Jeff Koonz Spring Practice No. 10
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00:00OK, next up, we have Coach Jeff Koons, our inside linebackers
00:04coach and special teams coordinator.
00:07Questions for Coach Koons?
00:09Jeff, start with linebackers.
00:12Just give me an overview of how they've done this spring.
00:15Yeah, it's been a really productive spring.
00:17I say that because for the first time since I've been here,
00:21we've got the most competition.
00:22We've got the most plays returning from one year
00:28to the next that we've ever had.
00:30So it's been fun.
00:31The challenge for them coming back in January
00:34was to start spring football not where
00:36we left in the Mayo Bowl, but another two steps beyond that.
00:41And I think we accomplished that.
00:43We're at a point in spring ball right now,
00:45we're 10 practices in.
00:46We've got way more defense in right now
00:49than we would have for one singular game.
00:51So there's been a lot of pressure on, really,
00:53everybody schematically to keep everything categorized
00:55so that we can call a multitude of things within one practice.
00:59And for those guys in the middle,
01:02they have the most adjustments, they have the most adjustments,
01:04they have the most alignments, most change-ups.
01:07And I've done a really good job with it.
01:08And that experience is showing.
01:11As a unit, definitely more explosive, definitely faster
01:16than we finished the season testament
01:18to Mike and his staff.
01:19I feel like I say that every year,
01:21but when you have that in the weight room
01:24and what they're able to do, it shows.
01:27And then two guys coming off injury with Trey and Josiah,
01:29who testament to Vince and the training staff,
01:33all those guys and girls downstairs, what
01:36they've done from a physical therapy standpoint
01:38has been just tremendous.
01:40So it's been fun to watch.
01:42It's been fun to watch them compete.
01:44And we've been more productive than we have been as well.
01:47Surprised that Trey and Josiah could play at the speed
01:52that they're going this spring.
01:53They didn't seem to be much from their injury this spring.
01:56Yeah, you've obviously seen it.
01:57Yeah, I mean, they're playing fast.
01:59I think there might have been some mental things maybe
02:02early on.
02:03But after about day one, day two, it was full speed running.
02:07And they've been phenomenal and have had no glitches,
02:11no hiccups at all.
02:12So it's been fun to watch.
02:13So they were on schedule.
02:15They were actually both ahead of schedule.
02:17So I'm not surprised whatsoever.
02:19So again, testament to all the staff members
02:23that it took to get them where they need to be.
02:25A lot of players, offensive and defensive, mentioned Trotter.
02:30Your eyes, what have you seen from him?
02:32What makes him what he is?
02:33Yeah, so first of all, he's a physically imposing guy.
02:37He's a bigger body guy than we've had.
02:41So he stands out because of his sheer size.
02:44He also has good instincts.
02:46He's played a lot of football.
02:48You go back to his high school career,
02:50he played very early in his career.
02:52He's got a ton of reps.
02:53And he played for a program that went deep into the playoffs
02:55and played for state championships every year.
02:57So for him to come in as a freshman early in a role,
03:01he's probably played more snaps than anybody just
03:05over the last five or six years.
03:07So he has so much experience in finding the ball
03:09and playing inside linebacker.
03:12The thing that he does a great job of, in my opinion,
03:15to this point, is when he makes a mistake,
03:17he makes it full speed.
03:18But he doesn't make the same mistake twice.
03:21He gets it fixed.
03:22And I'd say that's a testament to the entire room.
03:24I feel like that's been our MO all spring,
03:26is that we'll make a mistake once and get it fixed,
03:29and it doesn't turn into two and three times.
03:31But I can see that just because of the amount of experience
03:35that Josiah has along with his size.
03:37And like I said, he can find the ball and can finish plays.
03:42You mentioned how engaged he was last year,
03:44even after he was injured.
03:46How much did that help his progression?
03:47I would imagine it helped tremendously.
03:49That's probably a good question for him.
03:51But to recount what we talked about, he was.
03:54He was a guy that was engaged.
03:55He was in all meetings.
03:56He'd come seek me out individually.
03:58He'd want to come meet and watch practice film.
04:01I would give him projects to do and breakdowns with opponents
04:04and just to keep him engaged and to keep his mind fresh.
04:09So I think I would definitely say it would help.
04:12But some of that, too, is just the way he's built
04:14and how much he loves the game.
04:17So after the season, as Lee was going to graduate,
04:21you had a bunch of young guys.
04:22So how important was it to get someone like Reed in,
04:25just to be a veteran in the room?
04:27Yeah, I think the thing about Reed,
04:29and he's done a phenomenal job
04:31of adjusting to our culture here at West Virginia.
04:35The thing about Reed was Reed wanted to be here.
04:38Reed definitely was a welcome addition to the room.
04:43But he fit who we are as a culture, as a program.
04:47And it's been phenomenal to have him with us,
04:51how he's gravitated to the other players.
04:53He's a mature guy.
04:54He's an older guy,
04:56being in his fourth year of college football.
04:58And you look at a room right now
04:59where I could have as many as six guys
05:01that have played meaningful snaps in Power Four football,
05:03and that's invaluable.
05:05So he's been a great addition.
05:09Love his work ethic, love his physicality.
05:11He can run.
05:13It's been an adjustment
05:14because the system is completely different
05:15than what he was accustomed to the last three years.
05:18And he's done a nice job improving on that every day.
05:22I know it's early, but rotation at linebacker,
05:25last year at times you were happy to get two on the field.
05:28Now, it at least looks like you'll have the ability
05:31to rotate some people.
05:33Something you want to do, or how's that work?
05:34Absolutely, I want to do that.
05:36I want to keep fresh bodies.
05:37And what this is going to enable us to do too,
05:39is when teams want to get big on us,
05:42now we're going to have the ability to do sub packages
05:44and to be bigger and take guys out of my room
05:47and put them at outside linebacker and vice versa.
05:51And we're teaching a lot of scheme things here.
05:53And so it's going to give us the ability to at times
05:55have as many as three guys on the field, if not more.
05:58And then also we want to rotate those guys.
06:01We want to keep them fresh.
06:02There were times last year
06:03where I think we were hanging on a little bit
06:05in the end of games, just because of a limited depth.
06:08And that showed on special teams.
06:10And obviously I'm not just sitting here saying that
06:11because I'm a special teams guy as well.
06:13But when you play linebacker, you play running back,
06:16you play tight end,
06:16you better be a special teams contributor as well,
06:20if you want to play this game for a long time.
06:22So now with this much depth in the room,
06:25that's also going to bleed over into special teams
06:27where guys can play on two units, maybe instead of one,
06:30because they got to play way more snaps
06:32than they probably should on defense.
06:34So there's a universal effect
06:37that having more talent and more bodies in the room
06:40is going to do.
06:42To Greg's point, you've had to be resourceful
06:45with your guys because of the sheer numbers.
06:47Obviously you've got more guys now
06:48and you've got some bigger body linebackers,
06:51which you really haven't had.
06:52Correct.
06:53So those are all helpful things for you
06:55as you plan forward, right?
06:56Absolutely.
06:57And that's been by design.
06:58I mean, this is something that, you know,
07:00it's taken a few years to get this exactly how we want it,
07:04to get the body types, to stack classes and recruiting,
07:10and to be able to develop guys and retain them
07:13as Coach talks about,
07:14and to make sure that we're continuing to grow,
07:17you know, with guys that are all in
07:19on what we're trying to do from an early age.
07:21And you're seeing that now.
07:22It's been a lot of hard work over the last four years,
07:25but we're starting to see that now.
07:27And it's been fun.
07:29Who would the sixth guy be, you mentioned?
07:31Well, Jairo Favres is coming off,
07:33who's missing this spring.
07:34I mean, he played meaningful snaps last year
07:35in sub packages,
07:36and he's not going to be able to go through this spring,
07:38but he's a guy that has played in games
07:41and, you know, in a more of a sub package role,
07:45but he has played.
07:47Hunter and Fives,
07:47what have you seen from them this spring?
07:49Yeah, you know, Ben,
07:50Ben, he is definitely one of those guys that I told you
07:53is quicker, is more explosive, he's faster.
07:57His weight room numbers have definitely increased,
08:00and he was already a weight room guy before he got here,
08:02but it's very positive.
08:04He's increased his flexibility.
08:06And the other thing with him is,
08:08and I can't say this enough with all these guys,
08:10they're all learning inside linebacker.
08:12Mike and Will are the two positions that I coach.
08:14They're all having to learn both of them.
08:16And Ben's a guy that's taken his coverage
08:19to another level this spring.
08:21He's been, you know, he's decreased missed tackles,
08:25which was a point of emphasis for him,
08:26and he's done a really nice job with that.
08:29So I couldn't be more pleased.
08:31And then Caden, not to be rhetorical
08:34or repetitive with it, but is faster, is quicker,
08:37is more explosive.
08:38You can see it.
08:39He diagnoses really well,
08:41has made some plays in coverage.
08:42He's had some picks, he's had some PBUs,
08:45while also fitting a little quicker than last year,
08:48seen it a little faster.
08:50And this is a guy that started in the bowl game
08:52and played pretty well in the bowl game,
08:54and he's continued to press.
08:56So we've kind of named them all
08:58between Lathan and Trotter and Bizer and Cutter,
09:01and then bringing Reed into the equation.
09:03And like I said, it's been fun.
09:05And the cool thing is they're all phenomenal human beings.
09:08They're phenomenal people.
09:09They coach each other.
09:10They push each other.
09:12They call each other out.
09:13They encourage each other.
09:15It's been as fun a spring as I've ever had
09:18coaching the position because of the guys in the room.
09:21Neil has mentioned you probably need one more class
09:24to get it perfect.
09:26What is it?
09:26Is it a body type?
09:28Is it a specific type of player?
09:29Is it depth?
09:30What do you need to get it exactly where you want it?
09:32I think it's a stacking of classes.
09:34I think we're hitting the nail on the head
09:37with what we're recruiting and what we're taking.
09:39We've got two talented guys coming in this year
09:41that we signed in Ricky Williams and Curtis Jones.
09:43They fit the size dimensions.
09:45They fit the character dimension.
09:47They fit the leadership dimension.
09:49They fit the physicality dimension.
09:51And in this defense, if you don't strike,
09:55if you don't pull the pin, as we say,
09:57and diagnose and run through people
09:59and play this game with an edge,
10:01you're not going to be recruited here.
10:03And so those characteristics is what now three years
10:07in a row, we've stacked those classes going back to,
10:10I guess it was Latham three years ago.
10:14That's what we're looking for.
10:15And I feel like I agree with coach in that
10:18we're probably one more and then it's,
10:20that's what the elite programs are doing.
10:21They're stacking these classes.
10:23They have competition and they find ways
10:26to get their best 11 guys on the field.
10:28And that's from any down to distance.
10:30Depth through the class is freshmen to senior, correct?
10:33Correct, yeah.
10:34I mean, you're going to look at it
10:35and we're going to look pretty young, but to be honest,
10:36we're now, we're going to have two juniors,
10:38two sophomores, two freshmen and two true freshmen.
10:40We're getting to where exactly by blueprint what you want.
10:45And now it's a matter of just continuing
10:48to push those guys and get them better and better.
10:50Do you have both advisors in your group?
10:53No, no, Jackson, his brother's with the D-line.
10:55Yeah, he's a bigger, he's playing defensive end for us.
10:57Have a good day.
10:58Their dad at Morgantown High is a huge weight room guy.
11:01Yeah.
11:02I just wanted, do you see that in them?
11:03Oh, they love football.
11:04They love training a hundred percent.
11:06Coach Beiser's, you can see what's been instilled
11:09in those boys by their parents.
11:11And, you know, like I said, they love football
11:14and they love to train and you can't do this
11:17unless you love it at the end of the day, so.
11:20You said Michael Hayes has been out this,
11:23or maybe just limited.
11:25Yeah.
11:26So what do you see from the other kickers?
11:27Yeah, no, RJ, RJ Cocan's been, he's done a great job.
11:31He's competed.
11:33His leg strength, his accuracy is on a phenomenal job.
11:36And Michael has been limited with some injuries.
11:38It's been fun to see him come up.
11:40We've got two other younger kickers
11:42and they've done a nice job.
11:43So we've, we have talent in the room.
11:46They're young.
11:47RJ has definitely taken this as an opportunity
11:50to step up and to gain some credit
11:52and some support from the team
11:55and Coach Brown in critical situations.
11:57And we've challenged them all spring long
11:58and he's done a nice job answering it.
12:01You mentioned having four, a bigger group.
12:04There's a carryover to the special teams, right?
12:06Cause your linebackers, your safeties,
12:07the ones that coverage units.
12:09So you were seeing a lot of help there too.
12:13100%.
12:14When you look at some of our issues last year
12:15on kickoff coverage, at the last half of the year,
12:19it became a little bit of rotating people
12:22and we were trying to find fixes
12:25and we were searching a little bit.
12:26Whereas if you didn't have some of those guys go down
12:28with injury, if you have the Trotter, you have the Lathan,
12:31you have some of these guys that we lost for the year.
12:34Now you have more options.
12:35And that's exactly where you saw the biggest hit
12:38was on kickoff specifically.
12:41Not so much as I'm punting on the return units.
12:44So that is going back, how important it is to find
12:47and to get talented mid-skill.
12:50We call them mid-skills.
12:52Those linebacker, tight end, running back body types
12:55that can compete and it carries over to special teams
12:58as much as anything else.
13:00Chris, can you give me some new ideas
13:02in terms of special teams?
13:03Yeah, Chris has been a great addition.
13:04Obviously his experience being a long time
13:07special teams coordinator.
13:09Chris has been highly involved this spring with us
13:13behind the scenes.
13:14And it's been great to have his ideas and to have his thoughts.
13:18He's a phenomenal man.
13:19And obviously it matters to him to be back at West Virginia.
13:22So that's been great.
13:24Jeff, you don't do a lot of kickoff in the spring, correct?
13:28Yeah, a lot of drill work.
13:29OK, I was going to say, maybe it's not
13:30something you've forgotten about.
13:31I guess, so just correct me there.
13:32What can you do in the spring, especially with Michael out too?
13:35Well, we've actually done some version of kickoff
13:37every day in the spring.
13:39So it's been highlighted as a point of emphasis.
13:42We've worked on it.
13:43We're not going to sit there and line up necessarily
13:46in 10 across and have guys run down the field
13:48and fit up returns.
13:50And we're guessing what we're going to see.
13:52All of our special teams come down to techniques.
13:55And I've talked about it a little bit before in the past.
13:57We call them Mountaineer techniques.
13:59And there's about eight to nine movements,
14:02whether those are how to defeat blocks,
14:04whether those are how to avoid blocks,
14:07whether those are how to make blocks.
14:09Because that's what special teams come down to.
14:11Cover units, you've got to avoid and defeat blocks
14:14and finish plays with tackles.
14:16Return units, you've got to get offensive and defensive guys
14:20skilled up enough to create contact and to make blocks
14:23so that the returners have a chance.
14:25So we have to categorize those into certain movements.
14:28And then we tag those movements into each specific unit.
14:32And our entire team knows those.
14:34So we can spend the entire spring just working only
14:38those Mountaineer techniques and get a ton of work done.
14:41So for instance, on kickoff, we'll
14:43mix in how we take the line, how we're timing up
14:46our approach with the kicker.
14:48But we don't have to do that 10 across.
14:50We can do that in groups of three
14:51and do it in a circuit while there's another group working
14:55on how we're going to full speed avoid a block halfway
14:58down the field on kickoff or down the field as a gunner
15:01on punt.
15:02And then another group is working
15:03on how we're going to tackle, whether that's a closed space
15:06tackle.
15:07And we can do that in a controlled setting on a bag
15:09or into a crash pad or where there's minimal injury risk.
15:12But we can do full speed technique work.
15:17And then we mix in our competitions,
15:20which we've talked about.
15:21And today was our sixth day of competition
15:24where now you can put a player on one another
15:28in a very controlled setting.
15:30But it is full speed and a very declared winner or loser.
15:35So we can now see who can do it again.
15:38So say we have a young player.
15:40Say we have one of these early enrollee freshmen
15:42and he's really showing up in these drill work.
15:44Well, now he goes out there and he's
15:46going against Aubrey Burks in a special teams competition
15:49drill.
15:50Well, how ready is that 18-year-old freshman
15:52who should still be in high school?
15:53But if he wins, ooh, OK, now you got something here.
15:57And we can do that.
15:58And you see that across the board.
15:59That is one example.
16:02But we can do those things in kickoff.
16:04And we've got two more competitions left
16:07starting next week.
16:08And it's really a controlled kickoff versus kickoff return.
16:11And it turns into a three-on-three setting
16:14where there's three guys taking that drop on kickoff return.
16:16And there's three guys running down
16:18on kickoff in a smaller setting, not the entire field.
16:22And we can see, can they avoid the block?
16:23Can they make the block?
16:25And you're judging.
16:27And then we're tallying all that up.
16:28We've actually broken the team into four teams.
16:30We have captains.
16:31And they're competing.
16:32And everybody gets into it.
16:34And the O-line and quarterbacks and interior D-linemen
16:36that aren't involved, they're over there.
16:38And they're giving us juice.
16:39And if you watched the beginning of the scrimmage on Friday,
16:43we're doing what we call a four-on-four drill.
16:46We've got as much juice and energy
16:48going as at any point in spring.
16:49And that's what special teams is.
16:51It's getting guys excited about competing,
16:53no matter what the down is.
16:54And you can do a lot of that.
16:57And so to answer your question, we've
16:59done kickoff every single day.
17:01There has not been a day that we haven't done a kickoff
17:04technique this spring.
17:06And not only is that to get better at the unit,
17:08because we know there were some deficiencies there last year,
17:10but it's also to bring in all these transfers and young guys
17:13so that they know what's going on.
17:14So when we go to summertime, they
17:16know exactly what technique, no matter where we put them.
17:18We say, oh, you're lining up here.
17:20Here's your technique.
17:21OK, yeah, that makes sense.
17:22I did that all spring.
17:24With all that, I'm going to ask you something
17:27that I know less about than normal.
17:29Absolutely.
17:31What goes into scheming, kick coverage, kick return?
17:36What are the leading scenes of that?
17:37That's something I've never heard anybody really
17:39talk about, how they try to set it up or be able to do it.
17:43That's a good question.
17:44No, it's a good question.
17:45Anytime, there's always two parts of scheme.
17:47Number one, we want to take away what they do best.
17:49So every time that, say, we're on kickoff
17:51and we're scheming or we're game planning against the kickoff
17:55return team, we're going to know,
17:57based off of tendencies and our breakdowns, what they do most.
18:01They might have a double team on this certain player.
18:03They might have a counter return that's
18:05been really explosive.
18:06They might have a man system where the returner just
18:09finds a gap and everybody mans out.
18:11And then within our scheme, the second part of that
18:13is how can we not defeat returns but play with rules,
18:19if that makes sense.
18:20Because if I take 10 guys and I'm just
18:22trying to stop every return every time we run on the field,
18:25they're going to run slow.
18:26They're going to be doing this.
18:27They're going to be looking down the field.
18:29They're going to be trying to find the ball, which
18:30we did at times last year.
18:32And they're not going to do their job, which
18:35is there's 11 guys, starting with the kicker.
18:37They're not going to do their job as fast as they
18:39can possibly do it.
18:40So we want to give them tips.
18:42We want to give them what to expect.
18:44But we're not going to necessarily change every guy's
18:47job every time that we run down the field on kickoff,
18:49if that answers your question.
18:51So as coaches, it's a fine line between over-teaching returns
18:56and what we're going to see and getting guys to run down fast
19:00and play as violent as they can, as physical as they can,
19:03and get down to make plays and reacting.
19:06Everything in special teams is about making game time
19:09decisions, split-second decisions,
19:11and reacting as fast as possible.
19:14And you've got to ride that line between over-preparing guys
19:17and allowing them to go play, knowing that, OK, I've
19:19got this one lane.
19:21I've got this one job.
19:22I've got this one twist.
19:23I've got this one fold fit.
19:26And everything else is going to take care of itself.
19:29Absolutely.
19:30And if you turn it into anything less than that,
19:33you're going to have a bunch of guys running down
19:34the field doing this, all right, and probably getting
19:37the heck knocked out of them.
19:38Yeah, getting the heck knocked out of them.
19:39And then there goes the ball.
19:41We've got to have guys that are hunting.
19:42And we've got to make sure.
19:43The only way you can get guys to hunt
19:45is to limit how much you're telling them
19:47and how much they've got to know.
19:49Did you have a set of core issues last year?
19:50I'm sorry?
19:51Were there core issues that concerned you
19:53from high to low moments, from beginning
19:55to end on the kickoff?
19:56On kickoff?
19:57Yeah, the number one issue that we identified
19:59was a personnel issue.
20:01And it's not that we didn't have good enough guys
20:02on the field.
20:03It was that we, as coaches, probably
20:05moved guys around too much, trying
20:08to kind of get guys in the perfect spot,
20:11if that makes sense.
20:12And then after that, we believe that there's
20:14techniques that we could teach better
20:17from a coaching perspective to allow them to play faster.
20:21And that's kind of those two things
20:23where we're not really getting into the personnel
20:25side of it this spring.
20:26So we're fixing the technique part of it this spring.
20:29And then we'll get the right pieces in the right spots
20:31as we get into summer and fall camp.
20:33Moving around, also related to some of just the attrition
20:35issues.
20:36Absolutely, 100%.
20:37And then, I don't want to say kicker,
20:40but Michael had a pretty good touchback percentage
20:43before last year and down last year.
20:44Was that, I don't know, maybe sometimes you
20:46want to kick it inside the box?
20:47Yeah, something that we've looked into.
20:49No, that percentage was much lower
20:51than we would have liked it to be.
20:53We've looked at some things in our preparation
20:56with him, with our kickers.
20:57As the week goes, there's some things
20:59that we can tweak that we will this year.
21:02That was probably where the evaluation of the kickoff team
21:05started, was with him.
21:06And I like what we've decided to do.
21:08And we're going to make some tweaks, nothing
21:10that anybody to the naked eye will notice.
21:12But we feel like we'll give them a better opportunity
21:15to stay strong as the year goes on.
21:16It's a long year.
21:17So you got to make sure you make good decisions.
21:19More of a Monday through Thursday thing than a Saturday.
21:21Yeah, more of a Monday through Thursday.
21:22Correct, correct.
21:23And that's in all aspects.
21:25And some of that is recovery to everything.
21:30I mean, it goes into everything in our entire building
21:32that we have access to.
21:33So we've done a lot of research.
21:34We've talked to a lot of people, both in the NFL and in college,
21:38and talked and listened.
21:41Getting back to the kickoff, that's
21:45something you have to simulate.
21:46You can't actually practice that.
21:48Is there any other skills in your game
21:50that's like that, where you can't really
21:53do the actual thing until you actually do it?
21:57That's a good question.
21:59I would say that anything in football,
22:02you've got to be able to full speed evaluate and teach.
22:06And I think the challenge for us as coaches, to me,
22:09it's no different.
22:09In kickoff, we're doing all this drill work.
22:12We're doing all this competition, small settings.
22:14It's no different than on defense.
22:16We're going to do a half line run fit period
22:18before we do a full run fit period,
22:20before we bowl in the entire team.
22:23Same thing in the pass game.
22:25We're going to do a seven on seven
22:26before we get the pass rush element into it,
22:28before we get to the team setting.
22:31To me, it's no different, if that makes sense.
22:33And that's the same for every unit.
22:34In punt, we're going to do a half line punt drill
22:36before we do a full punt drill.
22:37The gunners are going to go down and work releases,
22:39and they're going to.
22:40So.
22:41Up to actually doing it.
22:42Yeah.
22:43I think in every unit, for us, punt
22:45is the only thing that we're going to just line up
22:47in full formations, because that's
22:49what we do in the spring.
22:51The other three units are no different.
22:52Kickoff return is no different.
22:54Our punt return is, punt block, is no different,
22:57if that answers your question.
22:58So I think, at the end of the day,
23:00you've got to put it on film so the guys understand.
23:04We talk about 111th.
23:05They all have to know their job within the other 11 guys,
23:09or the other 10 guys.
23:10But how you phase that through an entire year
23:13is kind of where the magic is, is making it easy to learn
23:17and building on it.
23:18All the pieces that you put together and you prepare for,
23:20but you don't really know until those guys are lined up
23:23and you kick the ball off.
23:24How they're going to fill the gaps,
23:26how the returners are going to, you don't know.
23:29You don't know.
23:29And like I said, you've got to bank on guys' experiences.
23:32I mean, we've got a lot of guys coming back
23:34on this football team.
23:35We had a lot of positives last year on kickoff.
23:37I mean, at the end of the day, statistically, yeah,
23:39they're skewed.
23:40We gave up two in one game, and we gave up three on the year.
23:42They're going to get skewed.
23:43Take away four returns, again, nobody
23:46likes to sit up here and say that.
23:47And I'm not going to say we don't have issues
23:49and we didn't have issues on kickoff.
23:50But you take away four returns, and we're
23:52close to where we need to be.
23:53So there was a lot of positives, and we
23:54have a lot of guys that have done it.
23:56How can we grow that number of guys?
23:58And that's essentially what we're
23:59trying to do this spring, is grow the number of guys
24:01that we can put out there.
24:01And we know they know how to fit, they know how to avoid,
24:04they know how to defeat blocks, and they
24:05know how to get the ball down.
24:07And I think I love where we're going.
24:09The guys have taken ownership in it all the way
24:13across the board.
24:14So I'm excited.
24:15I can't wait to see the growth that we've
24:17had in it, in all units.
24:18You mentioned kickoff.
24:20RJ looks like he has a big leg, and he's obviously a big body.
24:23Can he help you there?
24:25Yes, he's growing.
24:26He's growing.
24:26And the thing about all of our kickers,
24:29even going into some of our younger guys,
24:31and Savino, and Flowers, and RJ, they all have big legs.
24:36They all have big legs.
24:37They're all very capable to get the ball down the field.
24:41It's hang time.
24:42It's location.
24:44There's a big accuracy point to kick off, too.
24:47It's not just go banging through the end zone
24:49as much as you can.
24:50Because if you don't, and you miss hit it,
24:52if we don't have close to that 4.0 hang time, which
24:55is what our goal is, if we're not
24:57close to those boundary numbers, depending
24:59on where we're kicking it, our coverage
25:02is all dictated off of where that ball goes.
25:04So there's a lot that goes into it.
25:06So we're going to have talent to get the ball down there.
25:09It's just going to be a matter of who consistently
25:11can put it where it needs to be with the correct hang time.
25:13And then, yeah, when it's time to kick touchbacks,
25:16let's kick touchbacks.
25:18I know what you were about to ask.
25:20Well, I think it's probably similar to that.
25:22I just wonder if the way they've changed
25:23the rules in the past couple of years
25:25makes it more inviting to actually give your coverage
25:27team a chance to return it.
25:28Like, there's certain ways you can't block anymore, right?
25:30But also, like, the risk is, if you try to pin it somewhere,
25:33I don't know, but also, if you try to throw it
25:35in the middle of the end zone and it doesn't work,
25:37then your coverage is out of whack, too.
25:39I guess, what's the standard goal for a kicker, then?
25:41Or does it change so much on the opponent that?
25:43Yeah.
25:43If we can get a 4-0 hang time in the end zone,
25:47very few people are going to bring that out.
25:49Because by the time they hit the goal line,
25:51we should have four to five people past the 30-yard line.
25:54And it's really hard to block that.
25:56So when you're watching film, when
25:58that guy's catching the ball and you have multiple players
26:01past the 30, approaching the 25, they should be keeping it in.
26:04If they bring it out, it should be a very positive play
26:07for us.
26:08If you're kicking it to the goal line where
26:09they have to bring it out, or I have to make the decision
26:12whether they're going to fair catch it or not,
26:14we want to have that 4.0 to 4.1 hang time.
26:16And at times, we had that.
26:17At times last year, we did have that.
26:20The returner, obviously, Preston did most of it last year.
26:24But obviously, you're working with others.
26:26So what's it look like?
26:27Who else are you working with?
26:28We've got a really big pool of both returners and off
26:31returners that we're working.
26:32Rodney has been back there.
26:34Gallagher has been catching.
26:35Tyler Evans has been catching, as far as the punts go.
26:39Kickoff, it's a little bit of we
26:43are looking at some guys that maybe weren't back there last
26:45year.
26:46Hudson Clement breaks tackles.
26:47He's done a nice job of the ball in his hands on offense.
26:49He's learning how to do that.
26:50Preston's been back there as well.
26:53That's something CJ and Jalen Anderson
26:54have done from an off returner perspective.
26:57And now, if they don't catch it, they're big body guys
26:59to lead up through the hole.
27:01Traylon Ray has been back there some.
27:04There's been about a pool of probably 8 to 10 guys,
27:07some that may not do it in the fall.
27:09Those are some of the main guys.
27:11But this is our time to make sure we can build that pool
27:14so that we don't have any issues as the season goes on.
27:16Jaheim White returned last year.
27:18So all those, if you're a skilled player
27:20and you carry the football, there's
27:22a good chance this spring you're going
27:23to have an opportunity to catch.
27:24And that's the thing we can do in some of these competitions.
27:27We do that four-on-four competition,
27:28which is a punt versus pride.
27:30We're shooting the ball back to those returners.
27:32So they got to catch it.
27:33And as these guys are flying on the field,
27:34they've got to make full speed decisions.
27:36It's a great evaluation tool for us on who can see the cuts,
27:40who can anticipate the cuts.
27:41And it'll be no difference next week when
27:43we get into our three-on-three with kickoffers,
27:45kickoff return.
27:45We're going to have a returner back there
27:46with a ball being shot to him.
27:48And they've got to set the return up.
27:49They've got to hit it.
27:50So there's a lot of things that we're getting accomplished
27:53right now, even though we don't necessarily
27:55have to do 11-on-11.
27:58OK, anything else for Coach?
28:01All right, thank you very much.
28:02Thank you all very much.