[NU Sports] Special teams coach again

[Jonathan Hodges]

> He would then be able to concentrate on special teams and could attend
> clinics, study ST play, etc.
>

This is one of my pet peeves because it's stupid to think that NU's current
assistants aren't involved in specific aspects of special teams now.  Just
because there isn't a coach with that title doesn't mean that they aren't
either helping or are in charge of things like coverage teams, etc.  For
instance, I'm sure Hankwitz has contributed to NU special team punt and kick
coverage - which has helped NU be quite successful in preventing big
returns.

There was an article in USA Today recently about the unique titles given to
assistant coaches for them to get around certain contract/salary rules:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2009-11-10-assistant-coaches-titles_N.htm

The fact is that each assistant coach has slightly varied responsibilities
based on the other assistants and the head coach of each program.  Fitz and
NU have decided to set up their titles and responsibilities (many of which
we as fans never see, like recruiting activities) based on who is on staff
and where the areas of need are.

Sorry, but hiring a special teams coach is NO magic bullet to make the
special teams instantly better (it doesn't somehow make the guys on the
field make tackles, shed blocks, or get downfield faster).  Remember that
most of the guys on special teams are either young or are splitting time
with the offense or defense and due to rather strict practice time
restrictions, that makes practicing a significant amount of time on special
teams difficult.

Final note: there was a quote this past week from Fitz that if Demos was
only handling punts this year then he would be "leading the league" in that
category.  (He's handled all kicking duties this year outside of some
garbage time against Towson when Steve Flaherty had an XP and kickoff).  You
can blame the coaches for not bringing in another kicker, but that's more on
the recruiting guys than a special teams coach.

Jonathan