Notre Dame Notebook: Brian Mason Talks Fighting Irish Special Teams
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - In the wake of last week’s upset loss to Stanford, it’s easy for a blocked punt to get lost in the shuffle. Notre Dame first-year special teams coordinator Brian Mason’s squads had a habit of blocking kicks when he held the same position at Cincinnati for four years and he has brought that that mentality with him to South Bend. He shared some thoughts on his special teams units and players.
A Penchant For Punt Blocks
Prince Kollie’s 1st quarter punt block against Stanford was the second blocked punt by the Fighting Irish this season. It gave Notre Dame a golden opportunity to score, but the offense came up empty after getting stopped on a 4th and 2 play at the Cardinal five yard line.
"That’s a point of emphasis for us that we want to affect the punter,” Mason said of blocking punts. "One thing you never know—we have a lot of really good players, defensive players, and we try to get those guys to rush like they would on defense. Sometimes you don’t know who’s going to be the guy that can actually finish it and make the block. We’ve had some guys that have been close and it’s just kind of getting that feel for how you can finish it, and make it, and coulda, woulda, shoulda had a lot more. You just see that Bo Bauer, (Kollie), some other guys have kind of a knack to make those plays. Sometimes, in a transition, you’re just trying to figure out personnel. You’re trying to find out who can really do that. It’s a unique situation to try to figure out who can do it. You figure out how to put those pieces in better positions.”
Losing Bo Bauer
Captain Bo Bauer has been a special teams staple throughout his five-year Fighting Irish career. The linebacker played in 56 games in his career, with the majority of his playing time coming on special teams. His career came to an end due to a knee after Notre Dame’s win over BYU.
"It’s a huge loss,” Mason said of Bauer’s injury. "That’s somebody that was really a warrior for us. He wasn’t playing as much on defense as he probably wanted or expected to. He’d been banged up. He kind of had a self-sacrifice that 'I'm going to be a special teams captain; I’m going to play every play on special teams' before he got injured. He wanted to play every rep of the season on special teams even though he was playing through several different injuries — shoulder and some other things that were going on, that limited him in some other ways that he kind of sacrificed, ‘If I’m going to have a role on this team, I’m going to be a special teams captain and I’m going to communicate and do those things. That’s a big void to miss.
"You can see on film, he is really clearly communicating and doing things, putting people in the right situations. Invaluable leader,” Mason continued. "Veteran player. Unbelievable to see when you have great kids like that — he came here to play linebacker, but given the situation, he sacrificed to help everybody else. I’ll forever love him for that. It’s an example I can forever use. We’re not able to replace him with any one person, so it’s kind of like who are our different veteran guys and guys we trust on each different unit that can kind of fill that void. But certainly that’s a void that’s difficult to fill.”
More Jordan Botelho?
Jordan Botelho’s playing time with the defense has been up and down so far, but like Bauer, he has been a consistent factor on special teams. Mason says he can envision a role similar to the one Bauer had for the linebacker.
"He’s someone that could be like Bo in the future,” Mason noted. "Be that leader. Be a very special role for him. I talked with coach about that. ‘Hey Botelho could be a guy like Bauer. He has that really special skillset for sure.'
"He’s done a great job on special teams,” Mason continued. "He made two tackles, he’s on punt block, every rep he’s on kickoff. He’s a backup on punt and kickoff return right now, but he’s done an unbelievable job on punt and kickoff — coulda, woulda, shoulda blocked a punt against BYU. Makes open tackles on kickoffs last week and has been a really physical player."
Jon Sot - From Ivy To Irish
Punter Jon Sot has been one of Notre Dame’s most consistent special teams players. The Harvard grad transfer has averaged a career-high 45.4 yards on 27 punts this season. It’s 3.2 yards better than his previous career best at Harvard in 2019. He has boomed eight punts of better than 50 yards, with a long of 75 yards.
"I think there’s a lot of different things,” Mason said of Sot’s improvements in his first year at Notre Dame. "(The) resources he has here. There’s a lot that goes into the punting. The long-snapper goes into the punting. The coverage goes into the punting. Putting him in situations to make him successful. Understanding situational punting and kind of working with the whole unit to be good and situational punting is kind of what allows you to be good as a punt team. Some people enhance and use those things better than others. Just having the biggest leg doesn’t make you the best punter or the best punt team. You have to perform in different situations based on where you’re at on the field, where you’re at in the game. What the punt return team is giving you. There’s a couple of instances we’d like to have back—especially in the BYU game—but as a whole we’ve done a good job.
"I think he’s just in his fifth year of college,” Mason continued. "He’s older. He’s more mature. He understands technique better. We work with him on situational punting and how to handle different things. Harvard also canceled a year of football so didn’t train as much with COVID restrictions. He was able to get into a strength and conditioning program with Coach (Matt) Balis here that really helped change his body.”
Lack Of Kick Return Opportunities
Chris Tyree showed the kind of game changer he could be on kickoff returns with his 96-yard return for a touchdown against the Wisconsin Badgers in Chicago last season. Tyree’s opportunities have been far more limited this season. The team has just seven returns for 119 total yards through six games, with Tyree totaling six of them for an average of 15.3 yards. His longest return is 32 yards.
"There was a point of emphasis, starting in the spring, that in the past we maybe had moments that we changed the game like Wisconsin, but we were probably a little inconsistent,” Mason explained. "We try to make that a point of emphasis: punt being No. 1, kickoff return being No. 2. .... It’s frustrating when you don’t see those dividends pay off through the first half of the season on something we certainly made a point of emphasis.
"(We are) still trying to break through, get more consistent on kickoff return for sure,” Mason continued. "It’s been a little bit something we’ve been challenged with. We know we have a good returner and we just have to put it all together. Whether it be we didn’t execute well catching the ball or trying to run before we caught it in the BYU game, or everybody working together to get on body. We’ve faced some good kickers, that’s going to happen. When we have those opportunities we need to break through and hopefully we do that this week.”
Brandon Joseph’s Punt Returns
The hope was Northwestern transfer Brandon Joseph could add some oomph to Notre Dame’s punt returns this season. He averaged 28.5 yards on four returns for the Wildcats last season (even if 65 of it came on one punt). His average is 9.3 yards on 10 returns, with a long of 17 yards this season. His 9.3 yards per return ranks 28th nationally.
"Number one most important thing is secure the ball for the offense,” Mason said when asked about Joseph’s returns. "He’s done a great job of that. So, it’s easy to nitpick afterwards. He’s secured the ball: that’s the number one objective. We have faced some really good punters. We want to return the ball when there’s not a lot of hang-time: Low four (seconds) under four (seconds). There have been those opportunities where they’ve had an under four-second hang-time when we’ve affected the punter and we haven’t returned it. That’s frustrating, we want to be more aggressive in those opportunities for sure. I think there (were) two last week we should’ve gotten; there (were) more earlier in the year. We’re still trying to adjust and adapt to be better at that. For sure we want to be more aggressive in those situations. But we’ve faced some good punters and they’ve just (done well against) us.”
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