Who coaches special teams?

[gfhockey]

Is it the guy who moves his headphones around more than coaches?

[F'n Hawks]

Kostich... 

This team needs solid special teams play to win games.

[GoHawks]

I believe he coaches special teams and tight ends. That question was brought up during the game a couple times. Was sitting with a few guys that played with him and said they liked him and was a good coach. Didnt look like on saturday though.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

Isn't there supposed to be something special about special teams:

Kicker, Holder, Long Snapper, Punter,

Offensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman,

Kickoff Specialist, Kick Returner, Punt Returner,

Upback, Gunner, and Jammer?

[Sioux94]

2 hours ago, GoHawks said:

I believe he coaches special teams and tight ends. That question was brought up during the game a couple times. Was sitting with a few guys that played with him and said they liked him and was a good coach. Didnt look like on saturday though.

I have nothing against him personally and he may be perceived to be a good coach and well liked.  But at some point you are what your record says you are.  Our kick return coverage was poor this year, and punt team very very poor all year and cost us two games.   So it's not like it was just on Saturday and a one time thing, consistently poor punt team all year long. Sounds like punt safe was on, so you can't say that was a bad decision.....but I would say it's a reflection then of poor coaching the players as to what punt safe is.  There were two UND guys right by the punter as he punted, and one of them ran into him...if we were truly on punt safe why did we have two guys seemingly going nearly all out to block it (from what I recall)  The player certainly has to take some accountability though for not using his head. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

can someone name the last time we had all these in the same game?

1. muffed punt (recovered by siebel tho)

2. roughing the punter

3. blocked punt

4. give up a punt return for a td (called back on a penalty) but ran a "s" curve through the whole punt coverage untouched for a relatively easy td.

 

 

[UNDBIZ]

2 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

can someone name the last time we had all these in the same game?

1. muffed punt (recovered by siebel tho)

2. roughing the punter

3. blocked punt

4. give up a punt return for a td (called back on a penalty) but ran a "s" curve through the whole punt coverage untouched for a relatively easy td.

5.  Missed field goal.

[Sioux94]

If I was coaching the punt team I'd likely run punt safe 75% of the time and maybe put two guys back to field the punt.  There are many times, particularly early in the year where the one guy back didn't field the punt and it would roll for 10-20 yards.  If two guys are back and punt safe is on you are likely to be able to field the punt, and maybe......just maybe....you know pick up a positive 5-10 yards on an actual return.  If we receive 6 punts a game and we get a net 10-15 yards better field position out of it from fielding it and getting a small return you are looking at 60 plus yards a game.  Take that over 11 games, that is 700 plus yards you are giving up.  We are a field position team, play punt safe a majority of the time, get a decent return and go from there.  On occasion send the house for a block.  Probably more successful then too because they would be lulled into our punt safe with no rush and then all of the sudden we come with the house.  That has honestly bugged me all year, especially at the beginning of the year where we could hardly field a punt....but we had 3 guys rushing by the punter basically doing nothing.  I think we did get one bock or partial block this year.  I'll take the 700 plus yards of offense over 1 blocked punt a year.  

[gundy1124]

14 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

I have nothing against him personally and he may be perceived to be a good coach and well liked.  But at some point you are what your record says you are.  Our kick return coverage was poor this year, and punt team very very poor all year and cost us two games.   So it's not like it was just on Saturday and a one time thing, consistently poor punt team all year long. Sounds like punt safe was on, so you can't say that was a bad decision.....but I would say it's a reflection then of poor coaching the players as to what punt safe is.  There were two UND guys right by the punter as he punted, and one of them ran into him...if we were truly on punt safe why did we have two guys seemingly going nearly all out to block it (from what I recall)  The player certainly has to take some accountability though for not using his head. 

Did anyone notice the kick-off coverage was good last year, it helped having Will Ratelle running down as he basically filled 2 lanes.  And Saturday.....kick-off coverage was good as I noticed Reyes making a tackle.  Some special teams are as good as the guys running down the field and that is improving with depth on the roster.  I don't know if anyone has ran down at the college level on kick-off coverage but it's not rocket science.  The point is the better athletes make the plays, maybe it's on the coaches to get the right guys out there without jeopardizing key players on defense, it's a balancing act.

Our kicking and punting positions should be wide open next year with some competition as I wasn't impressed with either one on a consistent basis. (I am not saying our current guys can't improve, so maybe the same guys with better performance)

[Sioux94]

Just now, gundy1124 said:

Did anyone notice the kick-off coverage was good last year, it helped having Will Ratelle running down as he basically filled 2 lanes.  And Saturday.....kick-off coverage was good as I noticed Reyes making a tackle.  Some special teams are as good as the guys running down the field and that is improving with depth on the roster.  I don't know if anyone has ran down at the college level on kick-off coverage but it's not rocket science.  The point is the better athletes make the plays, maybe it's on the coaches to get the right guys out there without jeopardizing key players on defense, it's a balancing act.

Our kicking and punting positions should be wide open next year with some competition as I wasn't impressed with either one on a consistent basis. (I am not saying our current guys can't improve, so maybe the same guys with better performance)

I agree with you there, you've got to have good players on your special teams and can't just put the 2nd stringers in.  In watching the 2001 Cal Poly game again Friday night Eric Schmidt was on kickoff coverage and had a nice tackle on a kick return.  

[UND08]

6 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

can someone name the last time we had all these in the same game?

1. muffed punt (recovered by siebel tho)

2. roughing the punter

3. blocked punt

4. give up a punt return for a td (called back on a penalty) but ran a "s" curve through the whole punt coverage untouched for a relatively easy td.

 

 

My take on these items one at a time...

1 - I cringe every time Seibel is in there to return a kick.  I'd like to see Santiago or the new kid out of Washington (or anyone else really) get a look next year.  Seibel doesn't inspire confidence in fielding punts.

2 - The coaches clearly were calling punt safe on the play.  Not sure what was running through the head of the player who ran into the punter...but there's no excuse for that.  To me that's not on the coaches...

3 - Punt protection is a disturbing issue to me...and I'm surprised that more teams didn't try to heat us up on punts.  Dussold was very good for us this year...but it seems to me that it takes him an eternity to get his punts off.  Recognition needs to be better.  It also seems upon further review that the punt we had blocked was the result of a couple of whiffs.  That can't happen...

4 - The return that got called back...I think that was a product of the punt was supposed to go to a certain side of the field, but Dussold hit a bad one (probably hurried) and booted it to the one area of the field where he shouldn't have...We were very lucky to get that called back.

5 - Missed field goals...need a better effort from Taubenheim, especially since this isn't going to be an offense meant to put up 40+ per game.  We were lucky missed field goals didn't hurt us more this year.

At this point, I'm not going to put all the blame on Kostich and proclaim him as incapable.  I think a lot of our issues stem from a lack of talent on special teams (this was the case early in the year when kick coverage was so bad...we started putting better players on the kickoff team and that problem fixed itself).  As we get further into Bubba's reign...I expect special teams to continue to improve like everything else as the depth gets better.  That being said...we need to figure out something better for punt protection...it cost us 1 game for sure and contributed in a second...that's inexcusable...

[Old School Guy]

I said after the Stony Brook game that the punt block scheme needed fixing but many thought it was just a matter of our player forgetting or just missing his block. Proof is in the pudding. Our up guys don't know who to block and don't take a step forward to engage the rusher trying to block our punt. The kid on Sat came right up the A gap basically untouched to get the block. 

 

 

[homer]

1 hour ago, UND08 said:

4 - The return that got called back...I think that was a product of the punt was supposed to go to a certain side of the field, but Dussold hit a bad one (probably hurried) and booted it to the one area of the field where he shouldn't have...We were very lucky to get that called back.

 

 

We lost about 10 yards of field position on that as the white hat had to throw the flag from Winnipeg since the official right in front of the call missed it.  

[Sioux94]

1 hour ago, Old School Guy said:

I said after the Stony Brook game that the punt block scheme needed fixing but many thought it was just a matter of our player forgetting or just missing his block. Proof is in the pudding. Our up guys don't know who to block and don't take a step forward to engage the rusher trying to block our punt. The kid on Sat came right up the A gap basically untouched to get the block. 

 

 

I also remember a few people saying......."it won't happen again this year" after the Stony Brook game.   If we had our 1995 (randomly picked a DII team) punt coverage players and coaches/coaching strategy playing on Saturday we are likely playing EWU this weekend.  The way it sounds Richmond rarely goes after kicks but they saw a hole in our protection and they went for it.  

[geaux_sioux]

5 hours ago, gundy1124 said:

Did anyone notice the kick-off coverage was good last year, it helped having Will Ratelle running down as he basically filled 2 lanes.  And Saturday.....kick-off coverage was good as I noticed Reyes making a tackle.  Some special teams are as good as the guys running down the field and that is improving with depth on the roster.  I don't know if anyone has ran down at the college level on kick-off coverage but it's not rocket science.  The point is the better athletes make the plays, maybe it's on the coaches to get the right guys out there without jeopardizing key players on defense, it's a balancing act.

Our kicking and punting positions should be wide open next year with some competition as I wasn't impressed with either one on a consistent basis. (I am not saying our current guys can't improve, so maybe the same guys with better performance)

I'll say it, we need a new kicker. To not be able to realistically attempt anything over 45 yards is not good enough.

[F'n Hawks]

19 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

I'll say it, we need a new kicker. To not be able to realistically attempt anything over 45 yards is not good enough.

With a good kicker we might be talking about the game against Eatern Washington  and not the heartbreaking loss against Richmond 

[Siouxperman8]

I have heard a lot of good things about coach Kostich both as a recruiter and a coach.  I have only met him a couple of times but he is very impressive and I know the players love him.

[Old School Guy]

1 hour ago, Siouxperman8 said:

I have heard a lot of good things about coach Kostich both as a recruiter and a coach.  I have only met him a couple of times but he is very impressive and I know the players love him.

I'm not saying he is a bad coach. I've met him and spoken to him on a few occasions. He is very energetic and likeable and in my opinion a good coach.  But all coaches have to recognize when minor adjustments are needed. And obvious my, the players need to take special teams more serious and make plays in the heat of battle. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

3 hours ago, geaux_sioux said:

I'll say it, we need a new kicker. To not be able to realistically attempt anything over 45 yards is not good enough.

We've got one out of Moorhead. 

[Sioux94]

I hope our Special Teams can actually be Special this year.  Literally the most nervous time of the game for me is 1. When we punt the ball  2.  When we receive the punt

[geaux_sioux]

2 minutes ago, Sioux94 said:

I hope our Special Teams can actually be Special this year.  Literally the most nervous time of the game for me is 1. When we punt the ball  2.  When we receive the punt

The punter needs to be quicker. Seibel should never return anything ever again. And for the love of God can Taubenheim learn how to kick outside. 

[siouxfan512]

12 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

The punter needs to be quicker. Seibel should never return anything ever again. And for the love of God can Taubenheim learn how to kick outside. 

So who punts, Meindel or Dussold?

[geaux_sioux]

3 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

So who punts, Meindel or Dussold?

Meindel is 10x the punter and athlete. Who starts? I have no idea.

[Sioux94]

We did pin the other team inside the 10 yard line many times last year, with our guy catching the punt.  They really did a nice job of that last year, i will compliment the punting team on that.  

[gundy1124]

9 minutes ago, siouxfan512 said:

So who punts, Meindel or Dussold?

Meindel-