USC Morning Buzz: Should Special Teams Have Its Own Coach?

SARK.BC

With USC special teams a mixed bag, Steve Sarkisian was asked if he would hire someone who only coached those units. Johnny Nansen coaches special teams and running backs.

“In this day and age, every special teams coach that I can think of in college football coaches a position,” Sarkisian said. “It’s just part of the job.”

But Kansas State is one program that does not have the special teams coach do anything else. Full story here

Can USC finish the season without any more drama? Here’s my story on all the crazy things that happened so far this season. Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin shows up this week’s Bottom Ten.

37 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Should Special Teams Have Its Own Coach?

  1. Wolf here is a prime idea. We are obviously not going to learn our
    lesson. Maybe you need to comprise several articles on ethics. Maybe an ethical Trogan handbook that all these so called fans will be required to study. We can have a Ethical Trogan 101 mandatory class for all students.

  2. You’d be the poster boy for that. Now, on to the discussion at hand. IMHO, it is very short sided of Sarkissian to not have a full time special teams coach. This one area of the game that can change the momentum of a tight game in a hurry. If you go back to last seasons UCLA game, USC constantly gave UCLA a short field to work with due to horrendous punting and kickoff coverage. I also believe that tomorrows Utah game will come down to specials teams play, and Utah is excellent in that area.

    • Utah’s special teams coach, Jay Hill, has coached special teams for Whittingham since 2005 and since then has always also coached TEs, CBs or RBs.

  3. Scottie: could it be that, being down by over 30 scholarship players, we don’t have the optimal personnel to man special teams and hiring a special teams coach would not fix any problems?

    Note to Scottie: Kansas State is not the perennial football powerhouse we want to model our program after. Just because you found one school with a dedicated special teams coach only means there are 999 others without one.

    • I agree… heck, we almost lost Adoree Jackson on that one kickoff return last weekend when got hit and twirled around like a helicopter…

    • What’s USC’s record against Bill Snyder at KSU ? Oh that’s right 0-2.

      Yes, KSU isn’t a perennial powerhouse, but Snyder’s got more coaching brains in the tip of his pinky than Sark does in his fat head.

      • You’re absolutely right. Let’s use 2 data points to make our argument as opposed to hundreds of games, rankings, national championships, Heisman winners.

        I think some of that Wolfian logic has rubbed off on you dude.

      • Nobody doubts Snyder is a better coach than Sark. History shows that. Does that mean that every team should have a special teams coach with no other responsibilities?

        Well, there are many superior college coaches who don’t have special teams coaches who do nothing else. Wolfie apparently doesn’t know this. Duh.

        Also, special teams has a lot to do with player numbers. Filling gaps here is obviously difficult for USC and I hope players like Adoree Jackson’s responsibilities can be cut back.

  4. Sark’s an idiot, but he’s just following in the footsteps of his mentor PC who thought special teams were an annoyance. All one has to do is look at last weeks’ Rams v Seattle game to see how a good special teams coach can win you a game you shouldn’t win.

  5. So you found one program that has a dedicated ST coach as your rebuttal? Are you missing brain cells?

  6. Scott Wolf is the Henry Abbott of the college football world. A degenerate shock reporter, who uses “sources” to bash or paint a negative picture of the program, and constantly rehashes stupid stories that he bred and continues to keep alive. The USC Trojans are 5-2, 1st place in the South (over UCLA, the national powerhouse this year, lol), with the biggest game of the year on Saturday. But Scottie is so concerned with getting more information on Lendale White and Lane Kiffin. Loser.

  7. Wolf how about you just try and finish the season without making yourself look even more stupid and hateful. Have you considered selling insurance or something? You would be good at pointing out things that could go wrong.

  8. USC Morning Buzz: Should The Daily News Get A New Beat Writer To Cover USC Football?

    YES!

    (Do not delete my post, I know the truth hurts)

  9. Just for the record, Wolf crucified Kiffin for having John Baxter as full time special times coach and having the defensive staff down one position. Now he’s criticizing Sark for the exact opposite.

  10. Sark should get rid of the full-time TE coach and give that spot to a full-time ST coach. It’s that simple. One guy for TE’s? It’s a waste of a position coach. Give it to a guy who can dedicate his job to studying all the details to make the ST better. Nansen coaching both RB and ST will inevitably not have enough time to do both. And if Nansen was to have a priority, you know he’s going to give it to the RB’s.

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