Trojans Getting a Real Kick Out of Chris Sperle : Sophomore Punter Has an Impressive Net Average of 39.7 Yards This Season

Coach Ted Tollner talks about the hidden yards his USC football team has found in winning its first three games.

That sounds as if his Trojans are on some sort of treasure hunt, but what it comes down to is the performance of his special teams and figures that don’t show up in the statistics.

For example, punter Chris Sperle is averaging 40.2 yards and hasn’t had one blocked. But the more significant figure is his net average of 39.7 yards. That is derived by subtracting the return yardage from the distance of his punts.

Only 3 of Sperle’s 18 punts have been returned, for a 7-yard average, and 12 have been downed inside the 20-yard line, or not returned beyond that point.

“It doesn’t do much good to have a 50-yard punt returned 15 yards,” said Steve Mariucci, USC’s new special teams coach. “We have a 6 1/2-yard edge in net punt yardage (USC’s opponents have a 33.2-yard average), and that can add up in field position over a course of a game.”

Sperle, a sophomore, won the punting job last year from Troy Richardson, a two-year regular. Only 22 of Sperle’s 46 punts were returned for an average of 4.3 yards. This year, his net average of 39.7 is higher than his gross average of 38.1 in 1985.

A torn cartilage in his right knee forced him to miss spring practice, but he says the leg is sound now.

“It came about just from kicking,” Sperle said of the injury. “I played 11 or 12 years of soccer as a young kid, so I guess it was time for the knee to go.”

Sperle got a workout against Baylor, punting 10 times for an average of 39.1 yards, with only 2 punts returned for a total of 11 yards.

“You like to punt one, or two times a game just to get your feet wet,” he said. “But 10 times is too much.”

Sperle also played a significant role in USC’s 20-10 win over Washington last Saturday at the Coliseum.

His 54-yard punt at the start of the second quarter was downed on Washington’s one-yard line. The Huskies, leading, 7-0, were penned into their own territory most of that quarter, resulting in good field position for the Trojans.

Sperle is instructed not to kick the ball out of bounds.

“We want Chris to get a high punt to the opponents’ 10-yard line, making a decision for the return guy whether he’ll fair catch the ball, or let is go,” Mariucci said. “We’ve downed two balls inside the 10 and have come close two other times. We want the offense to (have to) go 90 yards with the ball.”

Punters aren’t necessarily athletes, in the strictest sense of the word, but Sperle is.

He was not only a punter at Fountain Valley High School in Orange County, but also an accomplished quarter-miler on the track team. He finished third in the Southern Section meet as a senior with a time of 48.40 seconds.

Given his speed, might he sometime run on fourth down as a surprise?

Sperle smiled. “We do have that play in there, but I don’t know if we’ll ever use it,” he said.

Technique is important all around the football field but it may be as important to the punter as leg strength.

“Every punter is different,” Sperle said. “I take 3 1/2 steps, but the first step and a half is a set-up just to get me aligned. So by the time I get the ball I’m a two-step punter.

“They say if you can get the ball away in 2.2 seconds or under, the kick won’t be blocked. Basically, I’ve been right at two seconds this season. As for hang time, the ball should be up there about 4.3 seconds. That gives your coverage team time to force a fair catch, or a short return.”

Sperle played games with the Huskies, who are renowned for blocking punts. “Last year we had a heck of a time trying to get the ball off against them in Seattle,” he said. “I was getting it off in 1.9 seconds then and I was just kicking under a guy’s hands. They try to confuse the blocking schemes by doing a lot of shifting, like they did Saturday. If they overload on one side, I’ll get a call from our up back, Tracy Butts, and I’ll shift to the other side and then they’ll shift with me. Then, I’m just kind of on my own.”

Sperle said that his snapper, center Scott Brennan, has done a nice job of getting the ball into his hands. Sperle does the rest.

“Our special teams have won all three contests from a statistical standpoint,” he said.

In other words, the Trojans are hoarding the hidden yards.

Trojan Notes Chris Sperle was a placekicker as well as a punter in high school and his holder was Bruce Tollner, son of USC’s coach. . . . Flanker Randy Tanner is USC’s punt return specialist, a position he inherited because of his sure hands. . . . Lonnie White, another wide receiver, is averaging 22 yards on 9 kickoff returns, and Cleveland Colter, a freshman safety, is averaging 25 yards on 2 returns. . . . Kickoff time for USC’s game with Oregon Saturday is 6:30 p.m. . . . Oregon hasn’t beaten USC since 1971, and the Trojans have a 27-9-2 lead in the series that began in 1915 with Hugo Bezdek’s Ducks winning, 34-0. USC got even with Bezdek, though, beating his Penn State team in the 1923 Rose Bowl game, 14-3. . . . USC ranks 14th nationally in scoring defense, having allowed 13.3 points a game. USC’s first three opponents have able to convert on only 14 of 50 third-down plays. . . . With his five touchdown catches in three games, USC split end Ken Henry is on a pace to break the school record of 11 touchdown receptions in a season set by Hal Bedsole in 1962. . . . Henry, who used to catch passes from USC safety Tim McDonald when they played for Edison High School in Fresno, said it was discouraging to go home the last two seasons and try to explain to friends why McDonald was playing and he wasn’t. “Tim lived around the corner from me and we’ve been playing together as far back as I can remember, even past kindergarten,” Henry said. “It was my street against his street, my friends against his relatives.” . . . Oregon punter Mike Preacher set two school single-game punting records against Nebraska last Saturday by averaging 49.7 yards on six kicks including one for 78 yards.