Darren Rizzi – October 18, 2018
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Thursday, October 18, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(When you have a young kicker like you do and you’ve had quite a few the past couple of years, how do you know they have the confidence to go into a game in a situation like that and produce a win? How do you pick that guy?) – “I think talent aside, I think personality is a big part of it. In the time I’ve been here and all of the kickers I’ve met with and worked out and all of that stuff, a big part of the equation is certainly the temperament and personality of the individual. One of the things we really like about Jason (Sanders) when we first started working him out and getting to know him on the introductory level is that I liked his demeanor. I liked where he was. I really liked his background, his family background, which certainly plays into his personality. He comes from a military background. He’s the youngest of four kids. I have five kids. I know how my youngest boy is. A lot of those little things … People may look at that in a puzzling way but for a kicker, you have to … It’s a very, very unique situation. You’re going out there in unique times. A lot of times the game, like the other day, could be on the line. You have to have a really, really level-headed demeanor. You can’t really be a roller coaster guy in terms of personality. I really think Jason Sanders was a really good fit from that standpoint. I’m not talking anything about his talent or his kicking ability; but I really think he’s got a really good approach of the game. I think he’s really mature above his years. I think a lot of that factors into it. That’s why certainly he takes the field with confidence every time whether it’s practice or out here during training camp, OTAs or on Sunday. I think he approaches each kick the same. That’s one of the reasons I was very, very happy with him in terms of that really from day one. That was one of the things that stuck out for me and I was encouraged by right from the get go.”
(Do you have a game winning kick ritual? Whether it’s your guy or the other teams guy, do you watch the kick?) – “I watch everything. I’m not one of those guys that can’t watch. I’ve got to watch. (laughter) My ritual is more or less treating everything the same. Whether they’re kicking or we’re kicking, we have a process we go through on every special teams play, if you will. There’s really no difference there. Certainly game situation kind of falls into that. Obviously it was a unique situation because it was in overtime and we were kind of playing for the next step. ‘If he misses this, this is what we’ve got,’ and those kind of things. (Their kick) was at the 2-minute warning. Every kick is an individual event, if you will; but I kind of treat it all the same.”
(You had the opportunity to watch your formal pupil, K Cody Parkey, try to beat you. What were you thinking as the kick goes up on his end?) – “Honestly, with where I am and my role on the team, my thought process was what are we going to do after he misses this? That’s kind of where we were and kind of the thought process there. ‘Alright if he misses this, what are we doing next?’ Certainly it’s a unique situation because our former guy is over there and now you’ve got to get ready to go and now you’ve got to go into offensive mode and get back into time management and all of those things. It obviously played out the way we wanted it to. But, (it was) definitely a unique situation, no doubt about that.”
(With WR Jakeem Grant, we know he’s been having a shoulder thing that he’s been working through. He’s playing a lot of offense obviously too. Is there a question as to how much you want to subject him to because when you put him out there, he’s pretty dynamic in the return game.) – “The way we handle that is if a guy is active, he’s active. From a special teams standpoint at least, I’ll speak for myself, if a guy is up and playing then he’s going to play that role. Certainly with a guy like Jakeem, there’s a situational thing involved in it as well. We do have two punt returners. We talked about that before. (We have) a couple of different guys. But as far as I’m concerned, if we make a decision that a guy is active and he’s going to go, then he’s going to play the role that helps us win the football game. Now, we can certainly take care of a guy – any guy, I’m talking about anybody on the team – during the practice week and limit reps and things like that. But once Sunday comes, when you’re out there and you’re going … If he’s out there, he’s going to be returning for us.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase told us that WR Jakeem Grant’s nickname is the bully?) – “(laughter) He’s got a lot of nicknames.”
(But do you see WR Jakeem Grant bully on special teams?) – “He’s a guy with more nicknames than … You’ve got Mighty Mouse, Kevin Hart, ‘Say It With Your Chest,’ and all of that.”
(Say it with your chest?) – “(laughter) ‘Say It With Your Chest’ is a Kevin Hart expression. I started that one way back when he got here. (laughter) You’ll learn today all of the Kevin Hart stuff. He gets it all. Jakeem is a guy that the bully thing is kind of funny because he, for a small guy, has a huge presence. That kind of carries with him wherever he is – practice (and) games. So that’s kind of why I think they bust his chops about that, sure.”
