Speaker 1: Good, good, go ahead. Any questions you guys have, So.
Speaker 2: What do you know now about the kickoff role that
Speaker 2: you didn't know the last time we talked to you.
Speaker 1: Well, you can't put the tee or the ball and
Speaker 1: the t flat like that. That's what I do know.
Speaker 1: And there's probably gonna be more changes, that's the other
Speaker 1: thing I know. So we'll deal with it as they come.
Speaker 2: Did you guys do that earlier in camp before you're.
Speaker 1: Told not to. No, we messed around with some different things,
Speaker 1: but that's one of the things you looked at or
Speaker 1: heard about. But yeah, that's off the table now, so
Speaker 1: we'll just go with how it ever plays out of.
Speaker 3: What you look for in the kicker change in terms
Speaker 3: of you know, obviously hangtiming distance maybe less important than
Speaker 3: how you can control those line drive kicks and things
Speaker 3: like that. What's the difference.
Speaker 1: From Yeah, you just said that's probably the easiest way
Speaker 1: to explain it. Hangtime does not matter at all anymore.
Speaker 1: So placement where you're going with it, or I think
Speaker 1: what a lot of things are going to happen, and
Speaker 1: we call them dirty balls, where once it hits the ground,
Speaker 1: that's when everyone can move. So whether it's that extreme
Speaker 1: or just more of a line drive. That's what I
Speaker 1: think is gonna happen. So more target practice basically instead
Speaker 1: of hangtime is out, doesn't matter? Good? Yeah, no good.
Speaker 1: That's something he's been working on all summer and he's
Speaker 1: been preparing for it, and that it just changes, you know,
Speaker 1: their whole lives. Kickers have been told hangtime number one
Speaker 1: and placement, you know, and now hangtime's out, so it's
Speaker 1: really displacement.
Speaker 2: You done any research on defensive guys who have played soccer?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, we ask everybody and you have
Speaker 1: to have a guy to do that. And I think
Speaker 1: with the position player, if you had one, there's just
Speaker 1: a lot that goes into it. You know, through the game,
Speaker 1: if he's playing, if he gets sore, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's such a if you get outside the target line,
Speaker 1: if you get outside the twenty, you know, that's pretty
Speaker 1: big penalty starting on the forty. So that's going to
Speaker 1: happen too. If with guys that don't kick every day,
Speaker 1: you know, So we don't have a guy, but what
Speaker 1: we'll see who does it.
Speaker 2: We saw Demo lobbying for doing getting some kickoffs, so
Speaker 2: I'm sure that decision will be made by Kyle. But
Speaker 2: is there something to that where a guy powerful like
Speaker 2: that can hit the middle and only.
Speaker 1: The kicker is going to be there. Uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of things that nobody knows what
Speaker 1: it's going to look like. The one thing I do
Speaker 1: know though, is you have to have returners that can
Speaker 1: get to the ball. It that just with what I
Speaker 1: said about the kickers. When you take hangtime out of it,
Speaker 1: it's it's gonna start in the simplest form to me
Speaker 1: as a kicker and returner game because they're the only
Speaker 1: ones that can move until the ball either touches somebody
Speaker 1: or hits the ground. So right there, simplify that to
Speaker 1: me is like, Okay, that's where it starts. So that's
Speaker 1: where the game starts.
Speaker 2: To me, it looks like Moody broke the team down
Speaker 2: at the inner practice today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kyle, Kyle brought him up there.
Speaker 2: Yet I'll say about that and how it has Moody performed.
Speaker 1: Moody's done a really nice job. He's It's always fun
Speaker 1: seeing guys in their second year come in the building
Speaker 1: when camp starts. You know, I saw it in Jake,
Speaker 1: you see it in the winners. You see it in Graham.
Speaker 1: You see in those guys it's just a whole different
Speaker 1: feel where their body feels like, how comfortable they are.
Speaker 1: They know exactly what it looks like. So they're all
Speaker 1: really excited. And Jake was no different on that. He was.
Speaker 1: It's just a different mentality coming in year two.
Speaker 3: Second, you're a Luder obviously had a you know, mishappen
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: How is he? You've seen him respond from that, and
Speaker 1: Loud's great. I Luder is a great worker. He gets
Speaker 1: better every day. You know, he was on pup for
Speaker 1: a while last year, I think, so it took him
Speaker 1: longer to develop. But no, he's excellent. He works great.
Speaker 1: Love him.
Speaker 3: When you're looking at the punt returners and you have
Speaker 3: Trent Taylor back there who's very experienced. Is I guess
Speaker 3: is he more of a natural fielder of the punt
Speaker 3: than maybe Ricky Pierce?
Speaker 4: All he seems like he's learning how to do it.
Speaker 1: I would say Trent is just so good because so
Speaker 1: many reps he's had. You know, the punt return is
Speaker 1: a thing of reps. So the more reps you see
Speaker 1: at the ball flight, the different nos where the ball
Speaker 1: is going and just fielding the ball. So Trent is
Speaker 1: excellent back there. He's done it for so long, so confident,
Speaker 1: so cool, and and so it's really cool to get
Speaker 1: all those guys as many reps we can and helping
Speaker 1: every it's about just getting the reps so that that's
Speaker 1: where he looks really natural at it.
Speaker 3: He tried multiple combinations for kick returner. Are you still
Speaker 3: kind of working through what you're looking for or is
Speaker 3: the idea that, hey, we may have multiple combinations that
Speaker 3: we use it at various points this year.
Speaker 1: We're trying everyone there. Basically every running back is back
Speaker 1: there with the receivers that we're trying everybody. And I think,
Speaker 1: what what I'm anticipating it looks like, and I'd rather
Speaker 1: anticipate this way is all the different kind of balls
Speaker 1: you're going to get. And I think when you can
Speaker 1: move returners around again the cat and mouse game, but
Speaker 1: also there's a lot like you put Debo and Juice
Speaker 1: back there. They have a real instinctual piece about them,
Speaker 1: like when you like, My job as a coach is
Speaker 1: to give them any tells. We have to let them
Speaker 1: know where we think the ball is going by alignment,
Speaker 1: by the kicker by the whatever it is, give them
Speaker 1: that information so they can anticipate where the ball is going.
Speaker 1: But now there's some just an internal instincts that really
Speaker 1: good football players have that I don't know if they
Speaker 1: can tell you why they felt something, but moving with
Speaker 1: the kicker as it comes. So it's all about fielding
Speaker 1: a ball clean. So if I'm on kickoff return, when
Speaker 1: we're doing kickoff return, if we can field the ball clean,
Speaker 1: we have all the advantage. There is no advantage for
Speaker 1: the kickoff team. It's zero if on our kickoff team
Speaker 1: as we're covering, if we can get the returner not
Speaker 1: catch it clean, that's the only advantage I see for
Speaker 1: a kickoff team. Or the hit the ground going to
Speaker 1: the end zone. And now the ball's at the twenty,
Speaker 1: So another dirty ball is the way we look at it.
Speaker 1: So that's where I see And if it's not that,
Speaker 1: it's not that, but I want to start there.
Speaker 3: Juice in particular, just because of they have so much experience,
Speaker 3: you know, in the run game, like in the actual offense.
Speaker 3: Is that almost how you have to view it as like, hey,
Speaker 3: there's an element here too. If these guys are familiar
Speaker 3: in that way in terms of like deuo running behind
Speaker 3: juice or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just if it turns into trying to steal
Speaker 1: possessions from our team, or it turns into trying to
Speaker 1: win field position by kicking dirty balls and trying that's
Speaker 1: what teams because in special teams, teams try to tax
Speaker 1: that way. We've had multiple teams try to fake punts
Speaker 1: against us, you know, to steal another possession. So going
Speaker 1: into that, I almost kind of look at it. You
Speaker 1: have to have your best players back there if that's
Speaker 1: what they're doing, and think of hands team. You know,
Speaker 1: when we do a hands team at the end of
Speaker 1: a game, we have all our best players there. And
Speaker 1: the reason they're there is they are our best players.
Speaker 1: They have the instinct, the ability, whatever it is, the
Speaker 1: no hesitation, something told them to do something and they
Speaker 1: move on it. So that's kind of how we look
Speaker 1: at it. And we're trying a bunch of different guys there,
Speaker 1: see who has the skill set there.
Speaker 3: You talk to Chris Firster at all just in terms
Speaker 3: of like blocking schemes big picture on those returns.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, the kickoff return looks more like an offense
Speaker 1: or defensive player than a kickoff or a kickoff return,
Speaker 1: So all those principles, I think it's way more comparable
Speaker 1: on an offense and defense how it's lined up. The
Speaker 1: difference is how we get there on a kickoff return
Speaker 1: is different than how offensive defense get there. But once
Speaker 1: you get engaged, all football rules are the same. So
Speaker 1: that's that's the thing we're trying to figure out, is
Speaker 1: what is where our eyes going, where's our helmet going,
Speaker 1: what is our steps? How are we getting there? How
Speaker 1: do we get to that spot? And then it's really
Speaker 1: just a football play. It's an offense defensive play where leverage, head,
Speaker 1: hand placement, footwork, eyes, physicality, all of it. So that's
Speaker 1: what we're trying to figure out, and we don't know
Speaker 1: what it looks like yet.
Speaker 2: Are these three three preseason games? Are you going to
Speaker 2: get more out of this than you've gotten out of
Speaker 2: preseason in years?
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I mean I can't wait for Thursday night to
Speaker 1: see what it looks like. So every preseason game. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's going to end until the end of
Speaker 1: the season. I mean, think of like I just compared
Speaker 1: it to an offensive defensive play. Right, the fundamentals of
Speaker 1: football haven't changed all that much. We know all those answers,
Speaker 1: but take Kyle's offense right the outside zone that he
Speaker 1: was running here in seventeen. There's probably a lot more
Speaker 1: wrinkles to it now. In fact, there is a lot
Speaker 1: more wrinkles to it now because they have so much
Speaker 1: history on it. They start scheming on it. You see
Speaker 1: what the defense is doing, and it evolves. No one
Speaker 1: has any information on this play zero, So as the
Speaker 1: plays happen, as schemes happen, as you see things and
Speaker 1: put what they're doing, what they're doing, what works with us,
Speaker 1: what we've already done, it's going to be constantly evolving
Speaker 1: until we get enough information on it and then you
Speaker 1: can start moving. So it's going to be an adjustment
Speaker 1: all year. Talk to other.
Speaker 3: Special teams, coaches around the league, or are guys in
Speaker 3: your position around the league being real inquisitive with one
Speaker 3: another about this.
Speaker 1: To try to conquer this whole thing. Well, that question
Speaker 1: was asked in spring, and we had a couple big
Speaker 1: all special teams. I think we had three zoom meetings,
Speaker 1: so it was really clear to everybody. I talked to
Speaker 1: a couple guys I know, and they were being quiet.
Speaker 1: I haven't talked to anybody. So that's the tape is
Speaker 1: going to be the work.
Speaker 2: You know, well, you haven't seen this play live very much, right,
Speaker 2: I mean you practice this play, but as far as
Speaker 2: live reps of it, how many reps have we've.
Speaker 1: Seen whatever you call and practice live. Whatever we can
Speaker 1: do which is going to be different when it actually
Speaker 1: is tackling, and when that's the difference the speed, Like,
Speaker 1: we know how fast guys run down the field in
Speaker 1: the old all the kickoffs I've ever coached and our
Speaker 1: players have ever run, we know exactly how fast the
Speaker 1: guys are. We know exactly what moves they do. We
Speaker 1: know when they go back door or away from the
Speaker 1: return if they have enough speed to get there. So
Speaker 1: you take all that speed out, and now we don't
Speaker 1: know what it looks like when the returner is going left.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can go back door. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can go and have enough speed
Speaker 1: to get there. So all those things and now those
Speaker 1: decisions have to be made within this five yards. So
Speaker 1: think of it last year. If if I'm on the
Speaker 1: kickoff team and all of us are running the balls kicked,
Speaker 1: we're moving, we have four seconds to take in all
Speaker 1: all the information that the other team has given us,
Speaker 1: how the returner, where he's moving, what is the blocking scheme,
Speaker 1: how deep are they're going. So guys have always processed
Speaker 1: a kickoff that way, running full speed and all these
Speaker 1: indicators getting them to the football. Now and just train
Speaker 1: and think of this. I mean every play these guys
Speaker 1: have ever done. When the ball is snapped, everybody moves.
Speaker 1: Right when the ball is kicked, everybody moves. And then
Speaker 1: that's how they've trained their whole life on moving and
Speaker 1: making decisions. Now the ball is kicked, they don't move,
Speaker 1: and now they have to process all that thing without moving.
Speaker 1: And it to me, I mean it might sound like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's easy. I don't know if it is easy. Some
Speaker 1: guys can't process all that. They have to process a
Speaker 1: totally different way. So that's where we started. Let's start
Speaker 1: there because we don't know what everything else looks like.
Speaker 1: But what is different about this play? How can we
Speaker 1: train our eyes and our footwork and our decision making
Speaker 1: with the information we have now, and then when it happens,
Speaker 1: it happens really fast. So if you're false stepping, if
Speaker 1: you don't have a plan, it's going to be too quick. Marna.
Speaker 4: Can the athleticism of a long snapper of Tabor be
Speaker 4: something that can tip the.
Speaker 1: Scales at this point now in terms of.
Speaker 4: The return, like they can be more involved. Like it's
Speaker 4: not something that it doesn't appear that maybe the athletics
Speaker 4: of a long snapper was as valued as maybe it
Speaker 4: is now when you're in this situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for punts, that's that's always going to be it.
Speaker 1: But for kickoffs, Pep would not be involved in that.
Speaker 1: They'll just do punt stuff. And we always work on
Speaker 1: him trying to be a factor in coverage because those
Speaker 1: are always the best long snappers is the ones that
Speaker 1: cannot be a factor. Thank you guys,