Danny Crossman – December 1, 2022
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Thursday, December 1, 2022
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(Do you watch the World Cup?) – “Occasionally. If it was summer, I’d be watching it constantly. But not now.”
(I saw one of the U.S. Women’s soccer players kicked a 55-yarder in Eagles practice.) – “I saw that a couple years ago.”
(Have you ever seen a pure soccer player make the transition to kicking or how difficult do you think it would be to master the technique?) – “I think it’s a lot more complex than they would readily admit and I think it all goes back to the shape of the ball. That’s completely different and a total different trajectory of what they’re so capable of. It’s amazing what they can do with the ball and the way they can make it move. But you’re not doing that with a football. But talent-wise? Yeah, I think if they put the time in, I think there’s a lot of them that could do it.”
(Occasionally you see world-class soccer players who might pop in for a visit and goof around and try to kick some field goals or you might see MLS players make noise about doing both. Have you ever been a part of even a goofy try out or a real try out?) – “I have not, but I’ve had several kickers that – I think Jason Sanders is a prime example – the first time Jason Sanders was ever at a college football game is when he was playing in it. The first time he was ever in an NFL game was when he was playing in it because he was a soccer player growing up. He had no interest in going to football games, NFL, college. It wasn’t part of what his makeup was at the time. So I think all those guys, I mean, they’re so talented. I think once they can figure it out, the transition would be doable for a lot of them. But no, I’ve never been a part of that. But I’ve had several guys that their background was strictly in being a soccer player.”
(You guys might be missing your two starting offensive tackles this week. When you go into a game, do you ever think in light of that, maybe special teams will make a bigger contribution? Do you look for to make a bigger impact in other areas? Or is it all one of 17 and the approach stays the same?) – “It’s still play by play. I think how the game may play out, you look at in terms of that, but in terms of what we need to do, we need to play and take care of our business week-in and week-out regardless of how the rest of it goes. Now with that being said, obviously when you put the three elements of offense, defense and the kicking game together, there’s certain weeks that certain portions of that – based on opposition, based on scheme, based on coaches, based on players – are going to have to maybe carry more weight.”
(I know you and Head Coach Mike McDaniel had expressed your confidence that things would get on track all along, but how comforting anyway was it that K Jason Sanders made all his kicks?) – “I think the biggest thing for me and I guess for everybody – it was big that he did it on Sunday. Again, the reason that Mike (McDaniel) and myself and the rest of the organization feel good about it is we see every kick he has on Wednesday and we see every kick he has on Friday. And we see what those results are and as we’ve always said, those results have to transition to Sunday because that’s the only thing that truly really matters. But to be able to see what he’s been doing during the week to come up and come to fruition on Sunday, it was good to see.”
(Did you sense any sort of relief or confidence boost within K Jason Sanders after he did that?) – “No, and that’s probably one of the great things about Jason (Sanders). He still has that mentality of just what we talked about earlier – that maybe it’s the non-football mentality of he knows his skills, he knows his talent, he knows what he’s been doing and he trusts in it, and he believes in it. So a lot of that stuff doesn’t bother him at least outwardly or nothing that we’ve talked about. But I’m sure – make no mistake about it – anytime you are successful, success breeds confidence and it’s always better to be confident.”
(Was there something mechanically that he had to correct over the bye?) – “No.”
(And with that in mind, it’s such a unique position where it’s like, you know he can do it, but maybe that position is a little more in between the ears than maybe any other one? How do you approach that as a coach as far as trying to like, coach the psychology of that position that’s so unique in the sport?) – “I think the key is to be a good listener and what he’s seeing, what he’s feeling, what he’s thinking. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’ve all seen it and you equate it to a lot of things, but probably from a from a sporting standpoint, you probably equate it – punting and kicking is like golf. You know what you’d like to do, but it doesn’t always happen. You get the greatest golfers in the world and all of a sudden, they put the ball in the water. They miss the green by 20 feet. It’s not that they can’t do it. They didn’t do it in that particular case, but the talent is there. They worked on it and if you keep working on, you’re going to get the results.”
(How problematic was it that P Thomas Morstead was in on two tackles Sunday?) – “I think the problem is we missed too many other tackles. You have to tackle better. When you have opportunities and when you’re in position to make plays, you got to make those plays.”
(It says 80 percent chance of rain in Santa Clara. I don’t know if it’s as windy in Santa Clara as it used to be in Candlestick. I went to a nasty Monday Night Football game there once. Are you a guy who like wants to bring out the hose or is that not a really a thing you do?) – “No, we’re fortunate enough that we get enough natural precipitation when we’re in the midst of practice that way we don’t have to simulate it. We’re going to get it naturally.”
(Building on that, does the ball carry differently in December? The colder air and all that?) – “Without question. There’s a lot of things – how the ball compacts, rain – all those things are always a factor in what’s going on. We’ll spend time, we’ll look at it, we’ll talk about it, but we’re going to get what we’re going to get. We just got to be ready for it.
