Glitches on kickoffs concern Johnson

With Virginia Tech continuing its tradition of excellent special-teams play ahead of Saturday’s game at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Georgia Tech may have picked a bad time to have its worst special-teams performance this season in Saturday’s 40-36 loss at Virginia.

The Yellow Jackets allowed a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown — the first they have given up this season – and botched a short kickoff that coach Paul Johnson said they had practiced all week.

“It will be important that we improve drastically in those two areas,” he said.

The botched kickoff came after Tech took a 7-3 lead late in the first quarter.

Brenton King was supposed to hit a short, looping kickoff toward the sideline that the Jackets hoped to recover, providing an opportunity to take a 14-3 lead. Even if the kick went out of bounds, Virginia would have received the ball on the 35-yard line.

Instead, King’s kick didn’t travel 10 yards. Virginia took over on Tech’s 43-yard line and eventually kicked another field goal.

The touchdown came after Tech took a 14-6 lead on a 1-yard run by B-back KirVonte Benson with 2:31 remaining in the first half.

Johnson on Tuesday called the kickoff coverage “abysmal” after the Cavaliers returned five kickoffs for 205 yards.

“Let’s call it what it was,” he said.

The team also and posted a season-low average in punting (36.3 yards).

Virginia Tech, as it has for more than 20 years, plays excellent special teams, particularly on the punt teams:

■ Greg Stroman is tied for second in school history in punt returns for touchdowns (four). Former Falcon DeAngelo Hall holds the school record (five). Stroman’s four touchdowns have come in the past 21 games.

■ Stroman needs just 220 more punt return yards to pass Eddie Royal for the alltime time lead (1,296) in Hokies history.

■ Stroman ranks tied for third in the ACC this season with an average of 13.1 yards per punt return.

■ Virginia Tech ranks third among teams in the Power Five conferences in punt coverage, allowing just four return yards this season.

■ Just two teams this season have more touchbacks on kickoffs than Virginia Tech (50).

■ Finally, the Hokies lead the ACC in net punt average (41.4 yards per punt).

For the season, Georgia Tech is averaging 43.7 yards per punt with a net of 39.2. Opponents have returned 14 punts for 156 yards and one touchdown.

While Tech did have a season-low for average punting, some of that had to with field position. Pressley Harvin put a season-high four punts inside the 20-yard line. He has done that 15 times this season. He also tied a season-high with punts that resulted in four catches. Doing so again will be key to keeping Stroman from causing havoc. on special-teams play With stars such as Eric Hosmer (left) becoming free agents, Royals GM Dayton Moore (right) could rejoin the Braves. But the Royals appear poised for a decline after more than a decade of Moore’s leadership, raising questions about his viability.

Regarding the Braves, MLB is expected to announce its findings/ sanctions any day now, perhaps any minute. Once that happens, the 201718 offseason can begin for the local nine. In the interim, here’s a nugget from Dan Szymborski, whose ZiPS projections are must-reads among the sabermetric set.

In a post for ESPN Insider, Szymborski reports that ZiPS has the 2018 Braves finishing 80-82, which would tie them for second with Miami in the National League East. (Washington is forecast to win 89 games.) ZiPS assigns the Braves a 25.2 percent chance of making the play

and an 11.4 percent chance of winning the division.

In the past three seasons, the Braves have won 67, 68 and 72 games, finishing an aggregate 74½ games out of first place. An 80-win season would be a substantial bump and a semi-validation of their three years of rebuilding. Next year’s Braves, as has been noted, should be much younger than the 2017 edition. Now for the boilerplate caveat: Projections are not performance.

Another caveat: ZiPS projects only those players on a team’s current roster. Free agency can/will rearrange the landscape, and the Braves don’t figure to be overly aggressive in that sector. (Then again, they haven’t yet hired a general manager, so stay tuned.) Also: Like all statbased projections, ZiPS tends to flatten toward the middle. Only the Dodgers are pegged to win more than 92 games, and only one team is projected to win fewer than 70. And that team is ...

The Royals, at 69-93. If you’re wondering why some among us still believe Dayton Moore will leave Kansas City, there’s your answer. The Royals, who made the 2014 World Series and won the 2015 edition, are about to turn terrible. Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas are free agents. It took Moore, who left the Braves in June 2006, 6½ years to lift K.C. above .500; it could take that long again if he stays.

If he’s going to leave, now’s the time. And the Braves have an opening. Still, you wonder: If Moore is all that great, why is the organization he has run for more than a decade poised to crash?

‘It will be important that we improve drastically ...’ Coach Paul johnson