Harsin scolds team for special teams issues

[WFE12 9,191]

Harsin scolds his football team for special teams shortcomings

Mark Murphy 

AUBURN, Alabama–Auburn managed to defeat a Top 10 opponent on Saturday night despite shortcomings with the Tigers’ special teams play. On Monday the head football coach of the Tigers, Bryan Harsin, was highly critical with that part of his team’s performance vs. Ole Miss and noted that a major point of emphasis in practice this week will be addressing those issues.

Among the problems that will need to be addressed:

*Demetris Robertson dropped a fair catch attempt on a punt return in the third quarter vs. Ole Miss, giving the Rebels outstanding field position at the Auburn 29-yard line.

*Auburn’s field position took a beating on kickoff returns with penalties ruining a 50-yard runback by Nehemiah Pritchett and a 30-yarder by Pritchett. The Tigers were also penalized on another kickoff return.

*The Tigers had not one, but two, delay of game penalties in the kicking game vs. Ole Miss. The first was on a point after touchdown and the other was on a field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.

*Anders Carlson was 1-2 on field goals, missing a 43-yard attempt that hit off the right upright on the Tigers’ opening possession of the third quarter.

With the exception of the punting by Oscar Chapman, who averaged 56 yards on his three attempts with no returns, there wasn’t a lot to be excited about regarding Auburn’s special teams play vs. Ole Miss.

Asked if the Tigers may make personnel changes on special teams this week, Harsin said that could happen.

“As many penalties as we had on kickoff returns we were ready to fair catch it, which is not our mentality,” he said about the kickoff returns. “For whatever reason Ole Miss was just kicking our butt or we just sucked at some of the stuff we were doing, flat out.

“You want to bring it out, and you want to be aggressive and give your guys a chance to return it. That’s why you spend all that time in practice and do those things. If we are just going to keep making those same mistakes, we’ll just fair catch it. Don’t block anybody and fair catch it and take it at the 25. We would be better off.

“Punt return, we work very hard at catching the football and giving our guys a chance,” the coach said. “That’s an area we have just got to get better. We have got to get better in our return game.

“I think it goes back 100 percent to how we practice and 100 percent how we prepare, or the lack thereof of guys studying special teams,” Harsin declared. “I don’t think guys study special teams like they need to. That’s an opportunity for us to go change the game and make the big play on teams.

“I don’t think we get the time, away from the meetings that we have, from guys to really be great in those areas. Guys need to step up. They need to watch more film and study and be better at those techniques in practice if we’re going to make any improvements in those areas.”

Next on the schedule is a 2:30 p.m. CDT road game at Texas A&M. Harsin said he wants to get his special teams issues fixed prior to arrival at Kyle Field as the 12th-ranked Tigers take on the 13th-ranked Aggies. Devon Achane is averaging 43.6 yards per kickoff return for the Aggies with one touchdown. Ainias Smith is average 14.3 yards per punt return with one touchdown. The Aggies have been good with their punting and field goals with Seth Small 14-18 on field goals and Nik Constantinou averaging 47.6 yards per punt.
 

Commenting on Texas A&M, Harsin said, “Special teams, all-around, they are very solid, they are explosive,” he said of the Aggies, who have returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns this season. “They have returners who can go, which you have got to be prepared for, that you have got to cover.

“We are going to get multiple looks from their punt team and some different areas,” Harsin said. “We have got to be on point in special teams.

“That is the area for us in the last game we had some penalties, we put the ball on the ground so we did not play as clean of a game on special teams as we wanted to. We were fortunate to win the game, but there were too many penalties, too many self-inflicted issues that we have got to correct. That will be our focus this week as we go into practice on Tuesday–cleaning all of those things up.”

[TigerPAC 991]

if we changed PR, who is next up after 0?

[tgrogan21 6,198]

4 minutes ago, TigerPAC said:

if we changed PR, who is next up after 0?

I would love for it to be Shivers. I think with PR you can't dance around after you receive it and Shivers is known to hit holes hard and fast (That's what she said).

[SRBautigerfan 1,040]

1 minute ago, tgrogan21 said:

I would love for it to be Shivers. I think with PR you can't dance around after you receive it and Shivers is known to hit holes hard and fast (That's what she said).

Would love to see Worm out there.  We need someone smart, confident and fearless returning punts.

[TigerPAC 991]

on the original depth chart from season's beginning....has 6 JJohnson listed as 2nd PR.  now, who knows what happens @ practice?

[CoffeeTiger 5,308]

As he should. It's not the "sexy" part of football, but special team mistakes can very often be the difference in determining close games. 

[AUlurker 178]

Javarrius muffed a punt a few games ago, and DRob replaced him since. Now, not sure who is after. Maybe Kaufman or Tennison.

[au302 2,669]

6 hours ago, TigerPAC said:

if we changed PR, who is next up after 0?

Johnson was not comfortable back there earlier in the season. I think they figured D-Rob would be sure-handed as a veteran. Would be surprised if Shivers gets a look. Personally wouldn't mind seeing Pritchett. Dude is explosive 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

It was a nasty night in the stadium. Windy, wet, and cold, I’m honestly surprised there weren’t more drops and fumbles. 

[AU-24 3,121]

There are just not a lot of coaches in the country with the spine to say things like this:

“For whatever reason Ole Miss was just kicking our butt or we just sucked at some of the stuff we were doing, flat out”

I for one, love it! 

[boisnumber1 2,830]

8 hours ago, au302 said:

Johnson was not comfortable back there earlier in the season. I think they figured D-Rob would be sure-handed as a veteran. Would be surprised if Shivers gets a look. Personally wouldn't mind seeing Pritchett. Dude is explosive 

Definitely prefer Pritchett over Shivers as PR - if Pritchett doesn't have trouble fielding the ball. Shivers running style/abilities are not conducive to PR at all.

[GAAubie 501]

1 hour ago, boisnumber1 said:

Definitely prefer Pritchett over Shivers as PR - if Pritchett doesn't have trouble fielding the ball. Shivers running style/abilities are not conducive to PR at all.

I love Worm, but exactly! He doesn't have the lateral movement for punt returner. Worm is more of a straight ahead kind of runner(see Tristan Davis and Corey Grant). 

[aubiefifty 17,343]

18 hours ago, tgrogan21 said:

I would love for it to be Shivers. I think with PR you can't dance around after you receive it and Shivers is known to hit holes hard and fast (That's what she said).

if you had used the name worm it would have worked better.........grins

[steeleagle 2,945]

4 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

Definitely prefer Pritchett over Shivers as PR - if Pritchett doesn't have trouble fielding the ball. Shivers running style/abilities are not conducive to PR at all.

totally agree too.

I like Shivers alot in certain situations like KOs, but as PR, no. It takes a guy wiht a lot of body flexibility to me, to handle the problems with a ball coming down all sorts of ways, and if it is short or sideways, I need someone with body flexibility. 

If Bo doesn't hit Shivers in the numbers, no telling where a pass ends up, bc its hard for him to make that body adjustment; 

Punt returning would  not be his strengths...

I still think J Johnson has the best build for it, but a guy back there has to be fearless and never be distracted or flinch. 

[boisnumber1 2,830]

5 hours ago, GAAubie said:

I love Worm, but exactly! He doesn't have the lateral movement for punt returner. Worm is more of a straight ahead kind of runner(see Tristan Davis and Corey Grant). 

Exactly. There has to be that wiggle combined with straight ahead speed. Worm is just straight ahead, seems somewhat musclebound to me, but Idk if that's what it is.

[boisnumber1 2,830]

2 hours ago, steeleagle said:

totally agree too.

I like Shivers alot in certain situations like KOs, but as PR, no. It takes a guy wiht a lot of body flexibility to me, to handle the problems with a ball coming down all sorts of ways, and if it is short or sideways, I need someone with body flexibility. 

If Bo doesn't hit Shivers in the numbers, no telling where a pass ends up, bc its hard for him to make that body adjustment; 

Punt returning would  not be his strengths...

I still think J Johnson has the best build for it, but a guy back there has to be fearless and never be distracted or flinch. 

It takes a special person. I still think back to Roderick Hood. He was a great PR. Full speed in 3 steps, and shifty without slowing at all.

[NoALtiger 3,873]

I absolutely love that Harsin called this out. Very refreshing to hear the man in charge verbalize what everyone else sees. And I’m not even just referring to any of our former coaches, refreshing to hear compared to most Head Coaches in general. Dude doesn’t play games or hide from stuff for sure.  

[wcware 1,365]

I would like to see Kobe returning punts. He may be the most fluid runner and maybe the most natural athlete on the entire team

[aucanucktiger 1,809]

Capers at PR would be a worthy experiment IMO.

[penguin149 391]

Kobe needs to hang onto the ball better. Fumbles at PSU and Ole Miss.