He definitely practices it. Even does so in pre-game. But yeah, I scratch my head to think of any time he has used it, even at Texas. He wasn't a rugby player, either.
I think it's a total red herring. I'm not even sure why you would choose that style of kick in that situation.
Dickson has a bit of an odd form to his punts. He's not flexible enough to kick with a straight leg, like most punters. I remember Schneider commenting on that being one of the things that made it difficult to scout him.
He is also unlike other punters in that he approaches each kick by feel, rather than trying to refine his technique to do it the exact same way every time. He doesn't even watch his own tape. That may make him more sensitive to adjusting when he feels that something is off with his protection. Not necessarily a bad thing. The adjustment may move him out of a position that would have otherwise resulted in a block. In fact, that may be exactly what happened on this play.
At the risk of sounding like John 6:3, I think it most likely not that Dickson was on the wrong page, but that the blocking was, and he was reacting to blown protection.
Before the penalty, I think they called for a fake. After the penalty was assessed, I think they called a regular punt, but didn't change the blocking scheme. Dickson recognized this, after the snap, and started to adjust, to kick off to the right side. Then he saw Muse come off his block (the correct technique if a fake was in progress), and knew he didn't have a chance to get a kick off. He did what he could at that point. Had it been a fake, Dickson wouldn't have danced around in the backfield, he would have taken off, and would have been near the line of scrimmage when Muse came off his block.
Alternatively, it was a supposed to be a fake, and everyone but Dickson ran the called play.
