Special teams a priority for Wildcats this season
Special teams will be a priority this season for El Dorado, according to head coach Chris Hill. Although graduated senior DeAndra Burns Jr., returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and also had a punt return touchdown last season, kicking game was a mixed bag for the Wildcats, who struggled at times in the punt game and on field goals.
“We’ve worked on special teams this summer,” said Hill, who named Alex Townsend as the special teams coordinator. “We want to win the battle on special teams. That’s the only time in the game when 30 to 40 yards of field position is expected to change every time a kick takes place - punt return or kickoff - chunk yardage in those type deals. It’ll garner a lot of attention, a lot of focus.”
Going into the first August practice, Hill had named Cooper Henry as the team’s punter, kicker and kickoff man with Cannon Jacobs the top candidate at deep snapper.
“Cooper Henry has really done a good job kicking the ball this summer. He’ll handle punt and kicking duties. Mitchell Polk can also punt. Deep snapping - Cannon Jacobs will be a really good deep snapper. Those are the guys that are leading the front right now.”
Every coach brings his own philosophy to special teams. Former El Dorado and current Cabot coach Scott Reed was known for not spending practice time on punt return because he said most high school punters couldn’t kick the ball far enough to return it anyway.
Hill gave his opinion on that.
“You’ve got to weigh it out, because, like you just said, there’s so much inconsistency on punting in high school. Do you spend time working on punt return and you never get a chance to return one? You’d be better off spending that 10 minutes somewhere else rather than spend it on punt return, hoping they’ll punt one that you can handle. I think that’s something you certainly have to look at,” said Hill. “That’s the same with kickoffs. If you don’t have a guy who can kick it in the end zone or the deep corner, are you better off trying to onsides kick it and give up 15 to 20 yards of field position every play in hopes of gaining an extra possession? That comes into a coach’s philoso
phy and weighing out the numbers and seeing what the numbers say.”
All those decisions are made with other factors involved, of course.
“The better defense you are, the more chances you can take,” said Hill, who was asked if he’s an onsides’ kick guy.
“We have been before. A lot of it has to do with the way they disperse on the kick return team. We certainly have a lot of confidence in Cooper that he’ll be able to perform all the kicks. It’ll certainly be in our repertoire.”
There are two ways to approach special teams - be aggressive and try to make things happen or be cautious, focused on not making mistakes. “I don’t want to play passive. I want to press the issue,” Hill said. “I want to put pressure on that snapper, put pressure on that punter. A lot of times when teams are punting, you don’t have to necessarily block one to force a bad punt or force a shank or things like that. We probably lean a little toward the aggressive side on special teams than just sitting back and seeing what happens.”
Another factor in returning punts could be who the coach has to put back there. Burns graduated but the Wildcats could be explosive in the kick return game again.
“We’ve got a couple guys that run alright,” he said. “We don’t have the guys ya’ll had last year and in 2021. But we’ve got some guys that may not be that fast but they’re certainly not slow. It’s our job to try to get the ball in the hands of playmakers.”
Of course, coaching special teams would be a lot easier if a team had the fastest player in the state at its disposal.
“One thing I’ve learned, when I’ve got good players, I’m a really good coach,” said Hill.