Older, but somehow even better
Punter Koch, 38, seems to be defying Father Time
Sam Koch remembers the humbling words as if he heard them yesterday.
He’d already spent two seasons punting for the Ravens. But as he sat in the office of his new special teams coach Jerry Rosburg on a winter morning in 2008, he faced a reckoning.
“Wow,” Rosburg said after reviewing Koch’s statistics. “The way you hold a ball and you were able to do that? That’s pretty impressive because I don’ t know how you hit some of those balls.”
As Koch tell sit, he might as well have been trying to kick a haphazardly tossed beach ball as far as he could. His technique was mostly self-taught, and toRosburg’s exacting eye not sustainable.
“He had talent, obviously, because hewas an incredible athlete,” Rosburg recalled.“But he needed to find a way to use those talents
technically. He reallywasn’t on a very good path at that time.”
So they went to work, repeating basic drop drills on the Ravens’ indoor practice field as snow coated the grass outside. The sessions jibedwithKoch’s fastidious nature. He did not mind rebuilding his style from scratch as long as he sawthe purpose in it.
That’s still the case 12 years later. On Sunday, Koch will play his 230th game as a Raven, surpassing former teammateTerrell Suggs as the franchise’s all-time leader.
At 38, by any statistical measure, he’s a better punter than hewas when he started. ThosewhoknowKoch best point to several reasons: his unstinting concern for details, his openness to constructive criticism, his grounded family-guy routines.
Rosburg and Ravens coach John Harbaugh see Koch as a revolutionary who pushed NFL punting into new realms. But even his most eye-popping innovations — the misdirection punts, the low tumblers that confounded deadly returners such as Antonio Brown and Josh Cribbs — sprang from the same quiet doggedness that drove him to those morning sessions in 2008.
Whether it’s mowing his lawn in Westminster or booming a football into a 5-yard window along the sideline, Koch does not grow bored trying to do a thing the right way.
“My first impressions of Sam were the same asmy impressions today,” said Ravens long snapper Morgan Cox, who joined Koch on the roster in 2010. “He’s extremely, extremely attentive to detail. A punt could be, in most people’s eyes, perfect, and he wants to find a way to improve it.”
“Highly skilled at all of his jobs,” said kicker Justin Tucker, who came along in 2012 to form the “Wolfpack” triumvirate withKoch andCox. “Justwatching him put the ball exactly where he wanted to time and time again, I had never seen anything quite like that. And how hard he was on himself then versus what he is now, he’s been remarkably consistent.”
The world around Koch has certainly changed since he walked in the door in 2006.
SteveMcNair was the quarterback then, Brian Billick the head coach and Matt Stover the place-kicker. He’s continued honing his craft as teammates have come and gone. Cornerback Jimmy Smith described him as “the epitome of what a Raven is.”
Koch watched his father, Dave, refuse to take vacations from his job managing an auto manufacturing warehouse in Seward, Nebraska. Koch’s wife, Nikki, keeps their house showroom clean despite the best efforts of four children ranging in age from elementary school to college.
He’s happiest among people who are never satisfied.
“Each and every rep is away formeto go out there and prove my worth,” Koch said, his closely trimmed scalp covered, as usual, by a worn ballcap. “If it’s not to my standards, I’m going to do everything I can to make it right.”
Koch cannot discuss his career without deflecting credit to those who’ve helped him, from Rosburg and his successor Chris Horton, to Tucker and Cox, on down to the least experienced members of the Ravens’ training staff. This speaks to another quality that has sustained him: a yen for collaboration.
He’s devoted himself to lessons from Rosburg and kicking coach Randy Brown, and Koch’s nine-season partnership with Cox and Tucker might be the most enduring of its kind in the NFL.
To this day, there’s pepper in the exchanges between Wolfpack members as they attack every issue head-on.
“Sam’s a tough boss,” Cox said, laughing. “We don’t shy away from words, the three of us. I knowSam’s form aswell as anybody, so if I see something dipping a little bit… I’ll point it out. Samething withhimforme. It’s never a personal thing, but it’s, ‘Hey, let’s not take a step back.’ ”
Those around Koch see no reason why he can’t keep rolling for many years. Cox described him as “38 going on 21” in fitness terms.
“You come out to practice anyWednesday, and if the ball isn’t coming off his foot exactly how he wants, he’ll get pissed off,” Tucker said. “It’s ongoing for him, and that’s a large part of the reason why he’s better nowthanhewas five or10years ago.”
“He just looks like a different punter, from a body standpoint, from a form standpoint, from a poise standpoint,” Cox marveled. “You can see the compound interest from how Sam has improved over the years.”