Leading up to Kentucky’s season-opener against Western Kentucky in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 1, Cat Scratches presents an exclusive series of positional previews to prepare you for the football season. Every day before kickoff, Metz Camfield and Guy Ramsey will bring you Joker Phillips’ philosophy for each positional group, a spotlight feature on a selected member of the group and rundown of other projected contributors. Today we cast a wide net and break down UK’s special teams.Joker Phillips’ philosophy“Cover guys, we have to have guys that are relentless and willing. I think the position of a cover guy is more of effort and desire than anything. We’ve had some guys around here that weren’t as fast as most, but they were the first ones to get down the field to make tackles. You also have to be a tough guy to be a cover guy.”When you’re talking about return guys, we have to find guys who can make plays for us in the return game, but the most important thing is to take care of the football. “Our kickers and punters are guys that are really smart and explosive when the ball comes off their foot.”Spotlight: With a professional approach, Tydlacka grows into full-time punting roleRyan Tydlacka wasted no time in becoming a fixture on UK’s special teams.

After sitting out his first year in Lexington as a redshirt, he immediately found a role even though the Wildcats already had a future NFL punter in Tim Masthay on the roster in 2008. He took over as the pooch punter and excelled in the role, placing 16 of his 22 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.Although a precocious freshman, Tydlacka knew he would have commit himself to improving in order to succeed in a full-time role. It’s that kind of commitment that has led to consistent improvement in subsequent seasons.”I think he’s become a pro, and by that I mean he’s dedicated himself to the game, he’s studied it, he’s worked at it, he’s perfecting his craft,” special teams coach Greg Nord said. “Right now, he’s one of the better punters that I’ve ever been around and I’ve been fortunate to be around a couple guys that went on and did a really good job.”Filling the shoes of Masthay, who played a major role in the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl run this year, was a tall order, but Tydlacka has been up to the challenge. He averaged 40.0 yards per punt as a sophomore and only 11 of his 64 efforts on the season were returned. Still, he was intent of developing his power. As a junior, he upped his punting average to 43.8 yards. He played an integral role in UK’s signature win over South Carolina in 2010, pinning the Gamecocks inside their own 20 on three occasions in the comeback victory and earning National Punter of the Week honors for the performance. The South Carolina win one of many big games Tydlacka has played in, arming him with invaluable experience.”I have been around so many great returners in the SEC that I know what they’re thinking,” Tydlacka said. “They might be cheating over a little bit, so you can punt it away from them a little more. You know exactly where you need to hang the ball to get them to fair catch it. The experience I’ve had is just so helpful.”Some of the best return men in the country have terrorized SEC punters over Tydlacka’s tenure. The confidence bred through punting to dynamic returners like Florida’s Jeff Demps, Alabama’s Javier Arenas and Ole Miss’s Dexter McCluster helps not only Tydlacka, but his entire coverage unit.”His confidence permeates the whole team,” Nord said. “He’s learned to know what the different returns look like so if he knows where the return is he can punt away from where the returner’s going to be set to get to a return. He knows when the rush is coming, ‘I have to get it out in a hurry.’ So, a lot of those intangible things that only come with experience he’s fortunate that he’s now been able to learn.”Tydlacka has also developed a chemistry with his teammates in his coverage unit, many of whom he has played with since arriving on campus in 2007.”I’ve been here with a lot of those guys for five years on the coverage team,” Tydlacka said. “I’ll be out there in the box getting ready to go out and I’ll talk to a few of them and I’ll say ‘looking at the wind, I’m supposed to go right, but it might a little short because it’s going into the wind or it might be a little left so be ready for that.’ They’ll run exactly where I tell them to be and the ball will be there.”It would have been easy for Tydlacka to be comfortable with that chemistry and his accomplishments of the last three years, but Nord wouldn’t allow him to go through an offseason without improving. Tydlacka wouldn’t allow himself to do that either.”The (things) we talked about in the offseason,” Nord said, “were the couple things he needed to improve on: his red zone punting – he’s run out and he’s worked on that and did a nice job of that today. We also wanted to work on punting away from some of the great returners in our league, and he’s done that as well.”It’s that kind of professional approach that could give Tydlacka a chance to follow Masthay be a ‘pro’ in the literal sense when he leaves UK after this year.Other contributorsJunior kicker Craig McIntosh – McIntosh came to UK as a member of the ROTC program. He did not come out for football until 2009 when he became the team’s kickoff specialist. In 2010, he became the placekicker, hitting 11-of-15 field goals and 34-of-35 PAT’s. He has worked to improve his craft and has taken a firm hold of the kicking job.Sophomore kicker/punter Joe Mansour – Mansour came to UK last season as a highly-regarded kicking prospect and is currently listed second on the depth chart at both placekicker and punter. He probably has the strongest leg on the team but the coaching staff is looking for more consistency out of him. Mansour is likely to handle kickoff duties.Senior cornerback Randall Burden – In the absence of Randall Cobb, Burden is slated to take over punt returns. Replacing the explosiveness of Cobb is a near-impossible task, but the staff will look at any play-making on punt returns as a bonus if he can take care of the football.Senior safety/linebacker Winston Guy – The senior may be playing some linebacker this season, but he still has the speed to make plays on kick returns. He nearly took a kickoff back for a touchdown against Georgia as a freshman, so he could be the kind of game-breaker UK is looking for.Sophomore running back Raymond Sanders – Sanders has some experience in the return game from his freshman season and has the kind of shiftiness and speed needed to make an impact.Freshman wide receiver Demarco Robinson – There are a few freshmen that could make a difference in the return game (Daryl Collins, Marcus Caffey and Glenn Faulkner, to name a few), but Robinson may be the most likely to do so with his open field ability. It may take him a while to get used to playing wide receiver at the college level with his relatively small frame (5-foot-10, 159 pounds), but he could make an instant impact as a return man.LinksKicking game looks solid (Jen Smith, Lexington Herald-Leader) Greg Nord trying to make special teams special (John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader) UK looks for many happy returns out of new special teams group (Guy Ramsey, UK Athletics)