[Husker] safety question

[Mike Nolan]

> I thought that after a safety you had a free kick and it could be a punt 
> or a place kick.  Is this not the case?  It would seem like Kunalic 
> would have kicked it deeper than our punter.

It isn't just a question of how deep you kick it, it's also a question 
of how you want to cover the return.  I assume the coaching staff 
considered in advance how they wanted to cover kick situations, including 
a safety.  

It also seems to me that coaches are about 50-50 as to whether they kick 
off or punt after a safety.  Punts tend to have better hang time, which may
lead to better kick coverage, and it's difficult to kick the ball 80 yards
into the other end zone off a tee, so they might have gotten it somewhere 
around the 20 anyway.  (As it was, they got it at the 28, returned it
to the 44, then went 3-and-out.)

The real killer play was the INT for a TD on NU's next series and the
lack of a running game made the Huskers rather one-dimensional all night
long.  

VT also came out strong in the 2nd half, putting up the first 10 points
of the 2nd half.  Even then, the Huskers fought back well. 

While there's no such thing as a 'good' loss, at least this wasn't a bad one.
--
Mike Nolan