Danny Crossman – May 9, 2019
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Thursday, May 9, 2019
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(What will be different with you here with your special teams? Is there anything we would notice or is it all just little technical stuff?) – “It’s all subtleties. What I’m excited about is we have a good group of specialists. If you want to be good in the kicking game, you need good specialists. I don’t care who you are. If you don’t have a good punter, a good kicker, a good return guy, a good snapper – if you don’t have those things, it doesn’t matter what you do. You can scheme (all you want but) we’ve all seen it, a gaping hole and the guy that’s the returner can’t crease it. He gets a 35-yard return on what you’re looking at and you’re like ‘Holy cow, that should be a giant play.’ Or you get in field goal range and you miss.”
(You have guys here, that if the guys you’re talking about go 35 yards then these guys probably go 70?) – “That’s what you want. That’s what gives you a chance between being what everybody is and being really good. When you really struggle with your specialists, (those) are the teams that struggle. If you look at the teams that don’t have good seasons, forget about what they did, just look at what their specialists did. Their punters are probably down near the bottom, their field goal guy missed seven or eight kicks, the return guy didn’t get anything. The good guys can make something out of nothing.”
(Did RB Chandler Cox play special teams at Auburn?) – “He did.”
(Was he good on special teams?) – “Yeah.”
(I would think he would’ve been pretty tough.) – “Yeah. He did some good things.”
(How did you either fall in love with coaching or how did you decide you wanted to do this?) – “Everybody told me when I was playing that I should be a coach. When you’re a player, you think ‘I’m a player.’ It didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t a very good player. (laughter) But I wanted to be involved in the game so I was like ‘There you go.’”
(When was this, when you were in college?) – “Right after college. I bet if you asked every accountant, numbers came easy to him. It was whatever spins your propeller, and that’s what happened with me and football.”
(Did you play special teams as a player?) – “I did, but football spins my propeller.”
(The third-day guys, usually those are the ones that have to be good on special teams to make the team. Did any of them jump out at you when you were watching them?) – “It was a combination. They all did good things. The biggest thing anymore is the college game to the pro game and in the kicking game, it’s so different. I don’t watch a lot of it during the season. I remember the first game I turned on this year, you’re watching somebody kick off and to me, it was a great kickoff. It’s to the 3-yard line with great hang time. I’m like ‘We’re going to get to see a coverage.’ The guy fair catches it and they get the ball on the 25-yard line. The punt game has been different forever because of the sideline-to-sideline spread and the roll-out and the rugby (kicks) and all of the things you do, but at least you had a common denominator in the kickoff return game until this year.”
(So how do you evaluate?) – “It’s hard. You’re always looking for the same thing. You’re looking for guys that play with great energy and they play with what they’re supposed to be. What I mean by that is if you tell me a guy ran a 4.7 (40-yard dash) and when I watch him play, that’s what he looks like he plays. This guy runs 4.7, this guy runs 4.4. But when I put the tape on, the guy that runs 4.7 is in front of the guy that runs 4.4. That guy plays with speed, which means he’s not being slowed down by trying to analyze what’s going on, whereas the 4.4 guy is trying to figure it out. As long as you play to your abilities, we can find a way to play you. I’ve had guys that are 5.0 guys lead the team in tackles because (they have) great instincts. They are what they are. They bring the energy and they bring the enthusiasm and they play to exactly who they are. If you have that, you have a chance.”
(The linebacker you took, LB Andrew Van Ginkel, seems to fit that mold a little bit?) – “Yeah. He has a little length, has some speed and when you watch him run, you’re like ‘I see him running this speed,’ then you see the time speed and that’s what he plays. As long as guys play to what they run, you’re going to be fine because hat means you’re getting the most out of them. I worked for a guy years and years ago, and I still to this day go through the drill of ‘What are we getting out of that guy?’ If we’re only getting 85 percent out of him, either we’re not doing a good job as coaches or he doesn’t know how to give you everything he has. We have to figure that out, either from a coaching standpoint or figure it out and get to the player. I don’t care who you are, if you’re playing to 100 percent of your ability, we’ll figure a way to use you and get something done. But if you’re not maximizing what that player does, either as a coach or if he can’t find a way to do it, we have to find another player.”
(Are you a return-by-committee guy or do you like to have one guy that you send out there every time?) – “It all depends on the make-up of the roster. I’ve had it where it’s been a designated guy and it’s always going to be that guy. I’ve also been on teams where, based on the situation of the game, it’s this guy in this situation, that guy in that situation. It all depends on what we look like in four months. Right now, we haven’t even cracked the book yet.”
(But you’re excited to see WR Jakeem Grant open it up a little bit?) – “Without a doubt. That’s one I am excited to be on the other side of. (laughter)”
(WR Jakeem Grant can move.) – “Yeah, he has great skills.”
