Coach and Coordinator - Best of Special Teams Coordinators

On today’s podcast, we revisit our conversations with special teams coaches. We cover everything from philosophy, personnel placement, technique and schemes of the different units with some of the best in the game at all levels of football.

Scott Fountain is the special teams coordinator at Georgia. He shares his thoughts on which type of players coach looks for to play special teams and how he decides how many units each player is competing on.

Erik Link is the special teams coordinator at Appalachian State. They were one of the best in the FBS on special teams in 2019. He discusses the culture of Coach’s special teams units and how he uses the “E3” to define them.

Shane Fogarty is special teams and running backs coach at Fordham university. Coach talks about his punt return philosophy and what kind of players he looks for when building out his special teams units and his HIT acronym for Heart, Intelligence, Technique and why having heart is the most important part of it.

Dean Paul is the head coach at Ohio Northern University. He explains how he organizes special teams practices throughout the week.

Robby Discher is the special teams coordinator at the University of Toledo. He shares why punt teams are putting more guys out wide, how it effects the return game and why it plays directly into his strategy of bringing a rush and trying to block a punt.

Taylor Mehlhaff is a former kicker nd the specialist coach for thee Wisconsin Badgers. He discusses drills for helping place kickers and what coach thinks are the most important aspects of kicking.

Sam Watts is a kicking expert and joined us to explain the importance of the holder and the art of the snap and hold and why it is so important to setting the tone of each attempted field goal for each side of the ball.

Patrick Mannelly is one of the best long snappers to play the game. The former Chicago Bears long snapper share what he looks for in a long snapper as well as his thoughts on a practice plan for the position.

Ryan Partridge is the athletic director and head coach at Liberty High School (Brentwood, Calif.), who led Liberty to win the California 1A state championship in 2018. In this segment he shares how the punt block and punt return techniques of “clasp, stick, scrape, j-angle, hit by and engage” and have become a big part of their culture because of the emphasis on special teams technique.

Bobby April is one of the best ever to coach special teams. The former NFL special team coordinator shared his organization of game day operations in terms of special teams, where coach likes to be positioned, where he wants his assistants, and which responsibilities every coach has. Additionally, why coach doesn’t use the dots for organizing his players in game.

Gary Roberts is the winningest coach in Cottage Grove High School (OR) history. He led the Lions to the 4A state Championship in 2018. Roberts explains how to teach the rugby punt and the explanation of responsibilities for the unit.

Host Keith Grabowski discusses the benefits of being able to set up a good kick off return and the chances it gives you at scoring points. Additionally, the 5 main points Coach uses for the kick off return game.