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Rams Special Teams Coach John Fassel – Post-Practice – July 28, 2013
(On if he is a ‘smarter’ special teams coach now that WR Tavon Austin is returning kicks)
“We’ll see.”
(On what he thinks of Austin so far)
“Everything we saw on tape in college: great ball skills, dynamite with his feet, and a little guy, hard to tackle. So far, so good, a couple days into it.”
(On if you can coach Austin’s quickness)
“There’s no way you can coach it. You look at it from, if we had to punt to him, he’s on another team, what is your concern? There’s a lot. He’s got a great dimension. He’s got breakaway speed, but he’s also got the ability that little guys have which is incredible quickness and elusiveness.”
(On if he has to wait until the preseason games to find players to fill back-up roles)
“No, we get enough reps in practice where it’s Tavon back there and quite a few other guys that are going to get a shot. I don’t think (Head) Coach (Fisher) has said that Tavon or anybody else is or isn’t going to be a guy. There’s tons of practice reps for other guys to step up and show that they can do it as either the starter or the next guy in. But then, obviously, in the preseason games Tavon will get a couple just as well as everybody else.”
(If Austin will be the full-time returner if he wins the job or will his role on offense be taken into consideration)
“I think that’s to be determined. We still have a ways to go before that, but that definitely is a factor. What’s his load on offense? And then is that too much to do both punts and kickoffs? The thing with kickoffs nowadays is half the time they’re touchbacks. So, the reps are less than they used to be as far as a returner. But, I think it’s to be determined, what’s his load on offense and he could be a punt-return, kick-return guy or maybe just one or none based on length of the season and how much work he’s getting.”
(On how much better K Greg Zuerlein can be this season)
“A lot and he knows that. That’s something that’s one of his goals, that we’re not going to talk about with anybody else, but he started on fire and then he kind of just, you know, toward the end of the season. But, a lot of that had to do with just a young guy that just kind of got worn out from the combines and all the workouts in the preseason and in the Spring leading up to the season. We gave him a lot of time off after the season to kind of freshen himself up, got back in the weight room. His strength has improved, so his ability and success later in the season should improve.”
(On telling Zuerlein to rest and not kick during the offseason)
“Yeah, for a while. I don’t want to say how long, but he rested. He stayed fit, but he stayed away from kicking for quite a while.”
(On if Zuerlein’s added strength will result in longer distance this season)
“No, not necessarily. I think it will maybe a little bit, but he’s so strong with just his contact that that’s where he gets his distance. Hopefully, the strength will help his ability to stay fresh in November/December.”
(On why he rested Zuerlein after last season)
“He came off an injury in college after his junior year. He rehabbed it and kicked his whole senior year in college and right when his senior year ended, he’s kicking at a combine in Detroit. I went and worked him out twice, six other teams went and worked him out private, then he had the OTAs, and then we had him here in the summer kicking. It just became so much that by November/December he was tired.”
(On if his advice for Zuerlein was to simply rest in the offseason)
“Pretty much.”
(On Hekker’s most impressive kick in his trick shot video)
“I was out here while they were filming it, and it took them a couple hours, and every single one you see is legit – no trick photography – the one off the roof 70 yards into the pool was ridiculous.”
(On how many takes the kick took)
“I guess I could tell you – about 20, which is amazing.”
(On how many takes Hekker’s shot into a basketball hoop took)
“On the basket? The one where he hit it behind him? About the same.”
(On LSs Jake McQuaide and Jorgen Hus)
“We got Jake (McQuaide) and then we got a guy we brought in for camp, Jorgen Hus from Canada. Jake’s also made a lot of improvements – strength. The things we talked about with Jake is quickness in the open field, open-field tackling, and he’s made huge improvements in that. So, that’s something we do – not only snap in at the line of scrimmage, but we’ll go off on our own and we’ll work just some tackling drills, and that will be the next step for him to take to be one of the better snappers in the league which I think he can be. And obviously, we got him now for quite a few more years and it’s a great thing to keep the core of those young guys together for as many years as we can.”
(On Hus’ abilities)
“A lot of things for him are new because in Canada they’ve got to be a yard off the line of scrimmage and there’s different rules, so a lot of stuff is new learning for him. But yeah, he’s got some videos too.”
(On his expectations for Hekker this season)
“We have some goals for him. I think with him, his consistency which I think towards the end of the season he really became more consistent. We got some directional punts and he’s working right and left, so we’ve got some things that I probably rather prefer not talking about, but consistency and his holding ability, too. That’s something we work on a lot with all those guys.”
(On the importance of special teams drills to identify which players will make the core of the special teams units)
“To me, they’re huge. And we try to do drills and then at some point – like we did the last 20 minutes today – we’ve got to open the field up and let them run from the line of scrimmage all the way to the returner to see who’s fast and who can get off blocks. Then you flip it, see who can be a blocker and so we got so many guys. I think there might have been 65 guys out here for special teams practice and so we try to split up the drills where there’s short numbers in the lines and try to see everybody on tape. Because when we get into the preseason, everybody might only get a rep or two per phase.”
(On LBs Josh Hull and Daren Bates battling in one-on-one drills)
“I love it. To be a special teams guy, you’ve got to be a little wild and crazy. You can’t be gentle and passive, and so I have to just make sure we’re not fighting and not playing penalty football, but you got to have a little fight as a teams guy and this is the chance for them to show it.”
(On if he is a ‘smarter’ special teams coach now that WR Tavon Austin is returning kicks)
“We’ll see.”
(On what he thinks of Austin so far)
“Everything we saw on tape in college: great ball skills, dynamite with his feet, and a little guy, hard to tackle. So far, so good, a couple days into it.”
(On if you can coach Austin’s quickness)
“There’s no way you can coach it. You look at it from, if we had to punt to him, he’s on another team, what is your concern? There’s a lot. He’s got a great dimension. He’s got breakaway speed, but he’s also got the ability that little guys have which is incredible quickness and elusiveness.”
(On if he has to wait until the preseason games to find players to fill back-up roles)
“No, we get enough reps in practice where it’s Tavon back there and quite a few other guys that are going to get a shot. I don’t think (Head) Coach (Fisher) has said that Tavon or anybody else is or isn’t going to be a guy. There’s tons of practice reps for other guys to step up and show that they can do it as either the starter or the next guy in. But then, obviously, in the preseason games Tavon will get a couple just as well as everybody else.”
(If Austin will be the full-time returner if he wins the job or will his role on offense be taken into consideration)
“I think that’s to be determined. We still have a ways to go before that, but that definitely is a factor. What’s his load on offense? And then is that too much to do both punts and kickoffs? The thing with kickoffs nowadays is half the time they’re touchbacks. So, the reps are less than they used to be as far as a returner. But, I think it’s to be determined, what’s his load on offense and he could be a punt-return, kick-return guy or maybe just one or none based on length of the season and how much work he’s getting.”
(On how much better K Greg Zuerlein can be this season)
“A lot and he knows that. That’s something that’s one of his goals, that we’re not going to talk about with anybody else, but he started on fire and then he kind of just, you know, toward the end of the season. But, a lot of that had to do with just a young guy that just kind of got worn out from the combines and all the workouts in the preseason and in the Spring leading up to the season. We gave him a lot of time off after the season to kind of freshen himself up, got back in the weight room. His strength has improved, so his ability and success later in the season should improve.”
(On telling Zuerlein to rest and not kick during the offseason)
“Yeah, for a while. I don’t want to say how long, but he rested. He stayed fit, but he stayed away from kicking for quite a while.”
(On if Zuerlein’s added strength will result in longer distance this season)
“No, not necessarily. I think it will maybe a little bit, but he’s so strong with just his contact that that’s where he gets his distance. Hopefully, the strength will help his ability to stay fresh in November/December.”
(On why he rested Zuerlein after last season)
“He came off an injury in college after his junior year. He rehabbed it and kicked his whole senior year in college and right when his senior year ended, he’s kicking at a combine in Detroit. I went and worked him out twice, six other teams went and worked him out private, then he had the OTAs, and then we had him here in the summer kicking. It just became so much that by November/December he was tired.”
(On if his advice for Zuerlein was to simply rest in the offseason)
“Pretty much.”
(On Hekker’s most impressive kick in his trick shot video)
“I was out here while they were filming it, and it took them a couple hours, and every single one you see is legit – no trick photography – the one off the roof 70 yards into the pool was ridiculous.”
(On how many takes the kick took)
“I guess I could tell you – about 20, which is amazing.”
(On how many takes Hekker’s shot into a basketball hoop took)
“On the basket? The one where he hit it behind him? About the same.”
(On LSs Jake McQuaide and Jorgen Hus)
“We got Jake (McQuaide) and then we got a guy we brought in for camp, Jorgen Hus from Canada. Jake’s also made a lot of improvements – strength. The things we talked about with Jake is quickness in the open field, open-field tackling, and he’s made huge improvements in that. So, that’s something we do – not only snap in at the line of scrimmage, but we’ll go off on our own and we’ll work just some tackling drills, and that will be the next step for him to take to be one of the better snappers in the league which I think he can be. And obviously, we got him now for quite a few more years and it’s a great thing to keep the core of those young guys together for as many years as we can.”
(On Hus’ abilities)
“A lot of things for him are new because in Canada they’ve got to be a yard off the line of scrimmage and there’s different rules, so a lot of stuff is new learning for him. But yeah, he’s got some videos too.”
(On his expectations for Hekker this season)
“We have some goals for him. I think with him, his consistency which I think towards the end of the season he really became more consistent. We got some directional punts and he’s working right and left, so we’ve got some things that I probably rather prefer not talking about, but consistency and his holding ability, too. That’s something we work on a lot with all those guys.”
(On the importance of special teams drills to identify which players will make the core of the special teams units)
“To me, they’re huge. And we try to do drills and then at some point – like we did the last 20 minutes today – we’ve got to open the field up and let them run from the line of scrimmage all the way to the returner to see who’s fast and who can get off blocks. Then you flip it, see who can be a blocker and so we got so many guys. I think there might have been 65 guys out here for special teams practice and so we try to split up the drills where there’s short numbers in the lines and try to see everybody on tape. Because when we get into the preseason, everybody might only get a rep or two per phase.”
(On LBs Josh Hull and Daren Bates battling in one-on-one drills)
“I love it. To be a special teams guy, you’ve got to be a little wild and crazy. You can’t be gentle and passive, and so I have to just make sure we’re not fighting and not playing penalty football, but you got to have a little fight as a teams guy and this is the chance for them to show it.”
