 barring a surprise. In 2023, he put together a very solid season all around, averaging 42.5 yards per punt and had 11 punts throughout the season of 50 or more yards while placing 32 of 65 punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. For his entire career, Crawford has been a quality and reliable punter for the Golden Gophers and should remain so in 2024.

The 5-foot-7 wide receiver out of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin is the Golden Gophers return specialist after serving as the program's starting kick and punt returner in each of the last two seasons.

In 2023, Redding returned 15 punts for 236 yards and six punts for 81 yards, while not flashy both are solid numbers especially his punt return average of 13.5 yards per return. For his career, Redding is averaging 21.3 yards per kickoff return and 8.4 yards per punt return. In all likelihood, the junior walk-on will once again take over the roles of punt and kick returner this upcoming season.

With Brady Weeks departing the program after five strong seasons, the Gophers will have a new starting long snapper in 2024. This fall it could end up being a battle between redshirt freshman Ryan Algrim or 2024 walk-on signee Alan Soukup, who was the top ranked long snapper in the nation.

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