Danny Crossman – August 1, 2024
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Thursday, August 1, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(Can you tell us the changes you expect from the new kickoff rule, how much time that you spend on that and what overall you foresee happening in the games?) – “Have spent a ton of time obviously off the field, more time on the field than I’ve ever allocated to kickoff and kickoff return. Really have no idea, and I don’t know if we’re going to get a real good idea until we get maybe a couple weeks into the season to see what’s happening. I think anybody that says they’ve got a great idea of what it’s going to look like they’re probably lying. If I had a great idea, and I had that information on anything else, I’d be somewhere at the track or somewhere I could place bets.”
(Does that not make it fun for you or a little bit anxious?) – “Super excited, super fun. I think it’s going to be great. It’s going to add a good, crazy, fun element to the game. There’s going to be a lot of things going on. I think there’s going to be a lot of good and there’s going to be a lot of bad for everybody. I think the key to this is going to be as the season progresses, learning, developing, so when it gets to the second half of the season and it gets crunch time, you really know exactly how you want to handle things and how you need to be able to react and adjust to how things are happening.”
(When the rule was first instituted, you probably were sort of guessing what it going to look like, but maybe you had some ideas. What, if anything, has surprised you the most on how it’s actually working out on the field?) – “The biggest thing that you thought is how quickly everything was going to happen. Forever that was a distance, time reduction play is how I always looked at it – you got to cover space before anything really happened and now you have to play. Now, everything happens right now. So the spacing, the five-yard spacing with blockers where it used to be able you could read, what we referred to as indicators and try to have an idea and a concept of what’s happening, that reading part of it is now out of the game. Everything is happening right now; it truly is much more like an offensive and defensive play where you and the competitor are in close proximity and things happen fast.”
(When you say everything is happening right now, I’m sort of wondering does that not lead itself toward speed which you guys have a ton of?) – “Well yes and no. The speed where you are able to really portray that speed, would come into effect when you were able to – we’re at the 35 (-yard line) and those blocks weren’t happening until the other 25 (-yard line) where you could close that distance before people were able to get to their drops and get set. Well now, they don’t have to drop and get set. If they’re worried about a speed player, they don’t have to get any depth to control or combat that speed. They can take it away right now with being more aggressive because of that lack of space. It sort of takes a little bit out of it. I think if you look around the league, after here and going through the preseason, I think you’ll see more size players on kickoff and kickoff return than you’ve seen in the last ten years.”
(Has all of this made you rethink at all WR Braxton Berrios as your primary returner? I know you’re open minded about everything going into a camp, but at this point is WR Braxton Berrios your returner barring some unknown development?) – “I think Braxton is very experienced, he’s got a lot of great production in this league and he’s one of those guys were looking at. How that all plays out, we still haven’t gotten to that. We’ve only had one day in pads so there’s still a lot of guys to evaluate and look at, see what the roster portrayal ends up being and then see what else is going on. You see different guys around the league saying that ‘Hey, maybe I’m going to try this,’ or ‘Coach is talking about trying different guys.’ That stuff we fortunately have a month before we make those decisions.”
(We wanted to get your take on Kyle Ulbrich, the former Middle Tennessee State punter who’s been camping out here everyday with signs looking for a shot. I’m curious, your take on what he’s doing and how much you’re familiar with him?) – “Yeah, not familiar at all. I worry about the guys we have in the building. Whoever (General Manager) Chris (Grier) brings us, we’re going to coach the daylights out of them.”
(You haven’t driven by him with the signs?) – “I get here very, very early in the morning. So unless he’s getting here at three o’clock in the morning, I’m not seeing him.”
(So you’re telling us to get him here–) – “I’m not saying anything. (laughter) I’m coaching the guys that we got.”
(Last time I spoke with him he says he gets here at six. 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, so I guess not early enough, right?) – “Maybe not early enough for me. (laughter)”
(We talk about the importance of continuity on offense and defense all the time, what’s the value of having the same battery of LS Blake Ferguson, P Jake Bailey and K Jason Sanders in the kicking game?) – “I think it’s going to be important, and hopefully it plays and works more to our favor this year. (We’ve been) changing punters every year until this year where we’re going back to it – goes back to my first two years when we had Matt (Haack), so it’s hopefully going to portray. Those guys have a great relationship, they work very well together. Hopefully we see the dividends of that on the field.”
(With the new kickoff rules is it, for you as a coach, is it like a work in progress where, ‘Maybe that’ll work, maybe that won’t work’? Or maybe it’s getting in the fire during preseason to see.) – “It’s all those. We’re trying a lot of things in practice, we’re trying a lot of things in walkthrough with the kickers, with the returners, how we’re handling different balls. On the practice field, trying different stuff, but again, I think it’ll be a couple weeks into the regular season where you really start to iron out exactly what it’s going to be. You don’t really know what teams are going to show in the preseason, so it’s going to be a work in progress. I don’t think it’s going to be like offense, defense where you know exactly, ‘Hey, here’s our concepts. Here’s our schemes. Here’s exactly what we’re doing and we’re going to hang our hat on this.’ We’re still working on where we’re going to hang our hat.”
(Have certain players volunteered, like ‘Hey, I want to get back there,’ at this situation or anything like that?) – “Well a lot of times the guys I get volunteering are the guys we don’t want back there. (laughter) So.”
(Namely?) – “No, I don’t put anybody’s name or business in the street. (laughter)”
