Bates' new punting style a kick on special teams

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The first time MSU head coach Mark Dantonio saw sophomore punter Aaron Bates try his new punting style of dropping the point of the football toward the ground instead of flat, he thought his starter had botched the kick.

“That’s a terrible drop. What was that?” Dantonio asked Bates, who had been working for about six months on perfecting his form of kicking the tip of the ball.

“No, I’ve got it,” Bates said. “That’s what I was trying to do.”

With Bates’ new punt, the Spartans have found a consistent weapon to pin kicks inside the opponents’ 5-yard line and help win the field position battle.

By booting the ball from a downward position, Bates is able to better control the distance of his kicks and create a kickoff-like spiral with the ball, which helps stop the ball on a dime in the red zone.

Although Bates’ punting statistics aren’t among the top in the nation — he ranks No. 32 in punt average and MSU is No. 80 in the nation in net punting — numbers don’t illustrate the value of his punting style.

“It’s made a huge difference,” said Bates, who has put 14 kicks inside the opponents’ 20-yard line this season on 47 punts. “Sometimes instead of going for a long field goal, we’ll just punt it because (Dantonio) has confidence in me to get it down there.”

Bates estimated there are five NFL punters and five NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision punters who kick the nose of the ball.

Bates said he is able to use the unorthodox punting style because his leg swings on a straight, pendulum-like angle. Most punters kick on an outside-inside path that causes the foot to swipe across the ball, which makes it difficult to boot a football when it’s pointed at the ground.

“I think it’s just more natural for some people than others,” Bates said of the straight- leg angle. “The backup punter, he can’t do it because that’s just the way he punts, but I can so it’s just kind of a natural thing.”

With Bates’ ability to drop punts deep in enemy territory, punt gunners like junior cornerback Ross Weaver, junior linebacker Brandon Denson and junior wide receiver Blair White have more opportunities to down kicks near the goal line.

“It’s amazing because I go in on pooch situations where we’re down by the goal line and he puts it down there every time perfectly for me so I really don’t have much else to do besides catch the ball,” White said.

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