I'll add this about the on-side kick...I wasn't in favor of it at the time in the game. Thought with two time outs we should have started them on the 25 and played for the 3-and-out (and I'm not just parroting Danielson). Even though we were reeling defensively, you'd think a little momentum/confidence/ want to should have been recaptured and we could have forced a punt and a shorter field. Bad trade for a poor on-side try that resulted in a big, fat sh!t sandwich from the Game Over Deli. Like Zambo, Law, and others have commented, it looked like we hadn't even practiced it. Eddie's kick was with the topspin needed to induce the crazy high bounce, but it was not nearly at a sharp enough angle. Many teams will kick to their sideline and have coach or designated personnel as a target for the kicker. You can't completely overload the side you are kicking to anymore, but most will will use the faster, stronger LB-types to clear out the other team's good hands guys with one of our own coming behind to recover either the bounce or a bobble. If that was our plan...well, it never had a chance.
Special teams is about having 11 on each one with want-to. They have to be precise and efficient and give 100% effort with what they are trying to accomplish, whether it be block/return, kick cover/onside, etc. We are not efficient and that is glaring right now. Calloway's goofs on the fair catches, to me, reek of not enough coaching on that aspect. I know he's a threat to take one back anytime, but he can't be a threat to f**k up the fair catches inside the 10.
Some of you guys will get a big chuckle at this, but when I was early in my coaching career, I learned that spec teams were to be a phase of equal importance to offense and defense. We had pre-practice Monday through Wednesday for the kickers and returners and everybody else learned a lane assignment and practiced coverage. We then spent at least thirty minutes on all of the kick and coverage units and the Thursday walk-through was mostly spec teams with practiced substitutions. It was a strength of our teams and we had a great punt returner a couple of years who was very sure handed. We walled a lot of punts and he usually got good yardage on the returns, but he was also very efficient with the fair catches. Back then when the punt warranted it, he'd put his heels on the 10 and never touch one over his head. If he saw that one was going behind him, he would quickly step up a couple of yards while waving for the fair catch and more often than not the cover team would slow up and surround him. He'd even complete the fake with a phony catch, elbows in. I can't tell you how many balls trickled harmlessly into the end zone. That kid was Kirby Smart! I know the punt-to-pin game has changed somewhat, but I'm not crazy about our approach, especially as ours looks more like an after thought. Again, the whole phase looks in need of new energy and schematic overhaul.
