Perry Feeling New, but Feeling Good

His title is the same. And in essence, while his task is the same, Tommy Perry feels brand new again a few decades into coaching football.

"It was almost like a different job," Colorado State's special teams coordinator said. "It really was like I just took a new job, like when I first got here. Here's the difference is that I know what Coach (Jay) Norvell wants. So that answers a lot of my questions for me. I don't have to go into his office all the time and burden him because he's got a lot of other stuff he's got to deal with. I know what problems he wants fixed. And I generally know how he wants to fix the problems.

"This demeanor of this team is just so different. Like they're so optimistic. The last team was so focused on the details because they were just so tired of losing and I thought we did a really good job of convincing the guys that are no longer here anymore, that if you want to turn this thing around, it starts on teams."

For the past couple of years, Perry had a group of linchpins on the four main units for punt and kickoff. He had spent time teaching a Jack Howell and a Henry Blackburn, had complete trust in Peter Montini and Dane Olson. They're all gone now.

Not that there aren't some dependable players returning, but many of them will be asked to fill in the gaps even more, while also bringing along the next wave. The stressed importance of the units will never wain under Perry, but he has to get the next wave up to speed.

"I know Coach Perry does a good job expressing that importance of special teams. We all understand there's a few games that we won because of special teams and what we did on teams, so he stresses that importance and we all take it very seriously, so we keep working on that," linebacker Drew Rodriguez said. "I'm just trying to be a vocal leader, do better at that, try and make sure everyone knows what they're doing, and as myself, just trying to lead by example on special teams."

Perry's units will feature fresh faces at key spots. Walker Himebauch will handle long-snapping duties, and while Bryan Hansen will still perform kickoffs, he will add the roles of holder and punter to his game-day activities. Placekicking will now be handled by Isaiah Hankins, a transfer from Baylor who has looked impressive in camp.

Important pieces, all. But the wave of teammates who help cover those kicks and those who try to create lanes to break returns all have to be taught the system. Luckily for them, Perry is not the type of guy who forces square pegs into round holes.

The goals are always the same – to rank in the top 10 nationally by the metrics they use – but the way to go about it has to fit the roster at hand. He spent a good portion of spring camp teaching but also observing. Not just where some of the new roster additions could fit, but how could he use them best. What the Rams aren't loaded with is experience, but that's OK. That will come, and Perry will find a way to take the makeup of this group and create success.

He has a bright outlook because they do.

"This is a very optimistic group. This is a very fun group, but the way that I teach and what I'm teaching has had to change drastically," Perry said. "I mean, that's why I'm a coach. I can't just … I'm not throwing any shade at professors or anything, but I can't just get up on the screen with the same PowerPoint and just go through the same PowerPoint. That would be a recipe for disaster with this group.

"Like this group is, I never have to tell them to try harder. I never have to tell them to work harder or to run faster. I just need to make sure that they are paying attention to the details and not just all piss and vinegar, cowboy stuff."

CJ Blocker isn't new to special teams; he played a role at Utah, but he was pleasantly surprised to see the emphasis put on the units by not just Perry, but the entirely of the coaching staff. There isn't a serious football player on the planet who doesn't understand the impact the third phase of the game can hold on an outcome, particularly in games early on the schedule.

He came in ready to do his part, immediately sensing they were going to get right down to figuring things out.

"Man, day one. Day one when I came, they were stressing just special teams, special teams," Blocker said. "I'd never been around like a team that emphasizes so much on special teams.

"The success shows how much you emphasize on everything. You're going to have success if you pay attention to detail. And that's one thing I picked up when I first came, how just attention to detail everything is. Honestly, it just feels comfortable. At first it was different having to really lock in on so many components, but now I'm just being able to play free."

Free enough he views himself as a Swiss Army Knife ready to take part on all four units.

In some regards, some of the experience which graduated is still around. Rodriguez spent time working with Montini in the past, studying him and copying his movements and techniques. Now he finds himself in a position to not only use the lessons himself but pass them along. He, too, expects to be a regular contributor.

"Coach Perry will teach the technique, and I just try and follow it as best I can because I know what Coach Perry teaches is gonna work on the game field. We saw it last year," he said. "Pete Montini, watching him use the technique, he was a killer on special teams. So, trying to use Coach Perry's technique on the field, it will help me get off blocks, block better, stuff like that."
Perry won't precisely predict how the units will perform in the opener – there are just too many moving pieces making debuts with the assignments. No one is ever sure how players getting their first action will perform under the bright lights, on national television, in front of a packed crowd. A coach, like the players, just needs to see it and do it, and eventually, find calm.

Perry is confident this year's group will find a rhythm, though their drumbeat will be different. As he noted, those who played crucial roles in the past were tired of losing and saw the units as a path to victory. If somebody made a mistake, Perry didn't have to police the players, they did that themselves.

They were feisty about it, and to some degree, very serious. And it worked. That doesn't mean an altered approach by the replacements won't. Besides, they have their own strengths for Perry to work with and mold.

"You know, it's got to be, you know, repeated. It's got to be shown on tape and then it's got to be reinforced out on the field. But the energy is awesome.

"I haven't gotten any I'm too good for special teams. There hasn't been any of that," Perry said. "Our team captains that were elected, they're all in on special teams and some of our better players on special teams too.

"It's been good, but it's been more of a learning curve on my part, trying to identify exactly what kind of a team we have and the best way to relay that information to those guys so that we can have a fast, violent, but sound special teams unit. And it's going to look different than it has in the past. And that's OK."

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Henry Blackburn

CJ Blocker

Isaiah Hankins

Bryan Hansen

Walker Himebauch

Jack Howell

Peter Montini

Dane Olson

Drew Rodriguez

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