“If we're not striving to be the best in the country, then what are we doing it for?” - Special Teams sets the tone in New Era of Blue Raider football - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics (2024)

Football 8/10/2024 10:44:00 AM Sam Doughton, MTSU Athletic Communications

A starting mandate and competition in the specialist room have created a buzz around MTSU Special Teams in fall camp.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — When you walk into Special Teams Coordinator Luke Paschall office, there's lots of things you'll typically find in a football coach's office: depth charts on his desk, practice plans on his whiteboard, film getting ready to be watched on his TV.

In the corner, squeezed between two tables, poking above a stack of papers, is a statue of Athena, the Palladium. A trophy that was first created when Paschall played for the Blue Raiders from 2002-2006. A trophy last won over the Troy Trojans in the 2020 COVID season.

"I ain't going to let that die," Paschall remarked with a smile when asked about why the trophy was in his office.

The rivalry trophy making its way from storage to a coach's office is a small detail, but one indicative of Paschall's love of his alma mater. A former walk-on wideout who later earned a scholarship in his career, Paschall played for both Andy McCollum and Rick Stockstill during his career for the Blue Raiders. After years of trying to get back home, climbing the coaching ranks through working for programs like Arkansas State, North Carolina, UMass and Louisiana, all as special teams coordinator, Paschall finally found a door open with the coaching change this offseason, reaching out to Derek Mason cold after the Ragin' Cajuns bowl game this past winter and earning his spot through his track record on that side of the ball.

"There's not a lot of times in this profession that you get a chance to go home," Paschall said. "To be able to do that has been pretty cool. I love this place, I've said it many times that this place has shaped and molded me to my core. I carry that on. I feel like I owe (it) to give back. I'm going to do whatever I can to make this place special."

Among Conference USA teams, Middle Tennessee under Derek Mason is just one of two programs that dedicates one of its ten full-time assistant coaches to be exclusively the special teams coordinator, with no other position group assignment in addition to running to the kickoff, punt and field goal units. It's a distinction that kicker Zeke Rankin thinks will make all the difference when the Blue Raiders take the field this fall.

"They know that it can change a game drastically," Rankin said of the coaching staff. "I've been on both sides of it. I've won games, I've lost games, that's how it is. I think this staff has really pinpointed that and made that point to everybody else."

The work to create that sense of importance, Paschall said, is all in the details.

"There's a difference between being good on special teams and being elite," Paschall said. "There's levels to it. The levels are in the details, the sense of urgency it takes be good at it...We tell them all the time, the standard is best. If we're not striving to be the best in the country, then what are we doing it for?"

--

One early way Paschall has gotten buy-in on special teams is by bringing with him a rule that's worked at other stops in his career, one that Mason fully supports: if you want to be a starter on offense or defense, you have to also start on at least one special teams unit.

There's a lot of ways to get on a unit, Paschall notes. Maybe you're a fast gunner on the punt unit or a returner on punt return. Maybe you find a niche as a smart blocker on kickoff return, or you nail your pursuit angles when preventing those returns. But Paschall thinks that the result of increasing the competition for those roles only makes those units better.

"Sometimes you play against teams that put freshmen and newcomers out there," Paschall said. "I don't want to say they're green, but they are. They don't have a lot of experience...(now) you mix in some guys that are freshmen and you've got a plethora of guys that are starters on offense and defense out there, it shows the importance of it.

"Those guys are usually talented," Paschall concluded. "It's our job to make sure they're in the right spot and playing at a certain standard."

It's a mantra with nuance, to be sure. For one, the starting spots in question are on both of the kickoff and punt units, given that the field goal is so offensive line and tight end heavy in its personnel. There are also certain positions that are protected from the rule given the nature of those units, like the quarterback, the offensive line and most of the defensive line.

"We're going to protect guys that we need to protect," Paschall noted. "But most of the time, if offensive and defensive starters are playing on units, they want to play too. They want to be a part of that action."

It's also a way, Paschall said, for Blue Raider players to add value to their skillset at the next level of the game, where roster size limits often dictate that nearly everyone that's a running back, a linebacker, someone in the secondary or a wide receiver, is on at least one of those special teams units. That's made the buy-in from the team excellent so far this camp, as the team usually dedicates multiple periods of practice a day to special teams drills, let alone special teams reps, to help the cream rise to the top.

"Right now, we're getting unbelievable effort, no pushback whatsoever," Paschall said. "We allow them to think less and they can just go play."

A big help to that mission has been the addition of Max Arnold as a Special Teams Quality Control Coach and the return of Cam Curtis as a Special Teams GA. Paschall notes the pair of them, who work "with" him, not "for" him, are invaluable to making those drills in practice intense and enlightening.

Rankin also said the extra eyes focusing exclusively on special teams have been a big help to him and the rest of the specialists, who otherwise might be left to their own devices a bit too often in a typical practice.

"It's nice now to have Max and Cam and Coach Paschall, all three of them kind of floating around and guiding us in the right direction," Rankin said. "If we look like we're not doing something, they'll give us something to do."

Having someone to go to directly with ideas or to get feedback has been great, Rankin noted, particularly given Paschall's depth of experience and technical knowhow in the art of kicking.

"It's made me more confident," Rankin said. "I've got someone that's going to hold me accountable to go up and watch film, go up and get better. And they're going to bring in people to compete."

--

As for that competition in the specialist room, Paschall noted that he had an experienced room when he walked in, with multi-time All-CUSA selection Brody Butler at long snapper, three-year starter at kicker Rankin and returning punter Trey Turk all possessing plenty of game experience from previous seasons.

"It's comforting knowing you've got older guys in the room who have played in games," Paschall said. "There's no substitute for game reps. You don't have to coach up a whole bunch of different things. They've been through a bunch of different scenarios."

But, Paschall said, that fact should not be used to keep guys in the starting spots they've had before if they haven't earned them. MTSU has brought in players that can push all three of the apparent starters, either through development or recruiting this offseason.

"This is not a factory," Paschall said. "The oldest people don't get the best jobs. The people that are performing on a consistent basis will play."

Paschall praised both Connor Dougherty and Henry Hamlin at long snapper, particularly Dougherty, who Paschall said changed his body this offseason and is seeing the results in his snapping. While Butler remains the high-talent long snapper with the leg up in this group, Paschall notes he now has options behind Butler that he trusts to call on if needed.

The tighter position battles are at kicker and punter, with New Mexico transfer Zach Benedict, a kickoff specialist for the Lobos known for his distance, brought in to push Rankin at both place kicker and on kickoff. Jacob Taylor, a freshman from Oakland High School just down the road in Murfreesboro, has also provided consistency in practice early in his career, having both kicked and punted for the Patriots.

"It's having that shadow, having someone looking over your shoulder all the time," Rankin said, embracing the pressure of the competition in camp. "Knowing that if I mess up bad enough, there's somebody else there that can do my job. It brings out the best in you."

The battle at punter, Paschall said, is also tight through the first week, with Turk being pushed by highly touted freshman Grant Chadwick from Tullahoma, a 2023 Mr. Football semifinalist as a specialist that was ranked as the No. 11 punter in his high school class, in a battle that will likely come down to the final week ahead of the season opener against Tennessee Tech.

"There's competition in the room," Paschall said. "If you're a true competitor, the competition will raise your game. If you're not a competitor, you'll probably fall to the wayside."

In the return game, Paschall said the Blue Raiders are sorting through many options on both kick and punt. Brian Brewton, a transfer running back from UConn, has the flashiest kick return numbers on paper, with a pair of kickoff touchdowns to his name in his career with the Huskies. He's someone Paschall remembers having to take time to put in game plans for a special teams coordinator at UMass. But other Blue Raiders like Omari Kelly, Kellen Stewart, Cam'ron Lacy, Mitchell Howell and Hayes Sutton have also stepped up their game in camp so far.

"We've got some pieces back there, that we'll find out in the coming weeks, that are going to do what we ask them to do," Paschall said, noting that decision making is a more important evaluation metric than raw talent and skill when choosing a return man. "It's my job to make sure the other ten guys are good and the guy that's back there just has to do his part."