How Penn State Plans to Avoid the Special Teams Meltdown

Special teams are testing coaches' patience this season. Penn State's Joe Lorig hopes dodge that issue.

Joe Lorig's phone grew hot when the Atlanta Falcons botched a late onside kickoff in last Sunday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys. As Penn State's special teams coach, Lorig is used to such occasions.

So the texts from fellow assistants, as well as a phone call from head coach James Franklin, didn't surprise. In fact, they reminded Lorig why he considers himself fortunate to be at Penn State.

"I was working out about a half-hour ago and [Franklin] texted me and had an idea," Lorig said Thursday on the Penn State Coaches Show. "That's something that I love about him. No. 1, it shows you his attention to detail with everything in our program. But whenever he does that, it shows he cares about special teams. He's thinking about it. A lot of head coaches will give it lip service, but they're not thinking about it."

Special teams have been a thorn for college football teams this season, as the COVID-19 pandemic made coaches alter practices and accept some tradeoffs. Special teams seem to get left out, even at the NFL level.

They made a glaring impact on the Falcons-Cowboys game, which ended with one of the most inexplicable recovery efforts ever by an NFL team. Dallas turned the transgression into the game-winning field goal.

For Lorig, Penn State's second-year special teams coach, that film will be on a training loop.

"We take 8-10 plays every week from college and the NFL and through the week in our meetings we use them as teachable moments for our guys so we can try to learn from other people's mistakes or fortunes," Lorig said. "Certainly that was a glaring one for the whole country [to see] and for us to use and try to learn from before those things happen to us."

In his first year at Penn State, Lorig transformed special teams from mistake to fortune. The Lions in 2019 tied for second nationally (with Cotton Bowl opponent Memphis) in special teams efficiency, according to ESPN. That was up more than 20 spots from the previous season.

Penn State also was among the Big Ten's best in blocked kicks (1st), blocked punts (1st) and net punting (3rd). So how can the Lions maintain that level of special teams? It won't be easy.

With no spring practice and only four days of August training camp, Penn State will be playing catch-up, particularly on offense, when camp resumes. As such, squeezing in special teams periods will be difficult but vital.

Lorig likes his special-teams players, particularly those who might return kicks, but called on-field preparations a "challenge" so far. He compensated with more in-depth video teaching sessions but ultimately will lean on his core value in special teams: Make it as simple for the players as possible.

"You only get so much time," Lorig said on the Coaches Show. "No matter how much your head coach believes in special teams, you only get 10, 15 or the most I've ever seen is 20 minutes a day [in practice]. And if you get too carried away, it's easy to get away from the fundamentals, which is really what makes the difference in football overall but definitely in special teams.

"So a big part of that is, our players believe in what we’re telling them. We've got great players, great schemes that are simple, and now we're going to keep it simple to allow you to play fast."

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