Quoted: Preseason Camp – Oct. 16
10/16/2020 12:30:00 PM | Football
Quoted: Preseason Camp – Oct. 16
Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with Indiana special teams coordinator/defensive backs coach Kasey Teegardin, K Charles Campbell and P Haydon Whitehead on Friday, Oct. 16.
Special Teams Coordinator Kasey Teegardin
Q: On keeping the team focused on special teams…
TEEGARDIN: We have been cutting up all of those clips. Throughout the weekend Ryan McInerney, Coach Tom Allen and myself have a text going and every time there is a special teams gaffe or something we see watching games, pop-ups on our phone, stuff we see on Twitter, we are contacting our video guy and we are having him pull those clips. Every single special teams meeting, every single day we have been showing those clips and teaching. I think that is the biggest thing. It is so hard to replicate the speed, the environment, the play itself, but teaching those guys about the situation that occurred. We are going to learn from other people's mistakes and be ready for those when the opportunity comes. We have executed a few of them, like the Dallas Cowboys-Atlanta Falcons onside kick. We call that the 'watermelon' onside kick. We do not really see that one that often when the ball spins at a slow pace. Atlanta backed off and there was a huge controversy if the players knew what to do in that situation. We have physically executed that with our hands team multiple times already. We are learning from those mistakes that we have seen other teams make and that has been really beneficial for us. We are trying to show those guys as much film as possible during meetings.
Q: On the state of the Husky position…
TEEGARDIN: It will be by committee. Right now, we are repping a lot of different guys there. We had about seven guys take reps there in the last scrimmage. Seven different guys played husky. It is more situational than anything else. At Michigan State last year, we slid Tiawan Mullen inside a little bit for a certain matchup. Obviously, he did a phenomenal job there. Jamar Johnson has experience there and we feel like we can use him there if needed. Noah Pierre is another guy that we have practiced there in the past when we have been short. A lot of people forget that Bryant Fitzgerald started at husky two years ago at Rutgers. That was when Marcelino Ball went down. Jamar played and had a pick in that game at husky as a true freshman. We feel that we have a lot of guys that can fill that void. I am going to lean heavy on Fitz at the position, especially early. I need to make sure he is coached up and ready to go, and he is. He has been doing a phenomenal job. Obviously, we miss Marcelino a ton, but Fitz is ready to go.
Q: On having more long snappers ready…
TEEGARDIN: It has been really positive. You have seen a lot of games where teams are down to the fourth-string long snapper. We have had Haydon Whitehead work with at least five different long snappers to this point. Same with short snappers, because that is a different skillset. We have had everyone from Bryson Bonds, Liam Zaccheo, Matt Bjorson, Jake Wellman. He is our backup right now in case something was to happen. We feel like we have a number of guys, we have about five guys that I am confident in that have taken live reps in practice with a scout squad coming at them to put them in some pressure situations. That is another position that we are trying to be prepared for the worst.
P Haydon Whitehead
Q: On the importance of special teams…
WHITEHEAD: Special teams is one of those things that it is fourth down and that is it, so you do not get a second chance. The message is, looking at those games in the first couple of weeks, how important special teams have been to the outcome of the game. Do your job as best as you can. We have been fortunate enough to have somewhat of a full camp that has been relatively normal, even if it was a bit delayed. In that sense, it is still business as normal. But there is definitely an emphasis on it being fourth down and that is it. Be at your best when it counts the most, do your job, because if you do not, we have seen the results.
Q: On the offseason as an international student…
WHITEHEAD: Unfortunately, I did not get to go home. With school and, obviously, travel restrictions, I did not get a chance to head back home at all, which was a little disappointing. At the same time, it was probably for the best because knowing how long this pandemic has gone on already and how long it is going to go on in the future, I might not have been able to get back into the states if I had chosen to go home. Being here, I was able to get a lot of good offseason work in that I am really confident with. I probably will not get to have mom, dad or any family members come over for the season, but that is all part of the new normal now. Either way, just looking forward to getting out there and playing this year.
Q: On leadership…
WHITEHEAD: I think that it is a unique combination of age, being a little bit older, combined with experience. That is something that I have taken upon myself to project that experience onto some of the younger guys who have not had as much game experience, or even as much experience at the college level. It is definitely something that I have taken upon myself to take that next step from being a leader of the specialist group, to a leader of special teams, to the team in general. At the end of the day, I still have to do my job to earn that respect from the rest of the team. That is something that I have been working on this offseason.
K Charles Campbell
Q: On field goal distance…
CAMPBELL: Out on the field by myself, I can hit from around 63 yards. If the wind is blowing at my back and it is good outside, warm, maybe 65. We will see. I always like to stretch the distance a little bit to see how far I can go back in practice.
Q: On confidence coming from last year's Purdue game…
CAMPBELL: I think that kick helped me tremendously. I came in and did not get to play that much. I went out and hit a big field goal and that lifted the weight of the world off my shoulders. It told me that I could go out there and hit big kicks. It really brought my confidence up from that game.
Q: On the impact of Logan Justus…
CAMPBELL: Logan and I were really, really close. We were competitors, but we were more of friends than competitors. I got to really watch Logan and understand how to carry myself, how to react to situations and he did teach me a lot of how to deal with pressure. He taught me to not think about it or to take things too seriously. I really appreciated him for that.
Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with Indiana special teams coordinator/defensive backs coach Kasey Teegardin, K Charles Campbell and P Haydon Whitehead on Friday, Oct. 16.
Special Teams Coordinator Kasey Teegardin
Q: On keeping the team focused on special teams…
TEEGARDIN: We have been cutting up all of those clips. Throughout the weekend Ryan McInerney, Coach Tom Allen and myself have a text going and every time there is a special teams gaffe or something we see watching games, pop-ups on our phone, stuff we see on Twitter, we are contacting our video guy and we are having him pull those clips. Every single special teams meeting, every single day we have been showing those clips and teaching. I think that is the biggest thing. It is so hard to replicate the speed, the environment, the play itself, but teaching those guys about the situation that occurred. We are going to learn from other people's mistakes and be ready for those when the opportunity comes. We have executed a few of them, like the Dallas Cowboys-Atlanta Falcons onside kick. We call that the 'watermelon' onside kick. We do not really see that one that often when the ball spins at a slow pace. Atlanta backed off and there was a huge controversy if the players knew what to do in that situation. We have physically executed that with our hands team multiple times already. We are learning from those mistakes that we have seen other teams make and that has been really beneficial for us. We are trying to show those guys as much film as possible during meetings.
Q: On the state of the Husky position…
TEEGARDIN: It will be by committee. Right now, we are repping a lot of different guys there. We had about seven guys take reps there in the last scrimmage. Seven different guys played husky. It is more situational than anything else. At Michigan State last year, we slid Tiawan Mullen inside a little bit for a certain matchup. Obviously, he did a phenomenal job there. Jamar Johnson has experience there and we feel like we can use him there if needed. Noah Pierre is another guy that we have practiced there in the past when we have been short. A lot of people forget that Bryant Fitzgerald started at husky two years ago at Rutgers. That was when Marcelino Ball went down. Jamar played and had a pick in that game at husky as a true freshman. We feel that we have a lot of guys that can fill that void. I am going to lean heavy on Fitz at the position, especially early. I need to make sure he is coached up and ready to go, and he is. He has been doing a phenomenal job. Obviously, we miss Marcelino a ton, but Fitz is ready to go.
Q: On having more long snappers ready…
TEEGARDIN: It has been really positive. You have seen a lot of games where teams are down to the fourth-string long snapper. We have had Haydon Whitehead work with at least five different long snappers to this point. Same with short snappers, because that is a different skillset. We have had everyone from Bryson Bonds, Liam Zaccheo, Matt Bjorson, Jake Wellman. He is our backup right now in case something was to happen. We feel like we have a number of guys, we have about five guys that I am confident in that have taken live reps in practice with a scout squad coming at them to put them in some pressure situations. That is another position that we are trying to be prepared for the worst.
P Haydon Whitehead
Q: On the importance of special teams…
WHITEHEAD: Special teams is one of those things that it is fourth down and that is it, so you do not get a second chance. The message is, looking at those games in the first couple of weeks, how important special teams have been to the outcome of the game. Do your job as best as you can. We have been fortunate enough to have somewhat of a full camp that has been relatively normal, even if it was a bit delayed. In that sense, it is still business as normal. But there is definitely an emphasis on it being fourth down and that is it. Be at your best when it counts the most, do your job, because if you do not, we have seen the results.
Q: On the offseason as an international student…
WHITEHEAD: Unfortunately, I did not get to go home. With school and, obviously, travel restrictions, I did not get a chance to head back home at all, which was a little disappointing. At the same time, it was probably for the best because knowing how long this pandemic has gone on already and how long it is going to go on in the future, I might not have been able to get back into the states if I had chosen to go home. Being here, I was able to get a lot of good offseason work in that I am really confident with. I probably will not get to have mom, dad or any family members come over for the season, but that is all part of the new normal now. Either way, just looking forward to getting out there and playing this year.
Q: On leadership…
WHITEHEAD: I think that it is a unique combination of age, being a little bit older, combined with experience. That is something that I have taken upon myself to project that experience onto some of the younger guys who have not had as much game experience, or even as much experience at the college level. It is definitely something that I have taken upon myself to take that next step from being a leader of the specialist group, to a leader of special teams, to the team in general. At the end of the day, I still have to do my job to earn that respect from the rest of the team. That is something that I have been working on this offseason.
K Charles Campbell
Q: On field goal distance…
CAMPBELL: Out on the field by myself, I can hit from around 63 yards. If the wind is blowing at my back and it is good outside, warm, maybe 65. We will see. I always like to stretch the distance a little bit to see how far I can go back in practice.
Q: On confidence coming from last year's Purdue game…
CAMPBELL: I think that kick helped me tremendously. I came in and did not get to play that much. I went out and hit a big field goal and that lifted the weight of the world off my shoulders. It told me that I could go out there and hit big kicks. It really brought my confidence up from that game.
Q: On the impact of Logan Justus…
CAMPBELL: Logan and I were really, really close. We were competitors, but we were more of friends than competitors. I got to really watch Logan and understand how to carry myself, how to react to situations and he did teach me a lot of how to deal with pressure. He taught me to not think about it or to take things too seriously. I really appreciated him for that.
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