Spring Day 9: Banks, Bertolet talk special teams

Jeff Banks

“I think, number one, you analyze last season — which I did, without bias and without coaches' opinions on the staff from before that were here, including Coach Sumlin. I made my own opinion and he’s got unbelievable talent; he’s got a great leg.

“There were some fundamental things from the first game of the season against Florida to the last game of the season. He really struggled on approaching the football, so what we did was take out all of the questions of approaching the football and made it simpler for him and more relaxed. From there, as far as foot contact, follow through and all that, there’s a lot of ways to do it. You have to be careful as a coach giving him too much information and him being a robot and being too mechanical. It’s a soccer-style, fluid movement.

“What he’s done a great job of is listen to me in certain aspects, but really continue to try to be comfortable out there. Now, we continue to speed up and continue to speed up and try to get the ball out faster, which is where we’re at right now for the last two weeks, so that we’re ready for a game next Saturday night. That’s kind of been our approach.

“I’m really impressed with how hard he’s worked. I’m really impressed with how much he’s been coachable after having three different coaches.”

On comparing Bertolet’s improvement to punter Drew Kaser’s…

“They both came with an open mind. Sometimes they come and they’ve got the answers. A lot of kickers and punters are a lot like quarterbacks. It’s a very technical position: where you put your foot, where you put the ball, if you’re a punter, or where you place the ball, when you’re a kicker, on your foot. All of these things are pretty technical.

“Having done it before, they have some sort of respect for me already as I walked in. Now, all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute. This guy has been in our spot.’ I think half of that isn’t the technical aspect; it’s how to coach it. You got to be careful on what you tell these guys. More importantly, you have to continue to build them up mentally.

“What they did, is they came in and they both thought they were just okay to average. When I came in, I said ‘You guys have great legs, and I’m real excited to work with you.’ Then, it was, ‘Wait a second. This guy believes in us right off the bat.’ Now, they’ve proven it. I’ve given them that opportunity and they went out time after time.

“Drew has had three great scrimmages. Sometimes the placement’s not there, but we’re doing a little bit of a new style of punting for him. He’s hit balls over 65-70 yards. I mean, some of the best that I’ve seen, as a coach, in fifteen years. I am really excited about Drew. Drew has probably come along a little quicker, but he had to because he was behind.

“Taylor played last season. Taylor had experience. Taylor knew what a good kick was and what a bad kick was. Drew didn’t know what we were doing and what our scheme was going to be. Now, he’s really adapted well and he’s just kind of hit the ground running.”

On what made him want to join this coaching staff…

“I’ve known Coach Sumlin for about nine years. Since I’ve been at UTEP, we’ve competed against each other. He worked for Mike Price, so we had a common bond, my ex-coach that I coached for and played for. Mike Price had lot of good things to say about Kevin Sumlin early in his career as an assistant at Oklahoma. Then, I followed him and we played each other. It was kind of like, ‘This is my biggest game to prove that we’re going to beat them on special teams at the University of Houston.’

“We became really close, texted each other all the time after wins and losses in the Conference USA. I was so excited to see him come to Texas A&M. Then, going to Virginia was a great move for me in a big-time situation, to go to the ACC from Conference USA, but in the long run, Kevin is a real good friend of mine, number one. I really respect the job he does as a head coach. He’s a family guy. I have three kids and I’m married and I appreciate that.

“Then, to come back to Texas and be in the SEC was just something I couldn’t pass up.”

On what it’s like to coach two guys who can really boom the ball…

“That’s a great question. I was hearing, ‘Well, we missed this many extra points’ and ‘Drew’s never kicked in a game, except for two years ago,’ and I’m going ‘Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me?’ Then the snapping situation, Jake Matthews is snapping, and immediately I say, ‘Well, I don’t want our left tackle snapping and covering,’ yet, he was the best guy.

“To come in and to have, first of all, two snappers in Ortega and Freeman be consistent and be able to eliminate Jake from having to long snap; then, secondly, to have Taylor do so well and have drew be so powerful; now, it’s my job to keep those three positions consistent, but we definitely have the talent level. Now, we have to go out and perform in a game situation.”

On how to get Bertolet over his struggles mentally…

“That’s a great question. I mean he’s had three pretty good scrimmages. He’s missed two kicks in three scrimmages, so that helps. To have success right away helps. There’s nothing I can do to prevent that, except not have him kick such long field goals and to make sure we’re working with Drew on the holds so that they’re good, and to make sure everything is set up for him.

“To be honest, he has to have some success, and that’s what he’s had. We’re lucky that it is kind of stars aligning here early. He’s got two more weeks. He’s got to continue to have that. When we leave next Saturday night, I’m hoping he’s 100% and he walks out going, ‘I did it. I had a great spring.’ Then, I’ll sit down and I’ll humble both of them and say, ‘Now here’s where we got to be, because we’re not nearly ready to play in a game.’

“That’s the part for me that I can’t control. I hope that he makes it and starts having earlier success than he did, so now I can be harder on him. We can get him to do it.”

On whether the snapping and holding last season could have been improved…

“Not really, but it was a different holder, because it was (Ryan) Epperson. I was like, ‘we don’t have a holder. I don’t even know what these guys can do before we step out on our first practice.’ That part bothered me because here I got a kicker who is fragile already from last season and we’re going right into camp. The best part about it was Drew is his roommate and he was willing to work hard at it. We’re getting there. We’re close.”

On what can be seen out of the tight ends…

“Those two guys, first of all, are great kids and hard workers. Cameron (Clear)’s really picked up the offense for not being in it for a year. He was at Arizona Western Junior College, and this isn’t exactly what the tempo they played at. He started at 273, and now he’s 265. When he goes through Coach Jackson’s strength and conditioning program, mostly conditioning program, this summer, he’s really going to have a bright future next fall. He’s done a really good job.

“Nehemiah Hicks, we call him Nemo, he’s stepping up. Every week, he’s gotten better. He’s showing a great willingness to block. You look at those two guys, and sometimes my neck hurts after practice from looking up and coaching them all the time. They are great figures and they’re strong and they can run. How we use them will be the bigger question. As we continue to move forward in fall camp, get the five young receivers here, we’ll find out how they can be used.”

On having Ben Malena on special teams coverage units…

“I look back to Alabama — this was a few years ago — and you see Julio Jones and Trent Richardson back there returning kickoffs. That’s what sticks in my mind. I wasn’t even in the SEC at the time, and I said, ‘That’s a great way to sell this.’ Then, last year in the playoffs, Adrian Peterson said, ‘Put me on special teams if it’s going to help us win.’ Those are the things that I look at. That’s the best of the best. They’ve won the National Championship two out of the last three years. We've got to use our starters on special teams if we’re going to compete with Alabama, LSU and those teams.

“More importantly, I think, as a coach, you have to manage it. You can’t wear him out and then he’s just okay at running back in the third and fourth quarters. You got to pick your spots. We have enough talent on this team at running back, receiver, DB and those skill spots, especially DB, where you can use multiple people in different spots. You don’t have to start them on four. You use them in game breaking situations to block a punt, to return a kick, and where you’re going to change the game.

“Then, you develop the rest of your team in those other parts and those other places to block and return and those things.”

On how things have looked in the return game…

“You know, it’s a fine line if you’re not going live. How do you know what a guy can do? But I think you've got to do that because you don’t want to get anybody injured. You want to take your whole team into summer conditioning. De'Vante Harris, on the punt return stuff, has really impressed in short spaces. We haven’t done anything live. I’m curious to see in Friday Night Lights or if we do any punt return in the spring game. At punt return, De'Bante Harris and Sabian Holmes have been very consistent catching the ball.

“On kickoff return, you’re dealing with Trey Williams coming back. You’ve got a new entity in Brandon Williams. Both of those guys look really, really great on change of direction and speed, so I would assume that those two would do well, but we’ve just started that for the last week. Again, I want to see them in Friday Night Lights, under the lights and with the ball being kicked and everybody running down, and I want to see them in the spring game. Ben Malena will be back there because he makes great decisions, he’s a veteran, and getting the ball up the field is first.

“I’m looking at some freshman. I’m excited about Noel Ellis as a punt returner. He had three returns for touchdowns last year. James White, the running back from Pearland, will do something in that back end. He’s a skillful player. There’s a couple of guys like Laquvionte Gonzales, who really looks good on film. This is half the picture. We’ll bring the other half into fall camp and then we’ll see who wins it.”

Taylor Bertolet

On what he’s been working on this spring…

“We’re working on a lot of get off and rhythm right now, with Jake (Matthews) snapping. We’re trying to get our times down. We’re trying to hit like a 1.3 to get it off. We’re at 8 yards, which is different than a 7-yard snap. Getting our rhythm and smoothness down with our new holder, Drew. He’s my roommate and probably my best friend. We’re having a lot of fun out there letting things rip.”
 

On kicking as a freshman and his college experience…

“It’s been a lot of fun. A lot of learning experiences last year, I would say. This year, we’re learning from what we did last year and taking the good things and moving on. I’m having a lot of fun.”
 

On advice from former A&M kicker and Groza winner Randy Bullock…

“Randy’s been out here the last couple of weeks. He’s been practicing. he’s on break right now. We’ve had some short conversations. I’ve kicked a couple of times with him and he’s taught me a lot this past break.”
 

On the similarities between him and Bullock…

“We’ve gone over things. We had the same tactical errors and how to handle certain situations. He’s called me throughout the season and gave a lot of really good advice. We’re real close friends.”
 

On his improvement in the mental aspect of the game…

“We’re just going out there and having fun. We’re just letting things rip. I have a lot of confidence going into this season. I’m real hungry and ready to go at it.”
 

On how he ended up at A&M from Pennsylvania…

“I got recruited by Nick Toth, he was the special teams coordinator at the time. My kicking coach had called me down and he said if I kicked good at the camp they would possibly give me a scholarship. I went out, kicked well, they didn’t give me a scholarship at first because Coach Sherman wasn’t there, and they called me back down, said if I kicked well again they’d give me a scholarship. I went out and kicked again, did well and got a scholarship the next day.”
 

On what he thinks of College Station and whether he had previous Aggie ties…

“I had not. I always watched college football, I was a big fan of college football and A&M was always on my lost of potential schools I was interested in, definitely a little different from Pennsylvania and Redding. College Station is a little warmer, and the weather is real nice down here.”
 

On whether he lost confidence last year…

“Not at all. No.”
 

On the difference in special teams practice with Banks…

“We’re getting a lot more live reps which is nice. We jumped right in to it. The first practice we went out and hit 10-15 field goals right into it. Last year we kind of waited around, we didn’t get to many live kicks. Now that we’re getting into a rhythm and I’m getting more confident.”
 

On the technical aspects he’s working on…

“Basically not muscling up on balls and being more natural in my swing, and being smooth, and feeling relaxed out there. When I’m relaxed, I’m having fun.”
 

On whether relaxation gives him confidence…

“Yeah, I can hit from anywhere the coaches want me to hit from.”
 

On his confidence being higher this spring compared to last spring…

“Yeah, without a doubt.”
 

On whether he’s worked with a kicking coach…

“Every now and then, I don’t get too caught up with kicking coaches. They all give good advice, but at the end of the day you’re the one that has to go out there and do it. I send film off every now and then to Jamie Cole and Tim Williams, two guys I’ve worked with in the past. They’re good guys, and I’ll get some advice, send film every now and then.”
 

On advice from Banks…

“He kicked and punted and college, which is definitely different than with Coach Polian and Coach Toth. We’re going over some technical things to work on. I can hit a good ball, but Coach Banks will definitely be on you even if it’s a good ball.”
 

On what he can learn from games like 2012's LSU loss…

“You got to be able to handle pressure. When things don’t go your way you have to hold your composure and I believe I have that.”
 

On how precise the technicality of kicking is…

“Kicking is a three-part thing. It’s a snap, a hold and a kick. I’m the one that takes responsibility. There are definitely things that need to be set in place beforehand, to get yourself results. Drew and I are going out there, laughing and having fun. I love playing football right now.”
 
“No, Coach texted me and told me I’d be out here today.”