May I humbly suggest an entire week where the team does nothing but kickoff and punt coverage drills? Whoever survives uninjured and makes the least mistakes can cover kicks. This is just insanity.
Good thing we got a new special teams coach
- Thread starter random soul
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Cougs would have dominated if not for the stupid run backs. More than just the points...it's a momentum killer. Mentally damaging, there needs to be accountability for this. Priester made a lot of bad choices that should be coached out of him. Is anyone doing that?
Practice, practice, practice only goes so far, when you don't have the talent to execute. We are trying to kick cover with Devonte Horton clones.
I don't know about your continual assertion that we don't have p12 talent. I did see better tackling last night at my local high school though. And I don't thing that's on Mele.
We may not win the game without the punt return. They were getting their run game going and perhaps marched down and scored leaving little time left. It left a lot of time for an air raid offense to get down field. The Cougs had to execute and they did. They had enough time thanks to the punt return.
Anyone have any idea how much time we spend on ST during practice? Is it different that most teams (ie less)? The announcers kept saying how much emphasis Rutgers places on ST. VT does the same. Is it time spent or bad coaching or not enough fast/good athletes? Or is it a combination of the three?
I think it may be a practice time issue. So much time is needed on offense and defense to get the repetitions / learn the scheme that special teams gets tacked on the end, and by then everybody is tired/losses focus or something. Add in that we aren't an incredibly deep team. We have depth at O-line, but let's face it they aren't coverage guys. We are very thin at defense with speed (as you have seen with people on the outside) so thin + slow + not a lot of practice time = poor coverage.
Also poor tackling. Which is also seen on defense. So it's a combination of talent/practice at least in my opinion. We have players but some are very young, so maturity plays a role in this as well.
Well I know that whatever that guy was before Mele... Russell? He was at Texas Tech with Leach in 2009. That year in 2009 Frank Broyles Awards honoring the nation's top assistant coaches... so believe it or not that guy was actually one of the top assistants in the country in 2009.
I think special teams were always pretty good for him at Texas Tech I will have to go take a look. Looking at Russell's past it's kind of shocking how things fell apart for special teams with his track record before WSU.
He also had a punt return for a TD last week. Plus, he is rewriting Rutgers record books. He will be in the NFL in two years. WSU will probably not play a better returner all season
According to Thorpe, WSU spends a lot of time on special teams. He is surprised so far because they do play it better in practice. Right now, it is not transferring over. I think it will in time. Plus, Grant may be the best returner that WSU plays this season.
The Cougs coverage teams actually were fantastic for most of the game. You could tell on the kickoff that Rutgers knew it was coming into the left corner and they had schemed to block the first wave of coverage and bust it back to the left. They did so to perfection and we were not prepared for it. Priester was contain on the wide side and he got sucked in too far.
On the punt, the returner just made a freakishly good play staying on his feet. We just need to break down and finish tackles a bit better and we will be fine. Basic fundamentals.
On the punt, the returner just made a freakishly good play staying on his feet. We just need to break down and finish tackles a bit better and we will be fine. Basic fundamentals.
Special teams are important and we won this game because of the field goal unit, let's not forget that. No way do the Cougs win a game like this last year, Powell hit form 36,46 and 47 yards, these were not easy kicks, I was there and the wind was a factor. Needless to say the return units need a lot of work, but the field goal unit helped win that game, if he had missed just one of those kicks that game would most likely have end up in a loss. So the kicking game has improved a lot, return units are just as bad, so there is improvement in 1 of the units, lets not lose sight of that.
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I don't really know what a special teams coach is supposed to coach, really. "Run down there and stay in this lane, then tackle the guy". Don't know what he could really be mis-coaching.
It looks to me, and I'm no expert, that they just don't focus on it and they severely lack speed on the unit.
the coverage team were taking some amazingly poor angles. Outside guys pinching in WAY too soon, opened up the outside. Everyone KNEW this guy was great, so that approach was 100% wrong. That's bad coaching. Good news is that game is in the rear view mirror....and maybe that guy has been arrested since the game anyway....
According to Jacob Thorpe, they do spend a lot of time and effort on special teams.
Well, if they are practicing against dipsticks that bring the ball out of the end zone, they should look good.
I forget his name, but the Beavers had a freshman kicker that missed three easily makeable FG's to cost his team a game. Fans criticized him and wanted him replaced. Riley stuck with him and he became a great kicker for them the next 3 1/2 years. Freshman make mistakes. People make mistakes. I would not be surprised if you are cheering for Martin or Priester on special teams later this season as they break a long return.
Alexis Serna...against LSU.
He went on to win the Lou Groza award if I'm not mistaken....and made some game winners along the way.
Prior to the start if this season we had nothing established on special teams. Now it would appear we have a pretty good placekicker and Charme has filled the punter's spot adequately. Other issues remain. Remember that against PSU we had two kicks, a punt and a field goal, blocked. That lapse now seems to have been dealt with. The coverage units are still a problem. Hopefully, that will be cleaned up too. Would have been better if all this had been accomplished prior to the season's start but maybe it was wishing for too much to expect Mele to field a fully finished squad immediately considering that he was starting from scratch.
Yes, that was him. I think you are right about him winning the Lou Groza award as well. He was a great kicker for them and he started off terrible. Thanks Spongebob.
