By Les Johns

The UK football special teams unit is looking to build on the performances that earned national recognition last week as they turn their focus to the noon Saturday match-up against Central Michigan.

The College Football Performance Awards named sophomore kicker Joe Mansour Honorable Mention Kickoff Specialist of the Week and senior punter Ryan Tydlacka Honorable Mention Punter of the Week based on their performances against Western Kentucky last Thursday.

Tydlacka made a huge impact in the field-position game, which is even more critical in such a low-scoring affair.  He punted seven times for an average of 47.1 yards-per-punt, and he pinned WKU within its own 10-yard-line on three separate occasions.

“I can really help the team here,” Tydlacka said. “I was excited – happy to perform.”

The seven punts in one game are twice as many as his 3.61 punts-per-game average of last year for the Cats.  He said that the seven in-game reps were just a small portion of his activity during that game.  Leading up to the on-the-field action that night he had about 100 punting reps into the net.

“I was a little tired after the game,” Tydlacka said.

Although the kicking game was solid in Nashville, the return game was not.  WKU punted to UK eight times.  Only three of those punts were returned for a combined total of -6 yards.

“We got to be better in the return game,” head coach Joker Phillips said.  “We need to get our returners started.”

Phillips and other coaches said senior punt returner Randall Burden made some pretty good decisions.

“For a guy that’s first time catching punts, he did a respectable job,” special teams coach Greg Nord said.

Burden did show his inexperience at times. There was a punt late in the 3rd quarter that went over Burden’s head and was downed at the UK 7-yard-line.

“I don’t ever want a guy fielding a ball that they’re not sure of,” Nord said.

Phillips said he felt that the inside blockers did well, but that the team needs to do a better job holding up the gunners on the outside to free up the returners.

“I look forward to the guys performing, hopefully better, this week,” Nord said.