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The new rule that moves college kickoffs back from the 35-yard line to the 30-yard line should let guys like Henderson have a big year — far fewer touchbacks, more chances for long returns, better field position, etc. — all in the interest of increasing offensive production.

Interesting wrinkle: if a team kicks the ball out of bounds, the receiving team still will get the ball at the 35. Or the coach of the receiving team could opt to make the other team kick off again, this time from its own 25, forcing a tired kicker to risk "overkicking" and a tired coverage time to risk blowing its assignment on the do-over, while having to run five yards further the second time. Bet there are a bunch of TDs this year (hopefully all by Henderson, of course!) when teams are gassed and have to cover back-to-back kickoffs on consecutive plays.

This rule change should help us since Henderson is such a great return man and since Cunningham has such a strong leg on kickoffs we should be in good shape on the defensive side of the rule. Henderson will likely force Bennett to have to weigh the 35 versus re-kick decision because some teams will simply try to avoid him - Tulane comes to mind.

I completely agree with you. This rule could have a very large impact for SMU, and Henderson could be the top beneficiary. This rule, I hope, could be a break that changes Henderson from a guy we all cheer for to a guy everyone knows about.

Yea I feel like this is a good move. Gives him more room to run which could set up great field position, and even if the offense goes three and out, imagine punting from our own 45 yard line! We'd force the other team to start from around the 15-20 yard line!

Exactly right, thanks to Morstead putting the ball into orbit....

Fortunately we have a potentially electric offense, so this isn't our great hope for the season. But I can't help but be excited about this. Special Teams, both kicks and returns are the one area where we excel the most in comparrison to our competition on the season (though with RS Freshmen returners, you never know who's going to turn up on any given year). Additional support in the battle of field position should really help the Mustangs more than our opponents.

-CoS

In the media blitz, Bennett said he was very excited about this change because we have some players that can take advantage of it. He said that they will be spending more time on special teams practice this fall.

It is all about Field Position!