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There is not a head coach in the country that wont expound on the importance of havinggood special teams play. We all know how to say the right thing, but unless a head coach istruly committed to special teams, your players will look at the teams, as we call them atMichigan, as just a break between offense and defense. But most importantly, special teamsmust be important to the head coach.

Why are special teams so important? For one, special teams account for approximately 20percent of the snaps in any given game. With this in mind, your meeting and practice timeshould at least reflect this percentage. That means for every hour of meetings you have as ateam, 15 minutes should be devoted to special teams. On the practice field this equates tofour or five periods of special teams for every 24 periods of practice (with each periodrepresenting five minutes, 24 periods would be a typical two hour practice). Keep in mind;these figures are the minimum amount of time that should be spent on special teams. Whilethe proportion of practice time should be a reflection of snaps taken in a game, there isanother variable that should influence more special teams work the big play. There is notan offensive or defensive coordinator in America that doesnt stress the importance of eithercreating or limiting big plays. On offense, you may want five big plays or game breakerseach week. On defense, your success is largely predicated upon limiting your opponents bigplays. A defense should always make the offense earn it by not permitting any cheap scores.

There is no other aspect of the game that has more big play potential than special teams. Thereasons are simple. Special teams are played in the open field. Teams players must be ableto:

1) Maintain blocks in space2) Defeat Blocks in space3) Make someone miss4) Make an open field tackle

When special teams are viewed in this manner, it is easy to see the big play possibilities. Acoach can be certain that special teams will determine at least two games on your schedulethis season. Without question, we at Michigan had three games impacted by special teams in2001, both positively and negatively.

The third area of the game that illustrates the importance of special teams is field position. Irecently conducted a study that examined the starting field position for a teams offenses andhow it related to their chance of scoring either a touchdown or a field goal (See Diagram 1.).

This chart demonstrates how important field position really is. Just look at your teamschances of scoring if the kickoff return is advanced past the 30-yard line. What if the puntercould pin opponents inside the 10-yard line or the opposing offense never achieved possessionof the ball past their own 40-yard line? Consider this, every ten yards you gain on a puntreturn is one less first down that your offense needs to get.

How does a head coach emphasize the importance of special teams his players? The singlemost effective way to do this is to put the best players on the teams. This accomplishesseveral things. First of all, it makes these units stronger for the obvious reason that the toppersonnel is being utilized. Secondly, the commitment to win each and every play is madeclear to every player. It demonstrates to the rest of the team you consider special teams to be

as vital as the offense and defense. It establishes a certain level of performance that everyonemust uphold.

At the University of Michigan, I am fortunate to work for a head coach in Lloyd Carr who iscommitted to maintaining great special teams. No player is too good for the teams. Caseand point is the recent success we have had with our punt rush team. Last season we blockeda school record seven punts, largely due to the personnel we had on the team. MarquiseWalker, our leading receiver and owner of many school records, was a standout performer onour punt rush team. Marquise blocked three punts (and set up several other blocks and causednumerous shanks) over the past two seasons that resulted in a touchdown, a field goal and a

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safety. His performance and success on this unit inspired our other players to participate on ahigh level on this team. They all saw how they could impact the game and help Michigan win.Not limiting your personnel pool is the first way to emphasize special teams to your players.As a general rule of thumb, I never hesitate to assign any offensive or defensive starter to twoof the six special teams and any reserve to as many as all six.

The second way to demonstrate the importance of special teams is to involve offensive and

defensive coaches in different phases of the teams. For example, at Michigan, both defensivecoordinator Jim Herrmann and offensive coordinator Terry Malone coach the right and left sideof our punt team respectively. We benefit not only from having two great teachers coachingthese units, but it also demonstrates the importance of this phase of the game to our players.Even though we utilize our entire coaching staff in different phases of the game, I coordinatethe meetings and practice agenda for organizational purposes. We like to say that we Coachwith many eyes, but one voice. What I mean is, we all want to use the same coaching pointsand terms so that everyone is on the same page.

Another way to demonstrate a stern commitment to special teams to your players is to meeton special teams as a full team, players and coaches included. This has several benefits. Forone, position coaches, who may not be involved in a specific phase, may rather meetindividually for the fifteen-minute special teams meeting. However, their presence at thesemeetings has a great impact on the players. Secondly, Coach Carr will sit right in front and

make coaching points during this meeting; this undoubtedly impacts how serious the playersview the sessions. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, when players know that the entireteam is going to watch their performance on special teams, there is a significant impact.Players, just like coaches, do not want to look bad in front of their peers. This is a positiveform of peer pressure that establishes a standard of performance that even us as coachescannot duplicate. In turn, when the players do well and get acknowledged in front of the restof the team, it motivates others not only to participate on special teams, but also to excel onthem.

Once you have selected the best personnel for your special teams, assigned the high profilecoaches to a particular phase and established a certain level of performance for the players,you are moving in the right direction. The next step is to establish specific motivating toolsand criteria to maintain the expected level of performance. As I previously stated, one of themost effective methods of motivation is peer pressure. One way to create this sense of

accountability to one another is through the use of a production chart (See Diagram 2.). AtMichigan we use such a production chart on a game-to-game basis and also maintaincumulative statistics. Such a production chart awards points for individual accomplishmentssuch as a tackle, fumble recovery, blocked kick, etc.... However, we also reward each memberof an entire unit for a particularly exceptional play as well. For example, if the punt teamdowns a punt inside the 10-yard line, each player on that team will receive two points. Or ifthe kickoff return team has a return of 30 or more yards, each player on that team will berewarded as well. This is important because although we want individual players to beproductive and make plays, we cant forget about the guy on the front line that made theblock that sprung the return man on his long return. In addition to giving positive points forgood plays, we also include a few categories that deduct points from a players total.Committing a penalty or committing a turnover is inexcusable and can cost us a game andwould therefore result in negative points for that player. But overall, the idea behind theproduction board is to generate positive reinforcement. Praise the action you want to see

repeated. Each week we will post this board and the players can see who is producing and whois not. You will see that the players become competitive with each other and strive to becomebetter special teams performers. As I said before, there is no motivational substitute for

accountability to your teammates and competition.

Another motivator that we use that ties into the production board is the Special Forces club.The top special teams performers of each game receive a T-shirt, which are coveted by ourplayers. Just giving out T-shirts without a standardized method for doing so will quickly lose itsemphasis as a motivating tool. When our players become a member of the Special Forces,they are recognized as players who have produced and helped Michigan win.

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The last and most powerful motivating tool for special teams is the selection of a weeklyspecial teams captain. I believe there is no greater honor a player can receive than torepresent his team as a captain. This is something our players take great pride in. On aweekly basis, we as coaches decide who has produced in games, practiced like a champion,and exemplified all that it means to be a captain for Michigan.

While we have already discussed means to motivate and evaluate individual players and unitsof the special teams, we also want to look at the big picture. We do this by setting goals on aweek-to-week basis. I strongly believe that when establishing your goals for special teamsthere are certain rules you must abide by. They are as follows:

1) Never have more than ten goals. Your players wont remember more than this and youdont have enough meeting time as a coach to emphasize that many goals. The more goalsyou have, the more watered down they become.2) Select goals that are measurable and relative to your philosophy.

3) Base your special teams goals around field position and big plays. Youve talked about whythese areas are important, now include them in your goals.4) Choose attainable goals. If you dont have a punter that can punt the ball forty yards, dontset your net punt at forty-one yards.5) Have clear goals for each phase of the special teams.

Examples of this goal setting philosophy would be as follows:

1) Net punt - 38 yards or more.2) Punt Return - 10 yards per return or opponent net punt of 33 yards or block 1 punt.3) Kickoff Return - Average start of the 28 yard line.4) Kickoff Cover - Hold opponents to average start of 24 yard line.5) PAT/FG - 100% of all PATs and 67% of all FGs.6) PAT/FG Block - Block a kick or hold opponent to 50% on FGs.7) Force a Game breaker (Block a kick, recover onsides, force a turnover, score a TD, executea fake).8) Allow no Game breakers to the opponent.9) No Penalties.

As you can see, these goals are designed to account for teams that pooch their kickoffs orshank their punts. I dont want to penalize our teams for poor return averages if our fieldposition is good. We also incorporate the big play philosophy of game breakers in addition tofield position goals.

Lastly, when developing schemes for your special teams, it is important that you utilizeschemes that optimize your meeting and practice times. We as coaches can get carried awaywith the chalk, but when all is said and done, execution is based on talent, the playersunderstanding of the scheme, and the players ability to perform the basic fundamentalsnecessary for them to carry out their responsibility within that scheme. Remember, yourspecial teams players are playing and learning their respective offensive and defensivepositions. You may only have them for 15 minutes of meeting time and 25 minutes on thepractice field for all six phases of special teams. Therefore the first priority is teachingschemes they can understand and execute. Then repeatedly drill the skills they need to

execute their assignments. Special teams are too important to neglect. If a player does notknow his assignment or gets confused and a punt gets blocked then you have beat yourself.

One example of this approach would be our punt rush philosophy. I have already discussedthe success that weve had with this team and our philosophies are quite simple. However wedrill these principles to the finest detail daily and at a high tempo. These are our keys toblocking punts:

1) Crowd the L.O.S. Get your hand in front of your head and you will always be onside.2) Get in an explosive stance. Weight forward, rear end up in the air, toes and power angles

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pointing straight up field.3) See the ball. On a punt, both the offense and the defense are going on ball movement. Theman with the quicker reaction has the advantage.4) Vertically stretch the protection with great burst up field. Stay low and come out hard.5) Bend and drive to the block spot. Lower your blocking surface and dip your inside shoulder.Use your hands to keep the punt protectors off of you.6) Shoot your hands at the last moment and take the ball off the punters foot. Keep your feet

and run through the block spot.7) If you cant block the punt, stay outside of the block spot and get back into the return.

On a game-by-game basis we may run a particular twist or scheme that we feel can exploit aparticular protection, but our basic principles never change. Select the right personnel, keep itsimple and coach technique.

In conclusion, it is both an honor and privilege to be able to share some of our ideas at theUniversity of Michigan with my colleagues in the coaching profession. Dont ever

underestimate the importance of your job as a football coach. Now, more than ever, your roleas a teacher and a mentor to the young men of our country cannot be taken for granted. Thevalues and life-lessons that our sport teaches are exactly what the young people of Americaneed to get along and succeed in this new world.