Georgia Bulldogs, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Special-Teams: Is A Special-Teams Coach Necessary?
Oct 12, 2013; Provo, UT, USA; Brigham Young Cougars defensive line attempts to block a field goal attempt by Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets kicker Harrison Butker (87) during the second half of a football game at Lavell Edwards Stadium. Brigham Young Cougars won 38-20. Mandatory Credit: Jim Urquhart-USA TODAY Sports
While I was looking around at college football stories on the web, I came across this interesting article by Ken Sugiura, the AJC’s Georgia Tech beat writer.
In it, he talks about how Georgia Tech’s special-teams have been much improved from a few seasons ago, compared to Georgia’s unit, which has been a complete disaster.
Here’s a bit of what Sugiura said:
"I do think the units are being coached better. It’s easy to overlook, but the fact that Tech hasn’t had the catastrophes that Georgia has had (not yet, anyway) says something about the work that Walkosky is doing. And while “has avoided catastrophes” isn’t exactly what you want to put on the first line of your resume, it’s the first priority before anything else (though Tech had also largely avoided those breakdowns with Kelly).And I don’t know how much coaching a long snapper or kicker needs and how much difference it makes having a coach who is working with them all practice rather than in just parts of practice (which was the previous way of doing things), but I know it can’t hurt. Further, Milton’s three punt blocks are one more than Tech had had in the previous five seasons combined."
It does seem a bit strange that there is a coach with the team’s kicker the entire practice, but like Sugiura mentioned, it can’t hurt anything. With the money that football–especially SEC football–brings in, I’m pretty shocked that this isn’t already a thing for UGA. Do you guys think that having a full-time special-teams coach actually makes a difference? Is it worth the cost?
I’m skeptical. I’d love to know what you guys think about it, though, especially with the current level of scrutiny in Athens.
*Update*
[View the story “Special-Teams Coaching Thoughts” on Storify]