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Wisconsin Football: Your Special Teams MVP

By Noah Seligman

ARLINGTON, TX - JANUARY 02: Anthony Lotti #15 of the Wisconsin Badgers punts in the fourth quarter during the 81st Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between Western Michigan and Wisconsin at AT&T Stadium on January 2, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - JANUARY 02: Anthony Lotti #15 of the Wisconsin Badgers punts in the fourth quarter during the 81st Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between Western Michigan and Wisconsin at AT&T Stadium on January 2, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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Badger of Honor names a MVP for the Wisconsin football special teams unit.  And there really is only one logical choice in our eyes.

The clear Badger football special teams ace this year is sophomore punter Anthony Lotti.  He was a particularly valuable weapon for Wisconsin football this season.

Lotti was the most important and valuable member of special teams because of what he meant for field position.  Especially given the limitations we saw from the Badger offense.

For the season, Lotti punted 51 times for 2,056 yards an average of 40.3 yards per punt.  Of course, in the punting business we worry about the net punting yards not the total distance.

Wisconsin Badgers Football
Wisconsin Badgers Football /

Wisconsin Badgers Football

You generally don’t want to “out kick your coverage” with a boomer because that’s where big returns happen.  The idea is to have sufficient hang time to let coverage guys get down there to limit the return.

Kicking to the boundary is also important so you can use the sideline as an extra defender.  Lotti did both height and angle kicking well.

As a result, he had only two touchbacks on his 51 punts and induced 16 fair catches.  A full 27 of his punts also pinned opponents inside the 20.  In addition, Wisconsin only allowed 2.1 yards per return.  Another good indication of not just solid coverage but good hang time.

There was on block against Purdue but that wasn’t on Lotti.  Wisconsin protection abandoned him in that instance.

We considered kicker Rafael Gaglianone for the MVP as he made 12/14 attempts this season.

But Lotti’s field position work was so important for the Badger offense helping Wisconsin flip or at least tilt the field.   The Iowa game in particular was a great example of how his strong punting pinned the Hawkeyes and kept the Badgers on the front foot all game.