Ross Els Explains New Philosophy of Spartan Special Teams
East Lansing, MI—Ross Els is the Spartan football team’s special teams coordinator.
Special teams are one-third of the game and often overlooked. Els took the time to explain his general philosophy and the direction he will take the program.
His thoughts were very enlightening.
“As far as a general philosophy, no different from anybody else, we want to run, we want to be aggressive and as tough as we can; we’re not a passive special team unit. As far as the personnel we have right now, I’m excited because whenever you have a good defense, you usually have good special teams. I think Michigan State is known for their strong defense, so we should be good in the special team area also. We do have some specialist positions to fill; that’s one of my biggest concerns right now. I don’t know who our punt returner is going to be; I don’t know who our punter is going to be. I’m assuming Matt (Coghlin) will come back 100 percent and be ready to do a great job as our kicker, but I don’t know who our kickoff guy is going to be, so that’s going to be interesting. Then as far as divvying up responsibilities, we will do that. We’re getting through the introductory phase right now with our players, so I’m not ready to say who’s going to do what unit, etcetera. The coaches have bought in; they’ve been great in meetings, a lot of advice because a lot of guys have done a lot of special teams work, this is a veteran staff, and they’re all excited about special teams.”
The Spartans kick off the season on September 5, 2020. They will be hosting in the Northwestern Wildcats with a rare, season-opening Big Ten game.
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