After the ASU football team's upset win at UCLA Saturday, an unappreciated part of the squad received some much deserved notoriety: the special teams.
Junior punter Matt Haack was named the Ray Guy Award Player of the Week and Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week for his stellar work against the Bruins. In the game, Haack set a career-high with five punts landing inside the 20-yard line and averaged 43.1 yards per kick.
Haack was responsible for arguably the most important play of the game when he perfectly placed a punt inside the Bruin 1-yard line with under five minutes left to play, leading directly to an intentional safety that clinched the game for the Sun Devils.
"I watched the ball coming off my foot, so that was a good feeling," Haack said. "I saw it go up and heading right and Coach was telling me the whole game 'kick it out of bounds, keep it away from their returner,' so that's what I was trying to do. As it went up and bounced, I saw it was a little inside. I was trying to kick it out of bounds to begin with, but I was just praying that I'd get the roll."
Special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum said Haack has steadily improved over the course of the season leading up to this point.
"He's still just a young, talented player who's continuing to improve," Slocum said. "Every punt's not going to be perfect, but he had a good game where it all fell together for him."
And improve he has. After a season in 2014 that Haack got better each week, he began 2015 in a slump, allowing a return touchdown in ASU's season opener to Texas A&M.
Haack and Slocum both said that the improvement was felt early on though, as the players became more comfortable with the coaching and vice versa and the unit has gelled ever since.
"I think I'm more adapted to them and they're more adapted with what we're trying to do from a scheme standpoint," Slocum said.
Haack said the players are definitely buying in now and the results speak for themselves.
"I think everyone is starting to understand everything more and understand they've just got to do their job," Haack said. "You see in previous games everyone trying to make plays almost to a fault, trying to do someone else's job. The biggest thing is everyone just buying in to what they've got to do and it's really showing up."
The preparation is paying off, as the Sun Devils have held opponents to 52 punt return yards in the four games since playing the Aggies, helping the defense start the ball with good field position. That has helped the unit tremendously, as nearly half of ASU's points allowed have come off turnovers.
But Haack has definitely been the star of the unit, with eight punts of 50 yards or more and 12 landing inside the 20-yard line, he's the standout of a unit that has been hot and cold this season and Saturday's game showed it once again.
Despite Haack receiving two different awards for his performance, though, he's kept a level head and said that the goal will always be to win, no matter what.
"It's very motivating to me, but for me it's really just about this team," Haack said. "Anything I can do to help us win. It's an individual honor, but I can't do it without the other 10 guys on the field and all the coaches. It's nice, but at the end of the day we won the game and that's what's important."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.
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