West Virginia takes a holistic approach to special teams.
In the sense, that every drill uses skills and techniques that players can use at their respective positions. When the coaches are even showing various techniques they are even showing clips that emphasize that point because there is so much carryover across the board.
When they’re showing aspects on return teams, it’s the same thing as a receiver that must sprint down field and try to block a safety in space by coming to balance. An avoid concept where they’re trying to reduce the surface area on pads and dip and drive on coverage units is the same as a pass rusher trying to get after the quarterback off the edge or a wide receiver avoiding press coverage.
The carryover is real and something that is driven home.
“When you talk about special teams it’s a big ownership,” coordinator Jeff Koonz said. “So really we’re just tying in what you do on offense and defense.”
The Mountaineers are consistent in their approach with special teams from the fall to the spring and there is no less time devoted to it despite the fact that simulating 11-on-11 is nearly impossible.
“It is a priority here at West Virginia,” he said.
This spring the coaches have attempted to put an emphasis on increasing the daily energy level on the special teams units by doing daily competition drills that focus on using those multiple techniques across the various segments. The goal is to not only create competition but maximize the reps.
For example, on a punt cover drill that media was able to witness, the Mountaineers focused on not only protecting the punt scheme but covering down. There are two phases of the coverage which includes the gunners which are the trap and then the second level which is leverage based and on each drill West Virginia emphasizes every part of each play.
“That’s consistent in every phase. If we’re covering kickoffs, it’s no different where is the location of the ball, what is the level of the coverage team that your responsibility is within and now when we flip it now on a punt return, kickoff return concept how are we going to retreat to get our body in relationship to the return man and the guy covering that we’re responsible for,” Koonz said.
The Mountaineers use ball, me, man in that order as a guideline to stay I relationship throughout the play. Each of the drills cover each aspect which allows them to maximize their efforts.
Transitions are the same, as the coverage aspect is focused on effort down the field and then syncing hips and lowering base so you can finish plays against elite returners across the Big 12. While blocking involves getting the pad level lower than the man you’re trying to block, having your feet able to move laterally and of course using your hands effectively inside.
There’s a lot of work being done on special teams this spring and it’s all tied together.
“We’re not just doing one specific thing at one time we’re actually killing multiple birds with one stone,” Koonz said.
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