Making Special Teams Special Again
posted by Scott Hood, Wednesday, December 19, 2007
If it’s broke, fix it.
Spurrier is not a patient man, and I’m sure his blood pressure rose a few points watching the Gamecock special teams this season, especially in the final few weeks of the season when seemingly little went right for co-special team coordinators Shane Beamer and Fred Chatham.
Historically, USC has endured poor special teams play. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s been as true as the night is dark.
Make no mistake. Rychleski has one mandate from Spurrier – get the special teams turned around. Fast.
I’m not sure when Spurrier finally said enough is enough. There were simply too many special team meltdowns by the Gamecocks this season.
It may have come when Tennessee’s LaMarcus Coker was allowed to run free across the field as far as the UT 47-yard line when USC had a golden opportunity to tackle him around the 20.
Maybe it was the botched onsides kick against Arkansas.
But don’t forget the blocked punt by the lone Florida rusher when Ryan Succop rugby kicked the ball straight into his belly.
Finally, it could have been the two blocked punts against arch-rival Clemson. One of them was returned for a touchdown. USC lost, 23-21, so you know how important that play was.
You knew something was up when Spurrier harshly criticized the effort level of some of his special team players late in the season, and demanded lineup changes.
Soon, you saw starters on the kickoff and punt coverage teams. But it didn’t seem to do any good.
Here’s where Spurrier differs from most coaches: when players aren’t giving full effort, yet are still playing, he blames the coaches.
That’s just bad coaching, he’ll often say.
And he’s right. Which is why Ray Rychleski is now the special team coordinator for USC.
In my opinion, the first thing he needs to do is improve the team speed on the punt and kickoff coverage teams. It was painfully obvious by the end of the season that some of the players on those units were simply too slow for the SEC.
That sounds harsh, and it is. But it’s also reality. Things happen quickly in this conference and you need players who can keep up.
When you have players who aren’t fast enough giving less than full effort banging helmets and shoulder pads with faster players giving 100 percent, it’s not difficult to figure out how that battle to going to end up.
It shows up loud and clear in the statistics. USC was 51st in the nation (6th in SEC) in punt coverage defense (8.03 ypr) and 104th in the nation (10th in SEC) in kickoff coverage defense (23.9 ypr) this season.
Only two SEC schools, and 15 nationally out of 119 in Division I-A, were worse than USC in covering kickoffs this season.
That’s why Spurrier’s decision to hire Rychleski should be considered less of a personnel decisions and more of a call to arms by the HBC.
In short, Spurrier is tired of mediocrity when it comes to special teams.
But the hiring of Rychleski produces a dilemma. With defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix gone to Ole Miss, USC returns to its full allotment of nine assistant coaches.
Thus, when Spurrier finally decides who will fill the defensive coordinator’s role, somebody has to exit.
Who will it be? Fred Chatham appears on the surface to be the logical candidate. But he’s known Spurrier for a long time.
Shane Beamer? He appears to be an up-and-comer.
David Reaves? Besides the QB coach, he’s also the recruiting coordinator.
Brad Lawing? Spurrier described him this past season as the best DL coach he’s ever had.
Ron Cooper? The secondary wasn’t the problem this season.
John Hunt? But who will coach the offensive line?
Robert Gillespie? Same thing, except we’re talking about running backs.
Steve Spurrier, Jr? Would the HBC really ditch his son? I don’t think so.
Rychleski has a long history of recruiting in North Carolina, having been an assistant at Wake Forest for a number of years in the 1990’s. He continued to mine that state for talent while at Maryland.
Chatham was brought here from Duke by Spurrier before the 2006 season in part to improve USC’s special teams and it’s presence in North Carolina.
Last year, the Gamecocks gobbled up talent from the Tar Heel State, signing five of the top 11 players. This year, though, with the coaching staffs at UNC and N.C. State entrenched, has been quite different.
Based on the latest Rivals rankings, USC currently has one verbal commitment from the top 30 players in the Tar Heel State – linebacker Reggie Bowens, a former teammate of Chris Culliver at Garner High School.
With Rychleski, Chatham and Brad Lawing, does USC really need three coaches recruiting inside North Carolina?
That’s one of the tough questions Spurrier must answer.
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Steve Spurrier followed one simple rule when he stole new special teams coordinator Ray Rychleski from Maryland.
If it’s broke, fix it.
Spurrier is not a patient man, and I’m sure his blood pressure rose a few points watching the Gamecock special teams this season, especially in the final few weeks of the season when seemingly little went right for co-special team coordinators Shane Beamer and Fred Chatham.
Historically, USC has endured poor special teams play. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s been as true as the night is dark.
Make no mistake. Rychleski has one mandate from Spurrier – get the special teams turned around. Fast.
I’m not sure when Spurrier finally said enough is enough. There were simply too many special team meltdowns by the Gamecocks this season.
It may have come when Tennessee’s LaMarcus Coker was allowed to run free across the field as far as the UT 47-yard line when USC had a golden opportunity to tackle him around the 20.
Maybe it was the botched onsides kick against Arkansas.
But don’t forget the blocked punt by the lone Florida rusher when Ryan Succop rugby kicked the ball straight into his belly.
Finally, it could have been the two blocked punts against arch-rival Clemson. One of them was returned for a touchdown. USC lost, 23-21, so you know how important that play was.
You knew something was up when Spurrier harshly criticized the effort level of some of his special team players late in the season, and demanded lineup changes.
Soon, you saw starters on the kickoff and punt coverage teams. But it didn’t seem to do any good.
Here’s where Spurrier differs from most coaches: when players aren’t giving full effort, yet are still playing, he blames the coaches.
That’s just bad coaching, he’ll often say.
And he’s right. Which is why Ray Rychleski is now the special team coordinator for USC.
In my opinion, the first thing he needs to do is improve the team speed on the punt and kickoff coverage teams. It was painfully obvious by the end of the season that some of the players on those units were simply too slow for the SEC.
That sounds harsh, and it is. But it’s also reality. Things happen quickly in this conference and you need players who can keep up.
When you have players who aren’t fast enough giving less than full effort banging helmets and shoulder pads with faster players giving 100 percent, it’s not difficult to figure out how that battle to going to end up.
It shows up loud and clear in the statistics. USC was 51st in the nation (6th in SEC) in punt coverage defense (8.03 ypr) and 104th in the nation (10th in SEC) in kickoff coverage defense (23.9 ypr) this season.
Only two SEC schools, and 15 nationally out of 119 in Division I-A, were worse than USC in covering kickoffs this season.
That’s why Spurrier’s decision to hire Rychleski should be considered less of a personnel decisions and more of a call to arms by the HBC.
In short, Spurrier is tired of mediocrity when it comes to special teams.
But the hiring of Rychleski produces a dilemma. With defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix gone to Ole Miss, USC returns to its full allotment of nine assistant coaches.
Thus, when Spurrier finally decides who will fill the defensive coordinator’s role, somebody has to exit.
Who will it be? Fred Chatham appears on the surface to be the logical candidate. But he’s known Spurrier for a long time.
Shane Beamer? He appears to be an up-and-comer.
David Reaves? Besides the QB coach, he’s also the recruiting coordinator.
Brad Lawing? Spurrier described him this past season as the best DL coach he’s ever had.
Ron Cooper? The secondary wasn’t the problem this season.
John Hunt? But who will coach the offensive line?
Robert Gillespie? Same thing, except we’re talking about running backs.
Steve Spurrier, Jr? Would the HBC really ditch his son? I don’t think so.
Rychleski has a long history of recruiting in North Carolina, having been an assistant at Wake Forest for a number of years in the 1990’s. He continued to mine that state for talent while at Maryland.
Chatham was brought here from Duke by Spurrier before the 2006 season in part to improve USC’s special teams and it’s presence in North Carolina.
Last year, the Gamecocks gobbled up talent from the Tar Heel State, signing five of the top 11 players. This year, though, with the coaching staffs at UNC and N.C. State entrenched, has been quite different.
Based on the latest Rivals rankings, USC currently has one verbal commitment from the top 30 players in the Tar Heel State – linebacker Reggie Bowens, a former teammate of Chris Culliver at Garner High School.
With Rychleski, Chatham and Brad Lawing, does USC really need three coaches recruiting inside North Carolina?
That’s one of the tough questions Spurrier must answer.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.