Coach ,

At Syracuse, Justin Lustig has his units locked in and ready to go. From their “Orange Juice” chant at the beginning to their Tupac walk-away song to end the meeting, or even their nickname “Tip of the Spear,” it’s special to be on his units.

Lustig takes great pride in the units and his players follow. It’s what brought them to the top of the national rankings and earned him a nomination for 2018 Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach. 

Having sound schemes is a good start to successful special teams play, but understanding and being able to coach effective techniques is just as important. Special teams coverage and blocking requires that players be able to cover a lot of space and maintain the correct position as they get down field to either block the opponent or destruct the block. 

Kick Off

The kick-off unit is where a technique Lustig call’s “Run and Stun” comes into play. Run and Stun is their two-gap block destruction technique which allows them to gain ground while maintaining a position from which they can gain leverage on the returner once he declares a running lane.

Lustig explains it in this video:

Punt Return

Attack at the line of scrimmage and take space away with “sticks and steps,” keep wide hands and buy time at the line of scrimmage which translates to return yards. The next phase they coach up is the “harrass.”  

It becomes like man-to-man coverage and they coach them to stay on the back hip with eyes on the hips. The last phase is to finish, and if they have put themselves in the correct position in the previous phase, they are able to make a block that springs the returner.  

Lustig explains it here:

Whether it’s a coverage unit or return unit, it’s much more than taking your athletes and having them run down the field. There are crucial details that can elevate the play of your units.

Lustig’s clinic on Special Teams Topics and Organization is a deep dive on specific action to give anyone one coaching special teams an edge each and every week. 

Start Studying exactly what took Coach Lustig Special Teams to one of the best ST programs in the Nation by clicking this link here---> 

Always be growing!

Keith

P.S. I also was lucky enough to have Coach Lustig talk about receiver play, special teams and “equifinality” on the Coach and Coordinator Podcast here.