UConn FB Special Teams Coach Doug Shearer - August 16

The 3rd year Special teams Coach on his new specialists, how he wants the grooup to improve and Coach Mora

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So how's the grand of camp going with a new
group of special teamers. It's been fun. Where I was
fifteen practice is in so we've got a bunch of
reps for these guys. Coach Moore does an awesome job
during practice of creating game like reps, which I think
is probably most important. You know, you have a punt period,
you have a field goal period, but that's not realistic
to a game. You know, these guys that got to
come off the sideline and do their job and they
got one shot to do it. So I think we've

(00:22):
had a really good opportunity, whether we've been in the
stadium or here, you know, on campus, of putting them
in those spots and so it's been fun. You know,
they're gelling. You know, it's awesome because we've had Chris
and Connor since January, so we were able to see
him through springball, which was great. So you know, I
think they're really confident, they're mature, they're intentional on how
they work, and really excited to see them kind of

(00:42):
keep putting their fun in the gas the last two
weeks and get ready to play some football. You want
to see the most improvement as far as ours. Yeah,
I want to see us to be a little bit
more explosive, you know, I want to see us change
the game more in field position. You know, we've won
the hitting yardage battle here ten times in the last
two years, and we're nine to one of those games.
I mean, that's a that's a crazy percentage, that's a
ninety percentage. When we want the hitting yards battle, we've

(01:04):
got to do it more. And that's not always going
to be maybe a touchdown or maybe a blocked kick
or a punt, even though that's what we're looking for
and every and every time we're out there, but it
may just be tackling him inside the twenty five every
time on kickoff coverage. It might be getting a touch
back more. And Chris is going to provide us that
because of what he's done before at other places, and
you know, maybe downy Pooch punts more consistently. We had

(01:26):
too many touchbacks last year, you know, you know, we're
always that, always one guy away, and you can't have that.
On those plays we don't get another chance. So I'm
looking forward to us to be more explosive and we'll
see where that takes us. And I really feel like,
we have the pieces to get that done. We'll just
chip away at it. In the pump return game, we
didn't see I there was a lot of return punts
last year. Sure, a lot of fair catches. Yeah, so

(01:47):
I see Jackson out there. That's a feilding something to
the expectation to return more punts. Yeah, you know, we
we've definitely worked out returning more punts and and doing
a better job in the return game. You know, we've
been probably a little bit more of a block team,
you know, in the past. So sometimes when you're going
for the blocked punt and you don't get it, there's
not as many people walking for the returners, so there's
more guys in this face early. But also I just

(02:09):
feel like that's kind of how it goes in college football.
You know, there's not a lot of opportunities on that unit.
So we always tell the guys on pump return you
got to expect the unexpected. The one time they OutKick
their coverage, the one time it's a line drive and
it's short in the middle of the field, we've got
to take advantage of it. And we have put more
emphasis on that. But you know, we're going to be
able to do whatever the game situation provides us. Is
there anyone else like I know last year, you know,

(02:30):
like Chris Hudson really kind of sure, sure freshman, sure unit.
Is there anybody else you see who that can be
a young guy or someone who hasn't played a whole
lot recently. Yeah, you think he's going to shine this year. Yeah,
it's a great question. You know, I think we have
a bunch of really good linebackers that are going to
help us. You know, Julian Simon is a transfer. You know,
he's done a great job on a lot of our units.
Umar who was a freshman last year, he's a retro

(02:50):
freshman this year. He's a developmental player. Jackson Harper stepping up,
like you mentioned, catching some punch for us. You're going
to see you know, Jada mel Brown out there as well,
whether it be as a returner or a gunner. You know,
Hudson obviously again is just going to continue to increase
his role to change the game. You know, caln Ville
in the way. But one of our backup linebackers has
done a really good job for us. You know, John

(03:12):
Bechtel was a big time special teams player for US.
In twenty twenty two. Unfortunately towards acl last year. He's
a guy that we trust on a lot of these units.
So you're gonna see a bunch of those guys out there.
So there are a lot of young guys that are
stepping up, and there's a few that I'm not ready
to name, but I think they're gonna help us. So yeah,
so this year three for you, how's it different? Yeah?

(03:32):
Every year I think is different. You know, no matter
what you did the year before, good or bad, no
matter what you did the game before, good or bad,
you got to do it again, and you got to
prepare again. And what's been fun is you know, you
know what Coach Moore is gonna expect, you know what
the schedule is going to look like. So it was
really this year. I'm not gonna say easier, but it
was better for us to look ahead and know exactly

(03:53):
how to plan this thing out. We've had camp plan
for months and we've stuck to that plan. And sometimes
you got to plan this thing ahead of time when
you're calm and there's not a lot going on and
there's not a lot of changes just yet we've planned
it ahead of time. We've adjusted as we've gone, but
so it's been nice to plan ahead and prepare that way,
you know. And I feel like we have some guys,
some returner pieces and some of these specialists that are
a little bit older. I know they're new, but they're

(04:15):
older guys, and I think that's going to help us
take a step. Have you noticed a difference in Jim
now that he is just strictly the head coach. Yeah,
it's a little bit more like year one, you know.
And it's awesome for me as a special teams coordinator
because now he's not as much worried about the next period.
He's able to focus on that period and help me
and help the guys understand the importance of those units.

(04:35):
And he's helping me coach drills, and you know, he's
standing there next to the kicker or the punter, or
the shields or the guys on pump returner. He's helping
with coaching points, and he sits in all my meetings.
He's always done that, which is huge. When the head
coaches in your meetings. It just shows how important it
is for these guys in the football team. And you know,
it's been awesome to get him to help during practice

(04:55):
because he is just the head coach and this is
what he wants to do. And I think he's in
a really good spot when he does that, and it
helps our team.