Special Teams Unit Shined Against Miami

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville special teams coach Karl Maslowski praised his unit and emphasized the impact transfer wide receiver Caullin Lacy had on kickoff returns in the loss to Miami this past Saturday.

Lacy started the 2024 season on the sidelines following a collarbone injury that prevented him from playing in the first three games, but he quickly made an impact in his first showing against Notre Dame and has not slowed down since.

In the game against Miami, Lacy had arguably one of the biggest plays from either team when he pulled off a 100-yard kick return in the third quarter.

"It's nice having [Lacy] back, finally healthy, at 100 percent," Maslowski said. "We had him for a couple weeks going in where we still weren't sure 100 percent on his collarbone, so we didn't want him taking high impact collisions. But then he goes out there and he's got really good vision, he's got a great ability to break tackles."

Maslowski was also quick to highlight the guys in front of Lacy that made his kick return possible.

"The guys in front of him - it was awesome just to see those guys blocking [for] him. You had, for example, Stanquan Clark comes off - we had just given up a touchdown, right, and he was on the field at that time - he comes right off the field, goes to kickoff return, throws some big blocks.

"We had all kinds of starters and role play guys that are out there and contributing and everyone got a block and Caullin broke a tackle and made the rest happen. It's good to see all those guys playing hard for each other and it's nice when you've got a guy back there that can break it open."

Maslowski noted that Miami had about 70 percent touchbacks going into the game. He emphasized to his unit that they needed to seize every opportunity to return a kick in order to break open the game if the opportunity presented itself.

"That was a change because they had been kicking a bunch of touchbacks, so when we got the opportunity, we had prepared like 'alright, if we get one, we've got to make it happen.' And then, we got that first one and it was okay, and the second one we got a little bit farther, we built on it as we went, and the guys started to believe in it more and more."

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Stanquan Clark

Caullin Lacy

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