STC Michael Ghobrial on K Younghoe Koo

Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial talks about the upcoming matchup with the Packers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Try and beat the rain here. Hopefully everybody's staying warm.
U take questions, what's just been we've been like for you? Yeah,
obviously a change, uh in terms of scheduling, in terms
of just you know, obviously everything that's been been going on.
But you know, our jobs as coaches is to adapt
and uh obviously move on. You know, we have to

(00:21):
get ready to play a game here very soon against
really get a bonent in the Green Bay Packers, so challenging,
but uh, that's our job to rise to the challenge.
We'll just use the gami having in Chicago. I know
it was a windy day, but yeah, you know, and
it's nothing, nothing necessarily that we uh, you know, didn't
foresee the weather being an issue. Obviously going into Chicago,

(00:43):
you're always ready for that. And then you know, we
we had trained in weather that was actually going to
be similar. But the nature is of it is we
got to execute better. Part of windy days controls your
drop a little bit more so in terms of punting,
you know, holding onto the ball a little bit longer.
That would allow you to hit more pure of contact
to make sure that miss hit Towards the end of

(01:05):
the game, doesn't happen. And then on kickoff, you know,
obviously when the conditions are windy and it's cold and
that ball is not gonna fly more. What's more intentional
has got to be hitting the sweet spot of the football.
And I know Jamie wants to be better. We got
to be better and that's something that we will moving forward.

(01:25):
It's good Matt a different head coach. Is there a
demand for you know, significance. I guess significant's probably not
right where but like, you know, a decent amount of
changes or is it just like, hey, we're on short
time here, let's kind of stick to what we've been doing,
you know from that standpoint. You know, our special team system,

(01:46):
you know, has been in place and every week you
always are adding different wrinkles. So that's always ever evolving.
And you know, I think the nature of it is,
you know, regardless of the change or not, uh, the
players have to be confident in the system that they're running.
And a lot of that deals with going into this
next week with the fundamentals, the technique, the base schemes

(02:09):
of what we've done in the past. And you know,
we we've had success on special teams, had some blemishes
here and there across a couple of games. But you know,
for the most part, you know, I'm happy with where
our guys are at, you know, and I think we
obviously got to continue to work and continue to play
consistent football. And again big challenge this week against the Packers.

(02:29):
What happened a way? Uh, you know, I think he
kicked really well during the game. You know, he kicked
really well yesterday as well. So excited to see him
continue with more more reps, you know that comfort with
Jamie and Casey. But he's excited. You know, he's a
guy that obviously, as a true pro, was you know,

(02:53):
not necessarily waiting for his opportunity, but ready for his
opportunity when it presented itself. And I felt like he
took advantage of that. Did he ever heard on that tackle?
And alast No, I mean he like the nature of
it is like he he got in on a tackle,
but he was fine. I'm sorry. I mean, you get

(03:13):
there there was like a big custom wind right there
that you just saw that whole thing blow over all, right,
But no, you know, he kicked really well yesterday. Uh,
And uh, you know, we don't necessarily always want a
kicker getting active in on the tackles. But you know
who is who is a guy that you know doesn't
shy away from anything. The toughness of any football player

(03:37):
is embodied by him, regardless of the position that he plays.
To the city. Yep, yeah, Like what's what's your thought
presence on that? Like when do you pick and choose?
Like you don't do that all the time? Like that? Why?
And yeah? So yesterday was obviously a windy day, projected
weather comes Sunday is gonna call for some wind. You know,

(03:58):
could that die down? Absolutely, But on the two days
that he's projected a kicking, felt that it would be
a good idea for him to kick in the stadium.
And I know he in his career, he's always wanted
to kick in the stadium. There's something to be said
about the depth perception when you're in that stadium. The
backdrop is different, so feeling how far a forty five

(04:18):
yard field goal, a fifty two yard field goal feels
different out here than it does in the stadium, just
based off of the way the bleachers are set. And
every stadium is unique in that sense. You know, realistically,
you'd love to kick in every stadium before you actually
kick in it. But that's where having a veteran like
Kho who is kicked in stadiums across the league helps.
But obviously this being our home turf, he wants to

(04:40):
make sure that he treats it like his home turf,
and any opportunity we get to make him feel comfortable
in that stadium, we will. We talked take a couple
of work. When we talked to Graham, he was pretty
I don't know, competent. He wouldn't need to go on
IR again, did he get birth? He obviously didn't. I
ar hit before last game. So what happened? Yeah, to
ask calf on that UH with injuries, you know, the

(05:03):
fact of the matter is he was put on I R.
I know Graham as a competitor did not want that,
and you know his confidence going into this week was high.
But again can't speak to any of the injuries on that. Yeah,
Ben sALS, what what did you like about him? I mean,
obviously you bring in another kicker to have here. Is

(05:25):
it just a matter of liking his talent and seeing
what he has? Yeah? So coming out in the UH
this draft class, like we always evaluate every specialist coming
out and he was one of the ones that you know,
we had ranked pretty high. So get an opportunity to
work with him at some point, you know, I think
is important. You know, I think he's a young and
up and coming kicker. The talent is certainly there, and

(05:46):
him obviously kicking in weather conditions is really telling to
the success that he could have into this league. Obviously
kicking in Pittsburgh, in an NFL stadium when the weather
is cold, when the wind wind is prevalent, you know,
I think makes his value a lot higher. So excited
to work with him, see see where he's at. I
know it's really new here for him and for us

(06:07):
with him, but you know, he's a guy that you know,
we've obviously identified early on in the draft process that
were like, this guy has a chance to kick in
this league. So when an opportunity presents itself, would like
to work with him.