I looked it up. In 2018 Wake used two kickers to handle kickoffs. In total, Darren Ford and Eric Osteen had 40% (33 of 83) kickoffs go for touch backs. Of all the kickoffs, 55% (46 of 83) where returned. More telling, Wake gave up 1097 return yards, an average of 24 yards per return. Wake ranked second from the bottom last year in the ACC in total yardage surrendered on kickoff returns and fourth from the bottom in yards per return.
This year, Wake has had 44% returned (31 kickoffs out of 71 returned) and the average return yardage per return is 27 yards. If you take out the two returns for touchdowns the other night, the yards per return is 23 yards, which is basically the same as last year. So, while the return percentage is up, the yards per return is basically the same (excluding the two kickoffs for touchdowns against Duke). The touch back percentage is down this year at 23% (16 of 71 kickoffs), but returns are down as well. I believe the return teams have called more fair catches this year which would indicate they are fair catching the ball more and returning the ball less.
For the kickoffs on Saturday night, the first kick (kicker was Murphy, not Sciba) was only returned 13 or 14 yards (kicked to the 4 yard line with good height). On this kickoff, the coverage team got off their blocks to make the tackle and it appeared to be well covered when I went back and watched the game. In the two kickoffs returned for touchdowns, the kickoffs seemed to be just as high and went even further (to the two yard line), but the coverage team (as pointed out by others earlier) did not get off their blocks and the Duke returner was untouched on both returns - he did not even have to slow down. I think the issue had less to do with the kicker and more to do with coverage guys who did not get off their blocks. If the coverage team handles the blocks like they did on the first kickoff, I doubt either kickoff gets returned for big yardage.
