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Miami Hurricanes special teams not so special

The University of Miami has had a mistake or two on special teams in nearly every game this season.

At Florida State on Sept. 7, the Seminoles returned three kickoffs into Hurricanes territory.

Against Georgia Tech on Sept. 17, Matt Bosher missed two field-goal attempts, and walk-on Alex Uribe booted his first two kickoffs out of bounds.

Florida Gators' special teams deserve special attention

The top-ranked Florida Gators are so loaded with talent that coach Urban Meyer calls his punt-block team a ``freak show.''

Freshman linebacker Jelani Jenkins is one of the super freaks. The Maryland native was the nation's top-rated recruit at outside linebacker this year. He is intelligent. He runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds. He is a black belt in karate.

Naturally, everyone wanted him.

Miami Dolphins' special teams getting special attention

One of the remarkable things about the Dolphins' 2008 season is they went 11-5 with few big plays out of their base offense and few cheap points from special teams -- no touchdown returns and only three forced fumbles. Their kickoff-return defense was bad (25th) and their punt-return defense was worse (29th).

Ask no more why a large part of both Monday practices was devoted to special teams.

``We devoted -- and this doesn't sound like a lot -- but another four-minute period to it in a two-a-day practice day in the morning so there is actually 12 or 13 minutes' worth of special-teams practice,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. ``That's a lot, but what I want to make sure of is that we get this core special-team unit evaluated properly.''

Miami Hurricanes' special teams get mixed reviews

The first thing Thearon Collier saw after he fielded Nathan Rathjen's punt at the Hurricanes 40-yard line was a wall of seven Virginia Cavaliers headed toward him.

One minute, the 5-9, 192-pound sophomore looked about as trapped as a mouse as he scurried over toward the opposing sideline.

The next, he was on his way to the most electrifying play of the season for the Miami Hurricanes, a 60-yard momentum-changing punt return for the go-ahead score in what turned out to be a 52-17 blowout of visiting Virginia on Saturday.

X-Rays negative on FIU's Carlos Munera

GAINESVILLE -- FIU might have lost one of its top weapons on special teams at the start of Saturday's game against Florida.

Backup Gators defensive back Markihe Anderson rolled into Golden Panthers punter Carlos Munera's left ankle on the fourth play of the game.