Assistant head coach/ special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone (10.26.23)
Do you get a bonus every time Dustin (Hopkins) gets Special Teams Player of the Week?
“I wish.”
What’s the secret ingredient in the Dustin Hopkins smoothie that is enabling him to kick all these 50-plus yard field goals?
“That’s a good question. I would say hard work and consistency with the weekly routine, I think that’s really been the difference.”
How do you coach guys to block field goals, jump over the long snapper?
“We executed well. Everyone involved on that play, especially the guy (Myles Garrett) that blocked it. Heck of a job of execution and we just saw a matchup opportunity that we liked and those guys executed well.”
What else went into that other than the great play there by Myles?
“Just everyone involved in the play. I mean, Shelby (Harris), JE (Jordan Elliott), Denzel (Ward), everybody factored in there for the matchup that we saw and just good execution on the play overall.”
How dangerous is that? Because if he touches somebody, it could be a 15 yard penalty, right? Do you consider it a risk calling that play?
“I mean, it’s a calculated risk, but I had confidence in our guys. We practiced it well and practice execution equals game reality is what a great coach once told me.”
How often do you practice that play to actually see what it’s going to look like in a game?
“When we have our field goal period, that’s when we ran it. So we ran it a handful of times during the week.”
Which coach shared that with you?
“Bill Belichick.”
We talked to Denzel earlier and he said how excited you were to pull that play out. What was your emotion like?
“When we got the block? I mean, it’s pretty obvious, right?”
I think Myles said after the game you noticed their linemen really go low. Is that the key to calling that play?
“I coached there for five years, so they had a guy that didn’t play in the game that had been on the other side of the line for the entire time that I was there. Look, we saw an opportunity with the personnel and fortunately for us, we got really good execution from our players to get the block.”
Were you just waiting to bring this out against your former team?
“No, I think, Tony (Grossi) asked a few weeks ago, do I have any tricks up my sleeve? Everyone has them. It’s just when are you going to use them, when is the right opportunity to use them? So look, we’re always going to have things ready to go and whenever we see an opportunity with personnel matchups things we like, then we’ll just use them as we see it.”
Was a part of that thought process because it was a 60-yard kick, you thought the trajectory might start a little lower. Or would you make that call if it was a 35-yard field goal?
“Not necessarily. I think that to me it felt like the right time to call it. I’m always going to call the game based on…you can have a plan going into the game and then that plan is going to change at some point based on momentum, how your team is doing in that instance. Things change throughout the game, and I feel like the way I call it a lot of times is based off instinct. I just feel like, I felt like it was a good time to call it, and I’m glad I did.”
What’s the name of that call?
“We actually called it Indy. Yeah, we called it Indy.”
I’m surprised it’s legal to do that. Do you ever wonder if it won’t be?
“No. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be. As long as you’re not contacting the offensive line.”
What’s your scouting report on the Seahawks special teams?
“They’re good. They’re a physical group. Their coordinator, I played with Larry Izzo in New England when I was a young player. Learned a lot from him. He’s a good coach, and his teams reflect his playstyle as a player. He was a super instinctive, physical football player and his team has kind of taken on his style of play.”
Pierre (Strong Jr.) is playing a lot of running back. Can he still be the kick returner?
“We’re looking at some other players there, but he’s an option for sure still.”
What’s the state of the return game? It seems every week it’s been changed, personnel wise.
“Yeah, we’ve had some injuries. We’ve lost some guys to bigger roles offensively, obviously, with Jerome (Ford). So as the roster changes, we have to adapt and I think our players have handled it pretty well.”
Dustin said that he’s always felt that he could consistently hit those 50-yard field goals. He just maybe didn’t get the opportunities early in a season with different teams. For you guys, what made you confident early on to let him go for those longer ones?
“We’ve seen it in practice. We’ve seen him have the accuracy, the timing, the accuracy, the elevation. Everything’s been good in practice, and he’s done a good job of like I said, you take it from the practice field to the game. Rarely do you see a play not work in practice, work in a game. So you need to be able to do it in practice and then take it to the game on Sunday. So our guys in all of our units have done that in a pretty good way.”
When you talked about how much you hate penalties, what’s your running total right now in penalties and are you pleased with it?
“We probably have more penalties than it feels, because we haven’t done a bad job as far as poor decision making that result in penalties. Like blocking a guy in the back or something like that. We’ve had a couple, not to say dumb, but we’ve had a couple of dumb penalties. We had a delay game at the end of the – I think it was the San Fran game maybe that it didn’t hurt us there. Last week, Tony (Fields II) jumped offsides, which we actually turned into the league, and it was illegal. The snapper takes his hand off the ball and pops his head up. So Tony jumps off sides on a punt return. It’s like fourth-and-17. So we’ve had a couple of those penalties, but I think we’re playing pretty clean overall, and I’m actually happy with how we’ve done as far as the penalties go and not making fouls.”
How many has there been?
“How many we’ve had? I don’t know, honestly, because how I see it is are we hurting the team by making a bad decision and blocking in the back, that’s going to give us a poor drive start. We haven’t really had that. So you haven’t really seen those at the end of a play. It’s really been almost like pre-snap to a degree.”
With Deshaun Watson out, do you feel on special teams that you guys have to really step it up even more so and create great field position, returns and make those kicks and do everything?
“I would never really say that. I feel like every week we’re talking about controlling field position. Regardless of who the quarterback is, we always want to give our offense the best drive start possible, our defense the best drive start possible to succeed. Everyone’s going to do their job. Our job is to do as best we can to give the offense the best field position.”
Do you remember when P.J. Walker came to Indianapolis? Were you surprised to see him again?
“Yeah, he was my scout team kick returner.”
He was Phillip then right?
“I didn’t know he was P.J. until a few years later. I used to call him Phil.”
So are you surprised at what he’s doing to help win some games?
“I’ll say this. There’s guys on our team that have said this as well, Phillip – P.J., Phil. I still call him Phil. He’s like, ‘you’re the only one who calls me Phil’. I’m like, ‘well, I don’t know you as P.J., like you don’t call me not Bubba.’ No, I mean, I think the kids like – he’s just got that gamer in him. I think he’s an instinctive football player. He makes plays with his feet. He’s got a strong arm, and obviously he’s done a good – since he left us in Indy, back in whatever that was. I think ’19 was his last year there. He’s done pretty well. So when I found out were going to get him here, I was excited to have him.”
Dustin, I know he talked about, too, that he feels like since he got here, it’s been kind of like this collaborative process almost especially practices and you guys asking him what he feels like he needs to work on and that part of it, I guess. How much is that part of your coaching style? How have you developed that and that collaborative process?
“Yeah, I think that for me, I always want to try to make the specialists as comfortable as possible to a degree. I like them to do what they want to do and I’m going to be there to supervise and obviously give my input and feedback. But if he doesn’t want to hit a lot of balls and it’s going to better for him in the long run, that’s what I want.”
One more question about those penalties. Every special teams coach tries to tell their players, don’t hold, don’t block in the back. But yours seem to be more successful. So why is that?
“I hit our guys on it every week, every Friday. I mean, I’m hitting them on it nonstop. I show things from throughout the league, poor decision making, understanding the roles, how the officials are calling the game. So I feel like our guys have a good awareness and understanding of how the officials are calling the game and what not to do and then just making good decisions. Back to the Phil Walker. So I showed a clip of him from Indy as a kick returner a couple of weeks ago in my Friday meeting as well.”
Is Myles the only guy on the team that could do what he did, or do you have other guys that could do the stand still jump over everybody?
“I don’t know. I’m not sure.”
Did you have tryouts or anything?
“We didn’t have any that I knew that we had a good guy to do it, but yeah. We’re always going to have an idea of someone’s skill set and who can potentially do one of those things. Most coaches will do that, but everything I do is I feel like is game plan specific to the opponent. I’m going to try to put my guys in the best spot, the best matchup to match up against a guy. I don’t want to put a guy in a spot where I’m asking him to do something that he can’t do or that he can’t win in a matchup.”
Which Friday meeting it was? That you showed the clip of Walker.
“Which Friday meeting it was? I think it was actually a Saturday meeting. I started on a Saturday maybe like two or three weeks ago.”
Seattle’s not a place that the Browns typically play at regularly, but what makes it a challenging place? What are you expecting in terms of conditions? In terms of especially for a guy like Dustin.
“I played in San Fran for two years. We played there a number of times, including the loudest game I’ve ever played or coached in the NFC Championship in ’13. To me, it’s the loudest stadium in the league. It’s hard to play there. The crowd is definitely an impact and we have definitely prepared and we are preparing our players to handle the noise both on offense, defense and in the kicking game. It’s a fun place to play. It’s a fun place to coach, great environment. So our guys should not be surprised when we get there and understand how loud it’s going to be like, it’s going to be loud. So we’re trying to do our best to prepare them for that.”
The clip of Phil, was that to make fun or was there something special about it?
“He was literally my scout team kick returner for most of the season. So I was just making a joke that you know he was starting in the game. It might have been the first game. He ended up coming in.”
How was he as a returner?
“He was good. He was good. Guys were shocked that he was actually, like, the kick returner, and then I told him that I showed it, and he laughed, obviously.”
Another question about Seattle. Jason Myers has been one of the more consistent kickers for them for a long time. I’m not asking you to give away state secrets here, but when you evaluate when a unit, like, for example, their field goal unit is as efficient as they are, where do your eyes go first? Are you looking at something on the line? Are you looking at the snap? How do you evaluate when something goes so well like that?
“Yeah, you look at everything. I mean, like with the field goal operation, it starts with the snap, the hold and the kick. You’re looking at the protection. He’s definitely been an effective kicker. He does a good job. He gets good elevation on his kicks. He’s got good timing and tempo to the ball. Larry’s done a good job with him out there. He’s definitely been a weapon for them. The punter, the punter’s a dude, too now. Michael Dickson, he’s a real deal.”
Did you know that’s the only time the Colts have lost with the roof open and the window closed?
“Is that right? Yeah. I told you guys it was going to be open, though, and it was not warm. On our sideline, it was not warm. Over in the sun it was a little bit.”
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