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Texas Special Teams

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LTtxfan

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Media Availability notes  (Thx @westexhorn )

Jeff Banks

-Banks on the kicking competition: “What we have to do is we have to evaluate the kicking and the punting position with these guys in the next 15-20 days.”

-Banks: “Bert Auburn and Will Stone will be the two guys who will compete for the field goal and kickoff jobs. We have another player named Gabriel Lozano who transferred from Texas Tech who provides some really good stability there. I feel good. We have three legs that I have confidence in.”

-Banks says snapper Zach Edwards had one of the best summers of any specialist he’s had.

-Banks says he is excited about Isaac Pearson. Says he is looking to add a punter from the walk-on ranks.”

-Banks on Morice Blackwell: “I’m fired up about Mo because Mo had a little taste on scout team of playing our offense last year with the talented players we had, and he played downhill and super physical.”

-Banks said Keilan Robinson is 12 to 13 pounds heavier.

-Banks said Brenen Thompson, Savion Red, Jaydon Blue and Tarique Milton could see opportunities at return.

-Banks said they challenged Ja’Tavion Sanders to be more physical in the first 5 practices of spring ball, and they saw him excel in the next 10 practices: “He is a ‘see how I do it, follow me’ guy.”

-Banks says analyst Jeff Crosby “will be a coordinator after this year.” Does depth charts, game plans, etc. — “I want guys who work for me and with me to give me ideas.”

 

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Jeff Howe:  

One of the key points of emphasis early in camp, however, is figuring out which players can fill out the coverage and return units on special teams.

Texas had four different groups going through the special teams periods with everyone running the drills with snaps split as evenly as possible. That’s different from how things worked last season and there’s a reason why Sarkisian and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks are making the change.

“I felt like a year ago we were relying on too many front-line starters on too many special teams,” Sarkisian said. “Meaning, I'm a starting Will linebacker, but I'm starting on three or four special teams. That's too many. We want all of our starters to have an impact on special teams, one, maybe two, but to do that we need to develop our younger players so that they can have an impact and that we can trust them on teams. The only way to do it is to give them real competition and that's why we, essentially, for the first 10 practices, we will have four teams competing against one another. Hopefully, that provides opportunities to see guys and give them the opportunity to kind of showcase their ability to get into the three-deep for that next week and then, ultimately, get into the two-deep for game week.”

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LTtxfan

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From FCB    (Thx for this @Hookem2147 ) 

SPECIAL TEAMS

I wrote about redshirt freshman punter Isaac Pearson and freshman kicker Will Stone in Wednesday’s Morning Brew. Check it out.

The Cliff’s Notes version from special teams coordinator Banks on Pearson:

“He’s little bit of an overworker. He used to work in a coal mine in Australia. That’s what he did after high school, and that’s how tough he is.

“But there’s a point where your leg can get tired from working too much. So he’s working smarter now. He’ll be one of the top three players mentioned when you ask for the hardest workers on the team.”

Banks said Texas will be adding a walk-on punter to provide depth behind Pearson.

On Stone replacing Cameron Dicker on field goals and kickoffs:

“Cameron Dicker was phenomenal. I don’t know that we can replace all that. I’m not looking at our guys comparing them to Dicker. He’s gone. He’s on the Rams. Now, we’ve got to protect our young guys by not putting them in positions they’re not comfortable with.”

Banks has also identified some young guns he plans to count on in special teams, including redshirt freshman safety Morice Blackwell and freshman linebacker Trevell Johnson.

“Those are guys whose high school film showed they were playmakers on special teams,” Banks said.

“I’m fired up about Mo, because Mo had a little taste on scout team last year, and he came downhill and was super physical,” Banks added.

“When we signed him, we weren’t sure if he was a true star (nickel) or a safety. We started him off at star and now he’s flourishing at safety and has been off-the-charts this off-season. We need him to make plays for us this year (on special teams). We lost Brenden Schooler, and I see Mo as a guy who can step into that role and help us.”

Look for Brenen Thompson, Savion Red and Tarique Milton to get looks in the return game.

Sarkisian said Wednesday he doesn't want to use as many front-line starters on special teams as Texas used last year.

"I felt like a year ago we were relying on too many frontline starters on too many special teams," Sarkisian said. "I'm a starting WILL linebacker, but I'm starting on three or four special teams. One, maybe two. But we need to develop our younger players so that they can have an impact, and we can know we can trust them on teams."

Sarkisian said he'll use the first 10 days of fall camp "as competition" to determine which young players give the team the best impact on special teams.

 

 

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Changes on Texas' special teams gives younger players opportunities

Untitled-design-2022-08-06T141149.032.pn

Joe Cook•08/06/22

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Local media only gets a handful of minutes to observe Texas Longhorns football practice when allowed in. Any change to what is normally seen is notable, and UT head coach Steve Sarkisian and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks made a significant structural alteration to the special teams periods that are open to media viewing.

Last year, plenty of starters for the Longhorns also played on special teams units. During special teams periods in practice in 2021 and the spring of 2022, those players received the bulk of the reps. That left many newcomers and younger players standing on the sidelines or scrounging for third-string special teams opportunities.

That’s different this preseason camp. Banks and Sarkisian decided to create four different special teams platoons — orange, blue, green, and red — in order to spread reps around and give some of the younger players on the team opportunity to earn playing time in the game’s third phase.

“I felt like a year ago we were relying on too many front-line starters on too many special teams,” Sarkisian said on Thursday. “Meaning, I’m a starting Will linebacker but I’m starting on three or four special teams. That’s too many.”

“We want all of our starters to have an impact on special teams: one, maybe two. To do that, we need to develop our younger players so that they can have an impact and that we can trust them on teams. The only way to do that is to give them real competitions. That’s why, essentially for the first 10 practices, we will have four teams competing against one another.”

Evidence of the benefits of the new platoon strategy was seen at punt return. Mainstays like Xavier Worthy were back deep during the viewing period, but so too was a true freshman in Savion Red. The Grand Prairie product looked right at home fielding punts.

Though he likely won’t unseat Worthy or D’Shawn Jamison, Red receiving reps as the punt returner is an example of Texas coaches utilizing data that wouldn’t have been available under the previous system.

“Hopefully that provides opportunities to see guys and give them the opportunity to showcase their ability to get into the three-deep for that next week, then ultimately get into the two-deep for game week,” Sarkisian said.

Last year, Texas finished No. 6 in ESPN’s special teams SP+ rankings, but Banks’ phase still had its share of low points like the rest of the 5-7 Longhorns. Plus, Banks now has to figure out how to replace Cameron Dicker and starting long snapper Justin Mader from last year’s team.

While those position battles will be specialized, Texas hopes its new method of practicing special teams will allow for younger players to earn some playing time. In turn, that could help front-line players stay a little more fresh over the course of a game, something that likely cost the Longhorns in the win column during the 2021 season.

 

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LTtxfan

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Scipio Tex aka Paul Wadlington   09/05/2022

Texas-ULM Post Mortem: Special teams

Special teams gets its own write up because there’s a heck of a lot of good and bad to sort through.

Let’s start with the good. The Longhorns got on the board early after a 3 and out by the Texas defense:

Jeff Banks clearly saw some coaching neglect in ULM’s shield protections (as in, blocking priority begins with proximity to the football) and D’Shawn Jamison sprinted through untouched for the block while Keilan Robinson got the scoop and score. Apparently, based on their film study, Texas expected to block a punt going into the game and they expected to do it early. Not a bad tone setter. Some Texas fans are such maniacs that they were irritated that the block and score delayed our first look at Quinn Ewers. You may confess below in the comments.

That wasn’t the only Longhorn special teams highlight. Later in the game, Xavier Worthy defied one of the cardinal rules in the return game by giving ground while reversing field to line up his return with the Return Right blocking scheme. This is behavior that might be punished by a better opponent, but notice the great decision-making by Texas blockers to pull up or get their pads in front of their men as Worthy puts them in a tight spot:

Worthy got 21 yards out of 65 yards of running, but it’s a good example of a disciplined return unit doing their job and allowing a great athlete to try to make a play. Worthy was also very aggressive later in the game, scooping up a rolling punt in a crowd. If I had to guess, his aggression in those returns may have stemmed from regret at the 10:16 mark in Q1. ULM was attempting their second punt, Texas had return on, and Worthy fair caught with a good amount of green around him.

Now for darker news. The Texas kicking game – specifically as it pertain to the kickers – showed some cracks. Don’t say I didn’t warn you:

Isaac Pearson is said to have a kangaroo leg, but expect the typical Year 1 Aussie growing pains that come with their first live action, complete with fumbled snaps and occasional shanks. It happened to Dickson, it happened to Bujcevski, it will happen to Pearson.

Pearson mishandled a field goal snap costing Texas 3 points before the half and then dropped a perfect snap in punt formation, leading to a booming 15 yard kick. The latter is part of the expected growing pains predicted above. The former is the coaching staff probably not thinking this through particularly well. Yes, I get that you want a special teams guy holding kicks because of how practice breaks out. But execution in-game is more important than the inconvenience of losing your backup QB to some holding drills. Hudson Card needs to be holding those kicks. Not the guy who has never been in a college football game and thinks an American football is an Aussie Rules Football on a diet. Let’s limit his nerves and make Pearson’s world as small as possible. Danny Trejo came in to punt and Machete’s 40 yard average belied line drive punts that were almost blocked, begging to be housed by anyone who can set up a punt return. Both Texas punters had saucers for eyeballs. Texas needs to get Pearson up to speed as the punter quickly and exile him from holding.

As for kickoffs, Will Stone had nine kick offs and only three made it to the end zone for a touchback. Half of his short kicks didn’t have much air or hang time either. If you can’t consistently get a touchback, you want a pinned kick inside the opponent 5 yard line with plenty of hang time where the returner catches it two yards from the sideline and not much field to work with. Texas needs dramatic improvement here. On the positive side, Sideshow Bert Auburn made a 41 yard field goal when the hold went smoothly.

Texas made huge plays in special teams against ULM, but don’t let that cloud the fact that the unit showed several major issues with respect to unforced errors that showed future opponents with better coaching and more talent that there are opportunities available for game-changing plays in a bad way.

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Tex Long

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The kick-holder problem was mentioned a while back. I don't care how many shrimps he has on his barbie, the motherfucker needs to learn to catch the fucking ball and punt it where the coach tells him to punt it, and he needs to set the FG/XP kicks up, laces out, and whatever angle Bert wants. If he can't do those things, don't even let him suit up. Particularly against the Fightin' BigAls.

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LTtxfan

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Last week on the Texas Talk podcast we were lucky enough to interview the Daniel Trejo (@trejodaniel1998 on Twitter)! Daniel “The Texas Machete” Trejo was an incredible guest and took us through his entire journey. From high school, to community college, up until his debut at Texas.

Cameron Dicker introduced Trejo to the coaching staff. Dicker was working out at One On On Kicking (@OneOnOneTX on Twitter) with the same coach as Daniel Trejo. They met and got to talking and getting to know each other.

When Dicker officially declared for the NFL draft, Texas was without a clear heir to their kicking game. Because of their relationship and working together, Dicker brought up Trejo to the Texas coaching staff.

The coaching staff looked at Daniel Trejo’s film, loved what they saw. They then started to contact him and recruit him to come to the Forty Acres.

Daniel Trejo battled with the decision to stay at Texas Wesleyan or bet on himself and take the leap to the highest level of D1 athletics. He finally made his decision and transferred to The University of Texas in August of 2022.

Trejo has now won the punting duties for the Longhorns. Averaging 42.9 yards per punt and 40.9 net yards per punt. He currently leads the Big XII in net yards per punt (tied for first with Oklahoma’s Michael Turk), with a minimum of five punts.

 

Texas Talk || Episode 28: OU Recap & ISU Preview, Plus an interview with Texas Punter Daniel Trejo!

If you want to check out the entire interview you can find it here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/texas-talk-episode-28-ou-recap-isu-preview-plus-an/id1619852242?i=1000582402059

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Rain and cold weather on Friday morning in Austin during game.  Texas Special teams need to show up and play great !!!

RoJo may not play a lot on special teams due to his injury -- gonna be important for someone else to step up.  RoJo plays on all 4 special team units...  

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Texas finished top 10 nationally in two statistical categories, and both involved special teams

Joe Cook•01/06/23

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Monday’s national championship game between No. 3 TCU and No. 1 Georgia isn’t likely to alter the Texas Longhorns’ position on the leaderboard of the statistical categories the NCAA tracks. That’s especially true for the only two areas the Longhorns finished in the top 10: blocked punts and blocked kicks.

According to the NCAA, blocked punts are blocked kicks, but blocked kicks are not blocked punts. Texas had three blocked punts this year, good for No. 7 nationally. The Horns blocked four kicks, which placed them at No. 10.

Notre Dame was the national leader in both categories with seven blocked punts. Central Michigan also was tied with the Fighting Irish in blocked kicks with seven.

DeMarvion Overshown, D’Shawn Jamison, and Morice Blackwell contributed to the blocked punt total, while Kitan Crawford notched the only blocked field goal of the year during Texas’ loss to TCU.

Thanks to those plays and the overall quality of Jeff Banks’ special teams, Texas was No. 11 nationally and tops in the Big 12 in the advanced metric of special teams FEI.

There were other areas where Texas ranked within the top 20. The Longhorns were No. 12 in the nation and No. 2 in the Big 12 in defensive touchdowns with three. TCU led the conference with four, while Iowa’s total of seven defensive touchdowns was No. 1 in the land.

The Longhorns were adept at taking care of the football in 2022, ranking in the top 20 in both fumbles lost and turnovers lost. Texas lost five fumbles all season, which ranks No. 19 in the nation. The Longhorns turned the ball over 12 times all year, which ranks No. 12 nationally.

Five teams were tied atop the national leaderboard for fumbles lost with two. East Carolina and USC were the best at taking care of the ball this season, coughing it up just seven times.

One other area the Longhorns were strong in? Red zone offense. Texas was No. 19 in the nation in the metric, scoring on 89.7 percent of opportunities inside the opponents 20. Of the 58 red zone attempts, 52 ended in a score of some sort. Of greater importance to Steve Sarkisian was how many of those 52 scores were touchdowns. Texas had 21 rushing touchdowns and 15 passing touchdowns, meaning 62 percent of the Longhorns’ red zone trips ended in touchdowns.

In which categories were the Longhorns in the bottom 20? Only two.

The Longhorns were No. 121 out of 131 in fumbles recovered in 2022, only scooping four loose balls off the ground. They were also No. 121 in time of possession, averaging 27:19 with the ball per game.

One area they were just outside the bottom 20 was turnovers gained, which coincides with the low fumbles recovered number. Texas was No. 106 in that metric, turning opponents over 14 times all season.

While stats don’t tell the entire story, they do provide background for many of the details of Texas’ 13-game campaign. With that in mind, Texas’ standing in the extremes of certain categories does back up much of what was seen on the field during the 2022 season.

 

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Steve Sarkisian heaps praise upon key members of Texas' special teams

Joe Cook•   May 8th

Untitled-design-2022-08-30T075617.680.pn

Bert Auburn (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Specialists are often overlooked when assessing an 85-man college football roster. However, they play a key role not just in starting games, but also in determining their final result.

Texas should have a veteran manning each of the specialist spots this year. Bert Auburn returns as field goal kicker, Will Stone is back after his freshman season as the kickoff specialist, and Stanford transfer Ryan Sanborn is set to join the Longhorn football program in June.

At a Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon in late April, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about his specialist corps. Here’s what he had to say.

Bert Auburn

“Bert Auburn kicked field goals for us a year ago and made some really big kicks,” Sarkisian said. “I’m going to name two. We take a bad sack against Alabama at the end of the game and he hits from 49 with a minute left to give us the lead, which was a critical kick. We had 16 seconds to run two plays to get those completions done, and he kicks a field goal from 40-something yards to tie the game at Tech. I know he’s a big game kicker. He missed a couple that I would like to have back, but I didn’t think our battery was very good — snap, hold — before the kick. There’s some things to clean up there.”

Auburn, a 6-foot-0, 181-pound junior from Flower Mound (Texas), was 21-of-26 on field goals last year. He also converted all 55 of his extra point attempts, and finished the year with 118 points.

Will Stone

“Will Stone was our kickoff guy, was a true freshman last year and I think he’s getting stronger and a bigger leg,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t like covering kickoffs, I like touchbacks. So we cover them really hard so most people shut them down against us anyway.”

Stone, a product of Austin (Texas) Regents School, had 86 kickoffs with 26 touchbacks.

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Ryan Sanborn

“Punter, we’re taking a transfer, Ryan Sanborn, who was a four-year starter at Stanford,” Sarkisian said. “He’s graduating from Stanford this spring and he’ll be with us this June. We’re excited to have a veteran punter back there who can do all the different style of kicks that are important to us.”

Sanborn played in 42 career games for the Cardinal. He has kickoff and field goal experience, but he comes to Texas to punt. Last season, Sanborn punted 57 times with a long of 59 and averaged 41.7 yards per punt. Eighteen of his punts were downed inside the 20, and 22 of them were fair caught.

Texas finished No. 44 in ESPN’s special teams SP+ metric last season.

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