Camp '09 - Special Teams Again Special For Frogs
8/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 25, 2009
FORT WORTH, Texas -- GoFrogs.com continues its preview of the 2009 TCU football team with a look at the special teams.
Special teams have always been a strength for TCU.
In 2008, Jeremy Kerley (5-10, 192, Jr.) gave the Frogs their fourth consecutive first-team All-Mountain West Conference return specialist, covering every year TCU has been in the league. Kerley ranked 13th nationally in punt returns with a 13.9-yard average. He is the Preseason Mountain West Conference Special Teams Player of the Year.
A former prep quarterback, Kerley also served as the holder on field goals and PATs last season.
Ryan Christian (5-11, 188, Sr.) entered fall camp as the primary kickoff returner. He averaged 22.3 yards on six attempts last season with a long of 41.
After placing 55.6 percent (30-of-54) of his punts inside the opponent 20 with just seven touchbacks, Anson Kelton (6-4, 260, So.) earned All-Mountain West Conference honors in his first season of competition. He is a preseason All-MWC selection this fall.
Kelton was the MWC Special Teams Player of the Week in a 13-7 win at Colorado State. Four of his seven punts were downed inside the Ram 13-yard line, including two inside the 3.
Kelton averaged 41.3 yards per attempt on the season.
Preseason All-American Ross Evans (5-9, 185, So.) was the lone freshman last year to be a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top placekicker. He was 16-of-20 on field goals, including a season-long 50-yard effort at New Mexico on his first collegiate attempt. Evans also had 49 PATs, one shy of a TCU single-season record.
Evans will also handle the Frogs' kickoff duties.
Clint Gresham (6-3, 225, Sr.) returns as the short and long snapper. After arriving at TCU as a walk-on transfer from Oklahoma, he has since been placed on scholarship.
Gresham is one of the more unsung players at TCU and has been singled out by Frog head coach Gary Patterson for his excellent snaps.
BY THE NUMBERS:
1 - Lou Groza Award winners (Michael Reeder, 1995) in TCU's history
4 - Consecutive years TCU has produced the first-team All-Mountain West Conference return specialist (Cory Rodgers, 2005; Brian Bonner, 2006-07; Jeremy Kerley, 2008)
26 - Consecutive starts by Clint Gresham as the Horned Frogs' deep snapper
65 - Nick Browne's TCU career record for field-goals made (2001-03)
3,450 - TCU single-season record for punting yards held by Sam Baugh (1936)
