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Wisconsin Badgers: Drew Meyer Back On Track

By Erik Buchinger

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Drew Meyer earned Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career, and the Wisconsin Badgers’ punter has put together a solid final season in Madison.

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The fifth-year senior averaged 46.8 yards per punt in Saturday’s 24-13 road victory over Illinois. Three of Meyer’s five punts pinned the Fighting Illini inside the 20-yard line, and he finished with three punts that traveled 50 yards or more for the second time this season.

Meyer has been a critical piece to this Wisconsin football team. The Badgers’ offense ranks 11th in the Big Ten with an average of 19.2 points in conference games, so Wisconsin has relied on defense and field position to win games, and Meyer has delivered.

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    • Meyer has been able to bounce back from a rough stretch in recent years. He saw his numbers drop each season since his redshirt freshman campaign in 2012. As a freshman, Meyer averaged 41.5 yards a punt, which dropped to 38.6 as a sophomore and 37.4 as a junior.

    Meyer pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line 36 times in 2012, 19 in 2013 and 18 in 2014. His 50-plus yard punt totals dipped from 14 as a freshman to six as a sophomore and five in his junior season. Also, Meyer’s season-long punts dropped slightly from 61 to 58, then 57.

    The recent regression is behind Meyer at this point. Looking at his 2015 statistics, Meyer has a 39.4-yard average and has held opponents inside the 20 a total of 16 times. Through eight games, he already has more punts of 50 yards or more than he had in 2013 and 2014 with seven. Meyer connected on his season long against Nebraska with a 60-yard boomer.

    Meyer’s turnaround may have to do with the change of coaching staffs. For whatever reason, he was asked to try rugby-style punting with the prior coaching staff, something he was never comfortable with. Meyer struggled with the new approach, and then-third-string quarterback Bart Houston was thrown into games in 2014 as the rugby-style punter, while Meyer stuck with the traditional punting duties. That was an odd situation that did not pay off, as Wisconsin finished the season second to last in yards per punt.

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    When head coach Paul Chryst returned to Madison, he brought former Badgers All-American kicker Taylor Mehlhaff with him. After spending two years as a graduate assistant with Pittsburgh, Mehlhaff is in his first year as the quality control assistant responsible for working with Wisconsin’s special teams units. Chris Haering also came to Wisconsin with Chryst as the special teams coach. The new staff has allowed Meyer to kick the ball the way he wants to, and it has paid off for the Badgers.

    Meyer is much more comfortable now in his final season, and the Badgers have benefitted from letting him do things his way. Contrary to recent seasons, the punting game is no longer an issue in Madison.

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