Coach ,

Week 1 of college football showed how important special teams are. They can win you the game or lose you the game.  

An interesting statistic was shared with me by Steve Hauser (former special teams assistant at Iowa State and Oklahoma State). In week one of FBS play, there were 26 punts blocked, 23 FG/PAT blocks/misses, and 20 muffed punts.  

He reviewed a majority of those and found a common theme. It wasn’t the scheme that caused the blocks, it was the technique in the majority of those critical errors. In addition, there were several big kick returns, and again, some of those could have been prevented with some technique adjustments.

Let’s take a look at three areas for improvement this week:

Kick Coverage

On many of these big returns, the contain, especially of the backside not squeezing was a factor in the big return. The lanes need to get restricted as the play develops, and maintaining what Jake Schoonover calls the “contain triangle” is important in this regard. Coach Schoonover’s unit ranked #2 in 2021 in kick-off and he explains how they maintain contain in this video (click on image for video):

Video: Contain Triangle

PAT/FG

Operations on PAT/FG are critical.  The split-second delay caused by the slightest error can be the factor in the kick being blocked.  Putting a focus on every tiny aspect of this allows for success. It is something that Ohio OL Coach, who is in charge of this unit for the Bobcats, takes seriously. He shares the detailed coaching points of operations in this video (click on image for video):

Video: Operations

Punting

Alignment of the personnel protector, path of the punter, and clean operations can help prevent blocked punts.

Knowing when to adjust alignment, especially when space is squeezed can help you avoid a block. One of those this week went directly into the backside of the protector because he was aligned too deep in a punt coming out of his own end zone.

Operations certainly start with a clean snap. It’s also a product of the catch and defined steps that produce consistency for the punt. In this video, John Carney, who had a legendary NFL kicking career, explains the catch and steps which produce consistent operations times (click on image for video):

Video: Punting Catch Steps

While a poor special teams play may have you walking off the field feeling dejected, know that many of the answers are right in front of you. Like Coach Hauser did, sit down, dig into the film, and find the little things that will make a big difference.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski

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