2025 Position Group Breakdown: Special Teams
Special teamers often go unnoticed until something goes wrong, of course. Such is life for the unsung heroes of a football team. But despite the lack of attention, strong special teams play is crucial to a team’s success. Fortunately for UConn, they return the core of their unit, including their long snappers, starting kicker, and starting punter.
At kicker, Indiana transfer Chris Freeman returns for a surprise extra year of eligibility. He struggled at the onset in 2024, missing his first three FGs, although they were all over 40 yards. A couple short FGs against FAU built up his confidence, and it was smooth sailing from there, missing just three more, two of which were attempts over 50 yards. He did have a long FG of 53 yards twice, once against Wake Forest, the other in the regular season finale at UMass. He made of all his extra points. He had 83 kickoffs, and of those, 46 were touchbacks.
PFF has graded him pretty well, earning a grade of 83.2 for kickoffs, good for 46th nationally, and a grade of 80.9 on FGs, good for 54th nationally. Behind Freeman will be true freshman Leo Ricci, from Quakertown, PA. In his senior season, he punted 20 times for an average of 37.7 yards per punt, and went 38-38 on XPs, while hitting all five of his FG attempts, including longs of 41 and 42. The Huskies did recruit some kickers during this year’s recruiting cycle, and it wouldn’t be shocking if they go to the portal next year, but for now, they’re in great shape.
The Huskies are also set at punter, for this season at least. Connor Stutz, the Sacramento State transfer, will have one more year of eligibility. Stutz punted 43 times last season for 2,702 yards, a respectable average of 43.6 yards per punt. He had a season long of 69 against Georgia State, and 16 punts over 50 yards. He’s had some trouble with consistency, so he’ll be looking to get that straightened out for this season. Stutz even completed 100% of his passes, all one of them, against UMass on a fake for no gain. Behind Stutz will be either Ricci, or Memphis transfer Spencer Sullins. They will most likely need to grab another HS punter or a portal one, if they’re not comfortable with Sullins, a redshirt freshman.
Long snapper is most definitely a position that gets taken for granted. All those FGs and punts, you only notice when something goes wrong, so it’s imperative to have a solid one. UConn has returning starter Zach Christinat, a Norwalk native, as well as incoming freshman Nick Pompilli, a Madison native, and Boise State transfer Tashi Crofut. Not a whole lot of stats for long snappers, but Christinat was only penalized once, and is another proud Connecticut long snapper, following in Brian Keating’s footsteps.