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Washington Specialists Prove Crucial in Comeback Win at Nebraska
- Story byHuskies Wire
- Washington Specialists Prove Crucial in Comeback Win at Nebraska
For much of Washington's second-half comeback victory at Nebraska, two specialists, kicker Tyler Robles and punter Hunter Green, put the only three points on the board and pinned the hosts inside the 5-yard line twice for the Huskies to still have a chance late.
Robles, a first-year transfer from Texas State, matched his previous career long with a 50-yard field goal to send UW into the halftime break down 7-3. It marked the first time since 2010-11 when Erik Folk converted from a 53-yards and 54-yards against BYU and Eastern Washington that the Huskies had a kicker convert a field goal from at least 50 yards in consecutive seasons with ex-kicker Grady Gross knocking home a career-long 51-yard attempt last season against Eastern Washington before Robles' 50-yarder Saturday.
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The rest of the special teams' heavy lifting came from Green, who booted a season-high eight punts for an average of 48.9 yards per punt, five of which pinned Nebraska inside its own 20 and two inside the Huskers' 5-yard line. Although one of those two drives that started in the shadow of their own end zone resulted in the only touchdown drive of the game late in the first quarter, the former Northern Colorado and San Diego State standout proved to be arguably the most consistent single player in the 17-10 road victory for UW outside of second-year wide receiver Chris Lawson .
Green fell two punts shy of his career-high 10 as a redshirt freshman at Northern Colorado in 2023. The son of the late former UW specialist Phil Green also had nine punts against Incarnate Word and eight the following week against Washington State that same year before recording his only double-digit punt game of his career.
In his final season in Greeley, the premier punter added another eight and nine-punt game to his resume before transferring to SDSU last season where he never had more than seven punts in a single game, but proved to be one of the best at his position in college football with 22 punts of 50-plus yards with 26 punts downed inside the 20.
Following an incomplete pass by Demond Williams Jr. on third-and-5 with just over six minutes remaining in the game, coach Jedd Fisch, often willing to roll the dice with his offense on fourth down, opted to send Green out to once again put Nebraska deep inside its own territory and bet on second-year defensive coordinator Ryan Walters and his unit to deliver the ball back with better field position.
"We kicked a 50-yard field goal with Tyler. We punted the ball...I don't even know...ten times maybe and just flipped the field every single time," Fisch said after the game of the special teams' impact.
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"In this conference you've got to be able to play field position football. You've got to be able to not get greedy as a play-caller, which is really hard. It's fourth-and-1 on the (Nebraska) 40 and I wanted to go for that bad, you know. But I told myself, wrong conference. That was a few years ago. You got to punt it, and Hunter Green kept pinning them back man, pinning them back, pinning them back. That last one it was unfortunate they got it on the 25 because we had the chance to pin them back there as well."
Not to be outshined, Huskers' punter Archie Wilson cannoned a 59-yard punt to put the Huskies' offense at their own 19-yard line after the defense forced a quick three-and-out following Fisch's decision not to go for it on UW's previous possession.
Despite the field position not working out exactly to plan, Williams Jr. still pulled the Huskies from defeat by leading the offense on a go-ahead touchdown drive that made it all pan out in UW's favor when the clock hit triple zeros as the program left Lincoln with a 5-3 record and a 10-win season still on the table.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington Specialists Prove Crucial in Comeback Win at Nebraska
