Special Teams is a great way to get players playing time

Patrick Montgomery

As a coaching staff you have to place just as much importance on the kicking game and special teams as you do on the offense and defense. If the “buy in” to the kicking and special teams’ game by the coaching staff is not seen by the players then they, in return, will not see its importance. Each coach must take ownership of a particular special teams and take pride and place emphasis on its importance. We want the staff to bring excitement and energy into the special teams they coach and we want the players to understand the importance of that special team and how it can impact the game in a positive or negative way. We divide our staff into “head coaches” of a particular special teams’ unit. Within that unit there are 2 or 3 secondary coaches or position coaches who help with drills and fundamentals. We try to have the defensive staff focused on the defensive special teams and the offensive staff focused on offensive special teams. If a coach does not have a special team responsibility when we are practicing that unit then they are working with their position group in another individual session. We will then assign a special teams’ coach who will be responsible for completing the depth chart for each unit for the game on Friday, as well as, having the teams ready to go on the sideline on 3rd down or after a score. This coach is the organizer during the game and makes the count of players on the field and those coming onto the field from the sideline to make sure we always have 11.



To show the players how important special teams are and how we value special teams we place offensive/defensive starters on special teams, as well as, players who are trying to earn playing time to show the coaching staff they deserve to be on the field. We also use some of our special teams as rewards for players who have been giving great effort in practice or on the scout team. Players who played really well the week before will get an opportunity to play on a special teams’ unit. We place the emphasis at the beginning of the season by having starters on the special teams to show players how important it is to the game and to show them it is no different than an offensive or defensive play in a game. As we move forward in the season we will start replacing guys who are being rewarded for hard work.



We break up each special team to a different coach on staff and make them responsible for the scheme and development of that special team. They will also have two assistants helping them with the special team unit. For example, the defensive coordinator is in charge of the punt team because it sets up his defensive unit and has defensive players that make up the unit. The DB coach and outside linebacker coach help him with this unit coaching the gunners and the upbacks. The defensive back coach is the head coach for punt return with the Inside backer coach and Outside linebacker coach helping them. The Defensive line coach is the Kickoff team coach with the outside linebacker coach and inside linebacker coach. Kickoff return is the WR coach and the running back and tight end coaches. Extra point and field goal are ran by the offensive coordinator and the offensive line and QB coach. The head coaches for each unit come up with special names for each unit and makes t-shirts and gives out awards for top performers to get players interested and excited to be a part of the unit and to take pride in the outcome and success of the unit.



We want to make sure that we devote ample amount of time each week to our kicking game so in our practice schedule we will have 3 special teams periods each day for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Each will have two 8-minute periods back to back that will cover individual or skill drills in the first 8-minute period and then in the second the whole unit will work on executing against a scout team with the backups. We will have two special teams to start practice back to back and then we will also have a special team that is done between the shift from offensive to defensive practice. On Thursdays, we go through all of our special teams during our modified game script and make sure all units are working correctly and players know who is on each unit and we cover every scenario they will face. On Friday, when we come back in from warm ups, we do a specials teams check where players have to stand and be accounted for to make sure all units are ready to go and each special team coach gives a quick talk to help motivate and get the units fired up to play. After watching film as a staff on Saturday we will give our special teams players of the week for the past week (there are 3 total winners) who get a t-shirt which the players get really excited for and want to have.