In the mid 1990's, I was working for a public accounting firm downtown Chicago that hired some MBA students, including at least one from Michigan. We had just moved to a "hoteling" concept for cubes, and I found myself sharing a cube for a day with this Michigan MBA, who was actually quite delightful to speak to.
Naturally, we started talking football. He mentioned that he had been on the team. I wondered if I had ever seen him play, as we were about the same age and my last trip to UM was the famous 2x Rocket kick return game in 1989.
At this point, he became very quiet and told me that his name was JD Carlson. He was the kicker who kicked off to Rocket for the 1st TD. He told me that when he ran back tot he sideline after the play, Bo reamed him out, as if the entire thing was all his fault. I noted that there were 10 other players who didn't make the tackle, and JD shook his head. Bo was certain it was his fault and yanked him from the rest of the game.
The sad pat of this is that JD was really messed up about it. After the few years that had passed, it was still a raw, emotional experience for him, because his coach was a jerk.
Historical note: the 2nd Rocker TD was kicked by Gulam Khan. Who played in 12 games and only had 1 FG attempt, which he missed. Stay classy, Bo!
Interesting story - thanks for posting it.
I can't see Ara or Lou ever blaming the kicker for an opponent's TD return.
Those loser assholes tend to be and stay "ringless"
I never worried about a kickoff coverage when Willie Clark was on the team. He'd run down anyone who got near the 50 yard line.
I'll never forget a game at Penn State when a penn state RB broke through the line at their own 30 with no deep saftey. The crowd roared and then 3 seconds later gasped as Willie Clark ran him down from the other sideline in a span of 25 yards.
That's a bizarre criticism from our head coach. See the link.
That’s the way I read it. Basically, we have a deep kick right on and the kicker is kicking it to the middle. That’s an entirely different criticism then “the kicker isn’t kicking a touchback”. It’s a legitimate criticism of a kicker if that’s what he means.
It's not that easy to kick the shit out of the ball, while also putting it where you want it. The guy has kicked it out of bounds a couple times this year trying to directionally kick. Continuing to rely on a strategy in the face of evidence that it can be done consistently is on the coach.
I can see how the kick going to the wrong spot can mess up coverage. That said, I think such a thing should be fixable given the low incidence rate of KO returns. Sounds bush league to blame the kicker on a kick that made it as far as it did.
Maybe not as obvious as the 10 others but he had some jersey in other photos I've seen.
Link to replay.
It definitely screws up coverage. And just by the tone of the quote and by watching our games moreso, you can see ND’s coverage guys have to adjust their path quite a bit. I had a season in college where this happened to us almost all season. We tried two different kickers and both continued to screw up and it really does F up your coverage. It’s almost like golf when you try to align to the right and double cross and hit a big hook. Kickers I think have that occur at least from my experience talking with our one kicker who was a good buddy of mine.
While I get the GOAL is to create touchbacks each time, it’s just not going to happen 100% of the time. For those times, how about we coach, train, and expect our guys to contain the returner. He makes it sound like it’s either/or: either kick a touchback, or, it’s gonna get run back for a TD. Almost like he deliberately tries to be obtuse and, of course, our crack media just move on to the next softball question.
It’s what he’s insinuating isn’t it? This brings about some questions. If they do, why don’t they do it in the games? If they do in practice, does it minimize the time the coverage team gets to work on covering kicks? I know when I was playing in college we had about 5 minutes each day during the season practicing kickoff at rapid fire. At times the coaches would have to tell the kicker not to kick it too deep. We also practiced intentional high pooch kicks to the 15 yard line or so. It’s a weak bail out blaming the kicker but I would like to know if they do routinely kick touchbacks in practice but struggle in games. We had a punter in college who was amazing in practice but was awful in games. I wonder if this could be the case at times with Doerr
practice all the time.
won't accept that just maybe his lack of spending any time on STs is the problem. This is by far the biggest reason I can't stand him. He wants to take credit for anything good that happens but places the blame on the players all the time. How about 'we coaches need to do better' you POS
Because he's done it multiple times this year already. Probably just flys by your radar.
We might be able to cover a kick-off if you practiced it once in awhile.