Special Teams Coach / Coordinator?

[Aclone]

Elite Special teams need elite specialists. Coaching can do only so much. We are in a really good spot right now with punters and our place kickers. We need to find a really good returner to replace Noel and we should have a solid year.

It’s not like we don’t have a ton of candidates nowadays. I’ve heard Xavier Townsend and Aiden Flora mentioned, but they’re hardly the only ones.

Long term, I think it’s Mason Ellens. I’m just kinda hoping he redshirts to add some muscle mass.

 

[flycy]

I don’t know…ST usually comes down to having a good punter and kicker, which we have. And then coverage and protection. We have a veteran OL which means there are likely pretty good guys behind them for ST units. And, we are incredibly deep at LB, which will help for coverage. The only thing left is scheme, and I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to scheme up ST if you have the players.

Except we have been generally terrible at the scheme part when there isn't someone dedicated to coach ST. Cost many a game in this era.

 

[Frak]

Except we have been generally terrible at the scheme part when there isn't someone dedicated to coach ST. Cost many a game in this era.

I just don’t think that a specific ST coordinator matters. First off, if that person is replacing an actual position coach, he's going to have to be able to recruit. Second, that person has to not only be able to coach kickers and punters, he has to know protection and coverage plus fakes, etc. How many people are out there with that skill set? I'd rather have an analyst that can coach kickers and then the various assistants be in charge of a unit or a specific area. I mean, do you really want a kicking coach telling our OL how to block on punt team or FG team vs Clanton?

I don't disagree that ST has been generally bad under Campbell. My opinion is that a lot of that is not being able to get kickoffs into the endzone, not being able to get punts off quick enough, and flat out missing FGs. The 2020 team got burned on kickoffs repeatedly because we were scoring a bunch and never got touchbacks. I just think that fixing K and P goes a LONG ways into having good STs. And right behind that is having good returners and gunners. We've made some pretty good steps forward in most of those areas.

 

[2speedy1]

Feels like this topic gets rehashed here every off season.

 

[Cycsk]

Elite Special teams need elite specialists.

Darien Porter says "Hold my beer."

 

[Aclone]

Darien Porter says "Hold my beer."

I will be surprised if Will Hawthorne isn’t on coverage units all season.

Unless the obvious, which I’d vastly prefer not.