Why Kickers Are Their Own Special Teams Coaches

Having a bad operation might not be "your fault" but it is definitely "your problem" to fix.

Hey, Brendan Cahill 👋 here

Happy Saturday morning to 500+ smart, motivated, and good looking subscribers

Here is one short tip on how to get recruited.

Today’s article takes about 2 minutes to read.

Enjoy

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“My snapper sucks,”

“My holder is terrible,”

“This wind is nuts!”

“My coach hates kickers!”

These are the typical lamentations I hear mediocre kickers utter to try and explain away their poor performance as somehow not their fault.

While it might be “your fault”, it is still “your problem” to fix.

Great players in any sportfully own their performance, good and bad.

And, as unfortunate as it is that there is not more support for kickers in the game of football - a position that makes up for more scoring cumulatively season-to-season than any quarterback does - it is reality.

We need to live in it accordingly.

I had a great conversation with Ravens Special Teams Assistant Coach Randy Brown once and he had a line I always remember:

High school kickers are responsible for their snapper and holder, period.

You almost need to become a pseudo special teams coordinator on your team for yourself since, odds are, no one on your high school staff knows how to do it nor wants to.

There are few coaches in high school who would get mad at a kicker of theirs who came to them saying:

Coach, I really want to help us score more points and win more games next year. If you might be open to it, can I try to find 1-2 snappers and 1-2 holders and a younger freshmen to teach how to snap, hold and kick so we’re ready to go day 1 preseason?

There is no down in football that makes a coach stay up at night like fourth down and the more predictable you make it, the more likely they are to give you an opportunity to play.

What keeps most great kickers off the field in high school, and college (to a lesser extent) is not their kicking, it’s the coach’s faith in the snap, hold, and blocking operation.

The time to find your holders and snapper isn’t day one of the preseason, it’s right now.

And, while all these summer camps and ranking camps are nice to compete at, you are largely kicking off of sticks, and 95% of the kickers, punters, and snappers who will go to them will not be offered a spot at camp as most college staffs will wait to corroborate their assessment of you with your senior game tape.

They can’t do that if you never get on the field.

Your playing time is in your hands.

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That’s all for this weekend. 1 short recruiting tip.

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See you next weekend!

Brendan