Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (10.2.25)
Grant (Delpit) mentioned something afterwards that he, they thought the ball had gone out of bounds and that led to some of them letting up. What did you see on the film when you went back and watched it?
“Yeah. Honestly, like as a coach, it’s disappointing to see that effort on the play. Grant clearly felt like the ball went out of bounds. He stopped really early in the play, you could hear the crowd kind of like uproar. The ball was hit very close to the sideline, no excuse at all to stop on the play though. We got to finish that, and he understands that.”
Just Andre (Szmyt), just since that season opener, how much have you seen his confidence just continue to grow with each kick? I know he had the long miss, but I mean even that one that was, I mean it looked like it veered left. Just how has his confidence grown with each kick?
“I think he’s done a good job. I mean, I think his confidence has definitely grown with each kick, like you said. I think the more experience he gets, he’s just going to continue to gain that confidence in-game. That’s where it comes is gaining the confidence in-game, having the in-game reps, the in-game situations, the end of game situation like we had against Green Bay (Packers). So, I think that all those things are going to factor for him.”
There’s been a lot of injuries on the team that affect special teams in a lot of ways. What are you seeing differently or what do you have to do differently with all these changes with the roster?
“We talk about it all the time. I mean in advance, you have to plan accordingly. You have to build on roster depth, starting back in the spring through training camp. We try to get as many guys reps as we can throughout the week in as many spots as we can. We try to take advantage of all the walkthroughs and the jog throughs available to get those guys extra reps that don’t really necessarily get those, in-game reps, in the event that you were to have to use them in the game.”
Isaiah (Bond), is it ideal to put him back for punts, or is that something you guys are sort of working? I know he went back there when DeAndre (Carter) went out.
Yeah, IB is definitely an option. We’ll have a real practice tomorrow and we’ll work through that. So, we’ll see who else is available. “
How did you see him get better? He said he did it once at Texas, I think, or Alabama, one of the places. But just how did you see him, each time he went out there, could you sense, even in-game, a little bit of an improvement for him?
“Yeah, I think he’s starting to track the ball better, and he’s been catching the ball both off the jugs and off live foot consistently since he’s been here. So, he works at it, he’s a very hard worker, he’s a smart kid, obviously has a very good skill set relative to his speed. So, when he gets the ball, he can be dangerous.”
Will the kickers get an opportunity to get over to the stadium before the game to kind of get an idea of what that looks like over there?
“No, they won’t. But we were informed that the surface is comparable to a few other places that we played, so we shouldn’t have any issues relative to the surface.”
Wind wise, I mean, the design of that stadium, you know, with the roof kind of, it’s weird. It’s not outdoors, it’s not indoors. It’s almost old Texas Stadium like, with the way it’s sort of designed with the roof. How does that impact thins?
“Yeah, spoke with a few other coaches that have played over there, Vrabes (Mike Vrabel) and Rich Bisaccia. Those guys, they – I mean, first off, they said the stadium is immaculate. They said it’s an incredible stadium. So excited to be able to see that in Tottenham. And they said that the wind could factor, or it could not. I guess with one of the experiences, the wind was not that much of a factor. It’s showing like – at least the other day was showing like 15 to 16. So, I don’t know what that means for the stadium. We’ll figure it out when we get there. Look, we play in a pretty windy stadium, so I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to adjust to it.”
I was gonna say, how much does where you guys play and kind of the notorious reputation it has for the various winds and everything. How much does that in some ways help when you go into sort of an unknown location like this?
“I think every stadium is different. Every game is different. Even like when we go down to our stadium in Cleveland, the wind…it’s blowing one way one day, you may go down on a Thursday and kick, and the wind’s coming left to right the next day, it’s coming right at you. You just never know. So, I think that’s also important for Dre (Andre Szmyt) is to be able to see these different types of wind patterns and to be able to adjust and I would say, yeah, apply the correction to the next kick if there was a mishap.”
Dylan (Sampson) and Jerome (Ford), your two-kickoff guy return guys, in DeAndre’s (Carter) absence?
“Yeah, we have…I mean, we have multiple options back there. We really do. Jerome, Sam (Dylan Sampson), we have IB (Isaiah Bond), all those guys have done a good job. And that’s why it’s so important to be able to get those guys reps, like we talked about.”
Have you seen anything…obviously a weird travel schedule. How do you feel like the team will do, rest, time, schedule, all of that? Like, do you have any ideas? Have you had that experience or how are you feeling?
“I was here back in 2013. I played in San Francisco; we played against Jacksonville. But we came out much earlier in the week. We came out on a Sunday right after we played in Tennessee. So we were here the whole week and got acclimated that way. I think that we did a good job with this trip of educating our players when to go to sleep, when to not go to sleep. Do this when you get here, don’t do this. So, I feel like coach and our support team have a really good plan for that, so we’ll see in time.”
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