Third Phase Getting Special Attention in Spring

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Everybody was mad. There was some embarrassment, too.

As the head coach, Steve Addazio was livid. With good reason.

Boise State blocked two Colorado State punts and a field goal, scoring touchdowns on all three plays. That was 21 points in a 52-21 loss.

The next time the Rams played, San Diego State returned a punt and a kickoff for successive touchdowns in a 29-17 loss.

"I mean, sure, it will set off Coach Addazio," Brian Polendey said. "When you do the same thing every day, say, you rep punt every day and you don't zone the back side like you're supposed to, I mean, it's going to tick him off pretty good."

The players will tell you the plan was in place and it was solid. But they admit, and the coaches agree, the mindset and the focus just weren't where they should be when it came to special teams play. Some of it could be traced to the lack of a full spring and the disruptions of fall camp and the eight-game schedule which became just for games played.

This spring, the Rams have now had 14 uninterrupted practices under their belts in which to work on the units and the difference is telling.

"It's a huge thing. We do special teams every day," Thomas Pannunzio said. "Not every team is working on punt or kickoff return every day in spring ball, but that's something that we have a huge impact on, because we feel it's something that can really change the game for us."

From full periods devoted to each unit to individual skills work done with just special teams reps in mind, the Rams have set out to not give away the abundance of points they did a year ago. With just about every coach on staff involved in some way with special teams, the goal was to break it down and start from square one.

Teach the skills correctly. Drill them over and over. Not only create muscle memory, but develop the mind to accept how important each and every one of those plays are in the game.

"I think guys are understanding the importance of it," defensive coordinator Chuck Heater said. "If we didn't learn it last year, we'll never learn it. Guys are responding to coaching of the fundamentals of what we're teaching there, and we can see it in the tape. There's more urgency, more seriousness, more taking charge of it and ownership of it. I see that just in the mindset and the culture of special teams will be significantly improved from what happened a year ago.

"You're able to have a full spring here and really get the fundamental you want tough. But the culture of it obviously wasn't strong enough last year. It's easy mentally to play 80 lays of defense and take a play off on a kickoff cover team or punt cover team; it's like the first play of the defensive series really. It impacts how you call a game. They're understanding it better, and the coverage units are all defensive players, so they're all our guys. Hopefully we'll make the progress. It looks like we are. We like what we see, we like the meeting room and how people are responding back, using the same language. It encourages you they're hopefully moving in the right direction."

There's plenty of room to move, as they know. The Rams ranked 123^rd in net punting, a year after being a top-10 team. They ranked 116^th in punt return defense, 113^th in kick return defense.

Both return units ranked 36^th, and they'd like to see them move up, too.

"Just a big thing is everyone really having down pat their job and knowing what to do," Pannunzio said. "Last year in fall camp, we barely had any time with all the things going on with the team. It's being able for everyone to get their job done and go full steam ahead and when fall camps comes and the season. Once we get that done, I think we're going to get ready to roll."

In hindsight, three-time All-Mountain West punter Ryan Stonehouse took the issues back to fall camp. With players in an out and practices disrupted, there wasn't a continuity. Trying to learn new offensive and defensive schemes took precedence for the players.

The result was, in his mind, a lack of focus on plays which obviously made a huge impact in the outcome of two games.

Another layer he feels is important is the coaching staff can add what they learned about the players in a pieced-together 2020 season to what they are learning about the roster during the continuous spring work. And the coaches agree, they have a firmer grasp of the skillsets of each of the players and where

He says the Rams have learned their lessons as players, and the coaches have found better fits into the units. Combined, that's been a major positive.

"The special teams have gotten a lot better this spring. I think a lot guys are bought in and committed to special teams this year," he said. "I think everyone has a goal that we don't want to let what happened last year taint any games. I think especially at Boise State, special teams, we lost that game and it affected the whole game in general. I think we're playing a lot more together on special teams. I know punt has improved a ton, and it seems like our group right now is just meshing."

Now, same as last year, it's up to the players to turn it into action. Polendey said they have film of what it looks like if they don't.

And yes, they've gone over it again. And again. It makes an impact.

"First of all, I think special teams, at least two of those games as a team made us really sick. So every day, Coach Addazio and all of our coaches, they're all in there for every special teams meeting, and they're all involved," he said. "Again, it's just the details. We're trying to hone down and make sure whatever happened last year doesn't happen again."

Which would go a long way toward them seeing a much happier head coach.

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