Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
2 0 1 9 S E A S O N P R E V I E W has nothing to do with talent. All of a sudden, a team starts on the 35-yard line. That might not seem like a very big deal to people, but starting six times on the 35-yard line is massive. It's a major, major difference, especially in close games. The opening kickoff of the season goes for a touchdown. Those are things that stuck out. And again, I really wasn't looking at it to make a judgment on play- ers or coaches or anything else. I was just seeing what I walked into and trying to give it a framework from what I know. BWI Do you look at rankings? LORIG What I look at more is the specifics. Sometimes they include field goal and field goal block in that stuff, and field goal block is really hard to chart. I just look at where we are. I pay attention to the big four, primarily. BWI Which are? LORIG Punt, punt return, kickoff, kickoff return. I've done it for years. I did it back at Arizona State back in the old days. But I look at where we are in the country, where we are [in the confer- ence]. Penn State, last year, take punt. I always want to know where we ranked in the conference and where we ranked in the country. So Penn State on punt was seventh in the Big Ten, 68th in the coun- try. On kickoff, we were 11th in the Big Ten and 84th in the country. So I always want to know, what does it take to win our conference, to be the best in our conference, and what does it take to be the best in the country? That's kind of my benchmark, and that change year to year, depending on what kind of year that particular conference is hav- ing, what kind of a year the country is having. Some years there aren't many punt returns. Some years there aren't many kickoff returns. So those are the benchmarks that I use. I'm a numbers guy, and this one is clear-cut to me. BWI I'm always curious about punting because, for instance, last year Blake Gillikin was punting on the opponent's half of the field a lot, and maybe that skews his punting stats. LORIG You've got to be careful with stats that way. I used to have a huge poster in my office that said "Stats are for losers." You do have to know them, but you also have to know, if you're any kind of mathematical person, that stats can be skewed how you want them to be skewed. As a defensive coordinator [you could say], We were great against the run! Yeah, because everyone threw the ball against us. So you've got to balance a little bit of stats with what reality is. I like to live in reality. Film doesn't lie. So for instance, if you're in that situation, your net punt might not be very good, but maybe you're doing a great job pinning the ball on the 10-yard line and they've got to start there, but your net wasn't very good. So I do think you've got to take it with a grain of salt. … It's your job to know [the stats], but I don't focus on those things. I'm a human being, so I can say, is he playing at a championship level or is he not? That's it. It's simple. Can we win a championship with how he played? Yes or no. That's pretty black- and-white, I know, but sometimes you can get paralysis by analysis with some of the stats. I think you have to know them. I think it's one piece of the puzzle. For me it's not the ultimate piece of the puz- zle. BWI Can you win a championship with the special teams guys that you have currently? LORIG We've added a piece that we can now compete with, absolutely. We'll have the best kicker in the country and the best punter in the country and one of the best returners in the country. A lot of people don't realize. They think special teams are about the team, and they are about the team. However, if you don't have a punter, a kicker, a snapper and a returner, the rest doesn't matter. I'm being literal. [If] we've got a bunch of good players and we have just an OK kicker, well, that doesn't work. Because how high that ball goes, how many touchbacks that guy has, how many go out of bounds – that stuff is all going to be a major, major factor. You can have 10 trained killers, and if your kicker isn't good you're not going to be good. As a special teams guy, I know that. Can we win a championship? As long as we have a great punter, check, great kicker, check, great field goal guy, check, great returner, check, absolutely. Now, you need the oth- ers. On offense, do we have a quarter- back? Great. Now all the other pieces, let's get them. BWI Let's start with Blake Gillikin. LORIG Great punter, great kid, great person. I expect really good things out of MEET THE NEW BOSS After spending the past three seasons at Memphis, Lorig took over Penn State's special teams in March. Photo by Nate Bauer