Special Teams - Substantive discussion

Game threads are for hot takes. But every once in awhile a topic in there is clearly a correct take and should be hashed out further. Let’s discuss special teams and what that should look like in 2020.

Wake needs a complete overhaul on special teams philosophy and a new coach most likely. Every one thinks they are a better offensive coordinator than any coach, and everyone thinks “we should blitz more” after every opponent’s first down. However, I am actually wondering if anyone knows anything about the nuance of special teams? My thoughts below:

- Kicker can’t kick it out of end zone? Fine, adjust and have the most accurate kicker in NCAA history chip it to the 30 (like he did). Why did that take 10 games and 3 quarters to figure out? We knew this was a concern in the preseason.

- Don’t want to rush the punter because you trust the O and Clawson has stated his concern about a roughing penalty? Sure, then set up a scheme to block for the returner. In the worst alternative, but still better than what we currently do, just fair catch it every time. If Hinton doesn’t sit down there, 7 dirty Duke players had open season on him.

- Would Dom Maggio average 60 yards a punt if he faced Wake? Above point about not rushing the punter I understand, but teams know we do not ever go for the punt block so in wet rainy conditions the punter can still take his time and never has to shorten his steps. Further, with no real punt return strategy, the punter is also free to out kick his coverage with zero negative consequences. See that second punt last night. Dom would be an All-American if he knew a team would not rush him and he did not have to hang it high to help his coverage team.

Need a change on special teams, now.

Interesting(?) that prior to Wake, Lineburg had very limited (one year at UConn) experience in ST

krukow said:

- Don’t want to rush the punter because you trust the O and Clawson has stated his concern about a roughing penalty? Sure, then set up a scheme to block for the returner. In the worst alternative, but still better than what we currently do, just fair catch it every time. If Hinton doesn’t sit down there, 7 dirty Duke players had open season on him.

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Not really sure what our strategy is on punt returns are either

Our kickoff and punt coverage are among the worst in the country. That's on the coaching.

Watching the replays we have some folks on ST that dont like to tackle.

I’m 99% sure that the kicker on both TD returns was Murphy, not Sciba

I don’t know how many kicks he has had this season or what the reasoning is for him to kick. The second one in particular was not a bad kick; directional, good hang time, to the 2 yard line. We just had guys on the coverage unit that weren’t physical enough.

Also Murphy’s positioning on the return was poor

I have to believe Maggio has the leg to kick the ball into the end zone

Why are we so hesitant to sky kick? I bet if you look at the average field position we give up on these plays, it isn't much worse than the 25 yard line.

Why didn't we kick away from the guy who returned one for a TD?

WFU1977 said:

Watching the replays we have some folks on ST that dont like to tackle.

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Great observation. Interested who our best 10 (plus kicker) are on kickoff coverage. Then consider what starters go (I hate Greer has potential to get hurt or unintended targeting on returns - too valuable).

I know Aaron Curry and Cade Carney played cover but I think it is such a risk when a place like Wake will always lack depth. Where is Burley, why can’t he be on cover?

My 11 current (Delaney and Masterson Out):
- Sciba (chipping it to the 30)
- Dicks
- Burley
- Chapman
- Davis
- Hardimon
- Ja’Sir
- Chase Jones
- Keith
- Ranson (now)
- Redd

Others available:
- McKinney
- AJ Williams
- Rucker if Davis is playing more S than him

Not sure why AT Perry and other WR are out there.

ChrisL68 said:

Why are we so hesitant to sky kick? I bet if you look at the average field position we give up on these plays, it isn't much worse than the 25 yard line.

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Yep. The current system supports popping it up to the 20 and forcing a fair catch rather than angling it to the 10.

krukow said:

Great observation. Interested who our best 10 (plus kicker) are on kickoff coverage. Then consider what starters go (I hate Greer has potential to get hurt or unintended targeting on returns - too valuable).

I know Aaron Curry and Cade Carney played cover but I think it is such a risk when a place like Wake will always lack depth. Where is Burley, why can’t he be on cover?

My 11 current (Delaney and Masterson Out):
- Sciba (chipping it to the 30)
- Dicks
- Burley
- Chapman
- Davis
- Hardimon
- Ja’Sir
- Chase Jones
- Keith
- Ranson (now)
- Redd

Others available:
- McKinney
- AJ Williams
- Rucker if Davis is playing more S than him

Not sure why AT Perry and other WR are out there.

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Yep, it was 2 WR that caught my eye as they played matador

One crazy thing I see is our coverage team engages the other team's blockers, rather than full sprinting to the guy with the ball and getting around blocking. It should be hard to block on kickoffs and we make it easy.

wr’s should never be in kickoff coverage , those guys are the biggest prima donnas in football , generally speaking. Give me backup running backs, linebackers, and db’s who are used to sticking their nose in the fire. Also a walk on who wants to prove his worth by going a hundred miles an hour into a brick wall. No wr’s.

If we know Clawson, Lineburg is toast. :slash:

Just kick it OB for the short term if we can't kick it through the endzone or properly execute a sky kick. :tard:

morrison2951 said:

If we know Clawson, Lineburg is toast. :slash:

Just kick it OB for the short term if we can't kick it through the endzone or properly execute a sky kick. :tard:

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We can properly execute a sky kick is the issue every time we do it it's been effective and then they kick long again even in games we've given up touchdowns and we do it it has hurt us with another long return

SC DEAC said:

wr’s should never be in kickoff coverage , those guys are the biggest prima donnas in football , generally speaking. Give me backup running backs, linebackers, and db’s who are used to sticking their nose in the fire. Also a walk on who wants to prove his worth by going a hundred miles an hour into a brick wall. No wr’s.

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Think Keegan Good was filling this exact role yesterday and I may be selling him short in my “Top 11” analysis.

thatguy2016 said:

I have to believe Maggio has the leg to kick the ball into the end zone

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Maggio was set to be their kickoff guy before last season. And then doing it in spring practice wore him out and he was hurt -- hence they went out and got Darren Ford, the grad transfer (and took Eric Osteen, who kind of fell into their lap).

Hope Mora can take on the kickoff duty next season. He looked to have a big leg.

Conor, can you shed some light on what Special Teams practice looked like during fall camp? What I mean is, on coverage units and punt return, is Lineburg a part of all of it? Clawson? Any other coaches?

I know certain programs have coaches designated as “Special Teams Coach”, but in reality that coach is just another defensive coach (DB/LB). Then the ST is run by the head coach or D coordinator.

Any insight into the division of labor on the coaching side would be appreciated.

krukow said:

Conor, can you shed some light on what Special Teams practice looked like during fall camp? What I mean is, on coverage units and punt return, is Lineburg a part of all of it? Clawson? Any other coaches?

I know certain programs have coaches designated as “Special Teams Coach”, but in reality that coach is just another defensive coach (DB/LB). Then the ST is run by the head coach or D coordinator.

Any insight into the division of labor on the coaching side would be appreciated.

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Yeah so here's the thing that I think is the biggest difference between firing Sawvel and Lineberg: Last Clawson fired Sawvel after 4 games because he thought the season could be saved (to an extent) by making that change. Not sure what a knee-jerk reaction with two games left would solve. Guessing the last two games will be a patchwork of sky kicks and such.

And then this: Lineberg oversees special teams, but he's not the hands-on coach for every unit. Every unit has a specific assistant coach that runs it, and Lineberg oversees that. When I joked with Boogie about being on kick cover, he said "if Coach Tooch needs me to do that, I'll do it" -- so I took that to mean Santucci coaches kick cover. Last year when Dortch returned the punts for TDs against Towson, he said one of the plays came from Crawford. I think Clawson is actually the "hands-on" coach for PAT/field goal, based on how intently he coaches during those segments.