Penn State Sports Magazine
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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> school, but he started to do it in practice. Well, he can't catch 250 punts during practice. He's got corner work. So deci- sion-making, reading the ball off the foot – Is it short? Is it long? – all of those things come with reps. From a kick-return perspective, Miles will continue to be back there. Brandon Polk coming back off his injury will be back there. Saquon [Barkley] is going to return more kicks this year. Nick Scott did it as a freshman. We moved him around to play some other spots, but he's going to be back there. So we have some options. BWI In terms of confidence, Lamont Wade stands out as a guy who has it. HUFF It's the same thing [as with Reid]. It's a good problem to have, but you've got to be smart. He's a true freshman with the possibility of playing some quality reps on defense. What can he handle? You as a coach have to make some decisions. You don't want to lose the game on a kick return or punt return, either. Jesse Della Valle, [Gregg] Garrity – we knew those guys were going to field the ball, catch it, get it back to our of- fense. But if you put it on the ground, now special teams didn't give you a chance for offense. As a coach, you've got to be mindful of who you put back there and why. There were some times last year when we used John and we said, hey, we've got a chance for a good re- turn. Sometimes we used [Garrity] and we said, hey, we're in a good spot right now, let's not flip any momentum. Let's get it caught, get it fielded, and whatever happens after that, we'll line the offense up and go from there. BWI Is John Reid a huge loss for you guys as a punt returner? HUFF Any time you lose a player it's a huge loss, because you're not just losing a player, you're losing a teammate, you're losing confidence, you're losing experience, you're losing wisdom. I do think because of where we are in the re- cruiting process, we have more options now. Will those options turn out to be electric? Who knows? But we have more options. BWI The coverage teams seemed to be pretty good last season. Do you look for improvement there as well? HUFF I think you always want to see improvement. At one point in the sea- son, we were the No. 1 kick-cover team in the Big Ten, and I think we ended fourth or fifth. You always want to see improvement, because the more domi- nant those coverage units can be, the more risk/reward you can take on of- fense and defense, the more risk/reward you can take on kickoff and punt re- turns. The more dominant those cover- age teams are, the more consistent you're going to play on offense and de- fense. If [the opponent is] starting with an 80-yard field every time, you feel real comfortable about the calls you make, the guys you play. If they've got to go 80 yards, I'm more likely to put a younger player in and let him get two or three reps than if they've got to go 20 yards. BWI Is that a retraining program every year for the younger guys on the cover- age teams? HUFF Once again, the scheme is good. When you put in really good players, the scheme dominates. So now you're able to plug and play. You take your really good players and you plug them in at a place where they can eliminate the thinking and play with their ability. I'm not going to ask them to know what a junior or senior in college would know from a football standpoint, but I'm going to ask them to do what they do well: run, be physical, get down the field as fast as they can. That's it. Then the flip side from a scheme standpoint is that you put players around those guys who you know are going to make [good decisions]. Brandon Smith is probably an unsung hero. You put Brandon Smith around Juwan [John- son] and Irv [Charles], and their ability is going to push the ball to Brandon Smith, or Brandon Smith's discipline and experience are going to push the ball to them. So you're not just grabbing 11 fast guys and saying, hey, go down there and tackle. One of the guys who played really well for us and actually led the team in spe- cial teams tackles [last season] was Ayron Monroe. He was out a good part of the beginning of the season with an injury and came back and played really well. Ayron plays really well when he doesn't have rules. When you let him free play and use his ability, he plays well. If you move him around and give him some rules, he starts thinking and he plays a little slower. So knowing that as a coach, you've got to put him in a po- sition where his reactions and actions don't hurt the scheme. BWI In the past, Penn State didn't nec- essarily have sure things at place-kicker and punter, but it seems like that's pretty much taken care of now. HUFF Yeah. Tyler Davis did an unbe- lievable job. Having Joey [Julius] as a kickoff guy allowed both of those guys to be really good. In the past, Penn State had one guy try to do both. Obviously, you have a job, and if you had to do two people's jobs, you may be good at it but you're not going to be great at either one. So if you split that up, I think it helps. It also helps to allow a younger kicker to be active, to be still playing the game, not waiting in the wings. If you could play two quarterbacks, how much better is the second quarterback going to be? So I think it helps. And I think Tyler being a mature player and a mature per- son, I think it helped him focus and streamline. He's cool. Having success helps. Us being better offensively and defensively helped. It didn't put as much pressure on the guy. If he's going out there every single time and it's 3-0, there's a little more pressure. BWI How do you approach kick and punt blocks? Do you consider those to be things you can control? HUFF Each week, we have blocks of the week that we think we can [use to] schematically attack the opposing scheme. It's no different than when you call a go route or when you call a play- action pass. It's the feel of the game: When is it the right time to go after a punt? When is it the right time to set up a return? When is it the right time to keep the defense out there? You've got SEE HUFF PAGE 101