{"id":6499,"date":"2026-09-18T01:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/09\/18\/brown-and-coombs-reinvigorating-michigan-punting\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T01:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:49:12","slug":"brown-and-coombs-reinvigorating-michigan-punting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/09\/18\/brown-and-coombs-reinvigorating-michigan-punting\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown and Coombs reinvigorating Michigan punting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The No. 19 Michigan football team has allowed just 22 points in two games. Opponents have notched 551 offensive yards, yet still struggled to seal the deal in the red zone. The Wolverines\u2019 defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-backfield-looking-to-rebound-after-underwhelming-week-1\/\">shut<\/a> offenses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-defensive-line-controls-win-over-oklahoma\/\">down<\/a>; but it didn\u2019t necessarily do it alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four of Western Michigan and No. 24 Oklahoma\u2019s combined 22 drives began within its own 10-yard line, in large part due to sophomore punter Cam Brown. Against the Sooners, Brown sent punts into their own 20-yard line seven times, giving the Wolverines\u2019 defense space to do what it does best.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got a pretty good weapon in Cam Brown punting the football,\u201d Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said Monday. \u201cHe pinned (Oklahoma) inside the 20-yard line, like five of six punts or six of seven. It was really an outstanding day for Cam.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown joins the Wolverines after spending last season at UNLV, where he ended the season as the nation\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/stats\/player\/_\/view\/special\/stat\/punting\/table\/punting\/sort\/netAvgPuntYards\/dir\/desc\">51st-best<\/a> punter by net average punt yards. The Australian native punted 22 times for 943 yards, averaging 42.9 yards per punt. This contrasts Michigan\u2019s 2025 punt performance where its starting punter, now-graduate Hudson Hollenbeck, notched just 11 50-plus yard punts throughout the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Making his debut with the Wolverines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/underwood-to-buchanan-hail-mary-pushes-no-16-michigan-over-western-michigan-13-12\/\">against<\/a> the Broncos, Brown punted six times with a long of 50 yards while knocking two inside the 20-yard line. This contributed to Western Michigan dredging down the field for its 71-yard, 13-plus minute drive. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-topples-no-11-oklahoma-in-early-season-tilt\/\">Against<\/a> the Sooners, Brown pinned the Oklahoma offense on its own 1-yard line which Michigan\u2019s defense turned into a quick three-and-out. With over three-quarters of the field to still make up, the Sooners\u2019 offense struggled to gain any momentum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown\u2019s technical ability gave the defense the best starting point it could ask for \u2014 and most of the time it followed up with defensive success of its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou pin an opponent on the 1, 2, 3-yard line, their chances of getting points are very slim, so that\u2019s a big deal,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201cAnd Cam has a real knack for putting that ball there and having that backspin on it and put it right there inside the five, which is a very valuable weapon. Also he did a great job on the last punt, where they came with an almost max blitz. He got it out really quick and avoided any opportunity they had to block it. He\u2019s a very heads up punter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Special teams coordinator Kerry Coombs has taken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/breaking-down-michigans-philosophy-on-special-teams\/\">advantage<\/a> of Brown\u2019s savvyness in more ways than one this season. On the field, Coombs trusts Brown to do his assignment and put the ball where the defense needs it. Brown\u2019s skills allow Coombs to get creative and give him a range of options in setting up punt formations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown\u2019s abilities are honed before he steps on the field. The intellectual-punter meets with Coombs prior to stepping on the field as the two collaborate on the best protection for the given situation. Ultimately, wherever Brown is going to have the most success is what\u2019s best for Michigan and Coombs does his best to set the sophomore up for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery time before we take the field, Cam and I talk about which punt we want to use in this particular spot and why, and so he has a good understanding of where we\u2019re trying to put it and what we want to do, and he has good input on that,\u201d Coombs said Wednesday. \u201cHe tells me what he\u2019s feeling, which I think is important too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Coombs and Brown though, Saturday\u2019s performance can still be improved upon. There were a few instances where his boot was too intense and the Wolverines\u2019 gunners got to the ball just in time to prevent it from bouncing into the endzone. Coombs shared that he and Brown\u2019s goal is to get the ball to fall on the 7 or 8-yard line and give the special teams coverage unit a bit more wiggle room.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those alterations though are slight in comparison to the major punt-struggles Michigan dealt with only a year prior. Coombs is confident that as he and Brown continue to work together, Brown\u2019s skills will only continue to perfect as the season progresses.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden   newspack-inline-popup       \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The No. 19 Michigan football team has allowed just 22 points in two games. Opponents have notched 551 offensive yards, yet still struggled to seal the deal in the red zone. The Wolverines\u2019 defense shut offenses down; but it didn\u2019t necessarily do it alone.\u00a0 Four of Western Michigan and No. 24 Oklahoma\u2019s combined 22 drives [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3277,5535,222,5537,5536],"class_list":["post-6499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","tag-brown","tag-coombs","tag-michigan","tag-punting","tag-reinvigorating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6501,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions\/6501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}