Coach ,

While offense and defense add layers of complexity over the course of the season, special teams, for the most part, stay very basic.

Notre Dames Special Teams Coordinator Brian Mason illustrated the simplicity of special teams in a presentation at the Indiana Football Coaches Association Clinic. He said, 

“How do I know who is blocking me? Punt teams love to use colors. “Red” means they are going to block to the right guys, and blur means they are going to come to the left..imagine if the quarterback came up and did that every single play. So they are either going to tell us, or they are going to point the majority of the time. He is going to point out who he is blocking…dip and rip away from him. It’s not complicated.”  

What does that mean for the coach?

First and foremost, the details on these units can make a difference, and it’s simple to see whether those details are being executed. The coach who wants to win this phase can greatly enhance his unit's chances for success by continually coaching the details.

#1) Get back to basics

South Carolina Special Teams Coordinator Pete Lembo begins day one with the basics and trains it throughout the season.  It begins with the understanding of two basic positions. A player will be in either one or the other. Those positions are the power position and the speed position.

In the power position, a player is ready to quickly change direction. It’s the position from which contact is created. He explains it as well as his simple drill to train it here (click on image for video): 

Video: Power Position

The speed position is one in which a man is gaining ground. From this position, a player can execute moves like dip & rip in order to gain leverage and win. Coach Lembo illustrates this position and technique in this video (click on image for video):

Video: Speed Position

Watching game video or practice video and looking for these positions can quickly help you understand if your players are putting themselves in a position to succeed in the play and allow the coach to make the corrections if they are not.

These positions are used in all plays.

#2) Chaos Kills

Notre Dame Special Teams Coordinator Brian Mason believes in creating chaos for the opponent with his units.  One of those which is key is his punt block unit. It starts with the mentality that they are in punt block and not punt return. The objective is to affect the punter by being aggressive.  

While at Cincinnati, Coach Mason and staff realized that the numbers didn’t favor a return. They averaged 3 yards on hold-up returns, but they averaged 11 yards on returns when they were in punt block.  A change was made and the “Chaos Kills” mentality was born.

The idea is to cause the punter to get the ball off quickly to avoid a block. When a punter has to decrease his operation time by rushing or by taking fewer steps, the probability of a poor punt increases and winning field position favors the Irish.

It starts with the player on the block team being in a loaded position (Coach Lembo’s speed position). From there, it is the execution of a few techniques which Coach Mason explains in this video:

Video: Block Part 1

#3) What do you see?

Michigan is performing very well on special teams under the direction of Special Teams Coordinator Jay Harbaugh. 

For the coverage units, it starts with an understanding of the correct position. This starts with understanding what they see, and how they will attack based on that. You will notice that in each of these, the Power and Speed positions again come into play. Limiting return yards starts with being in the correct position based on the view of the ball carrier.

Video: View of the Ball Carrier

Coach Harbaugh shares the coaching points on how players make this transition from their sprint down the field into a power position or continuing with long strides in a speed position in this video (click on image for video):

Video: Shimmy

It’s cool to see all of the schemes that produced success in a big return or punt block, but like offense and defense, success starts with the basics.

Refocusing on some of the aspects of special teams that were taught a few weeks ago in camp can enhance success as much as those schemes.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski