Assistant Head Coach/ Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (11.28.25)
What’s up with the jersey?
“So, in my meetings we call it Jersey Friday. So, guys wear… it could be any jersey. I’ve been doing a high school jersey from the Cleveland area every Friday this year. I think Glenville’s still in the playoffs, right? Yeah.”
So Bubba (Ventrone), to get those returns, Gage (Larvadain) especially getting that 44-yarder, how key was that, in terms of helping to give the offense good positioning, especially with Shedeur’s (Sanders) first start?
“Yeah, it was great. I mean, I thought our guys did a good job being able to stay in phase with their coverage guys down the field. And Gage did a nice job of getting the ball downhill and attacking their coverage. Set up a score, which was great for us. So, hopefully continue to build off of that in the next handful of weeks.”
How key could that be for a guy like him? Obviously, he misses the touchdown grab the week before. He was talking a little bit about that after the game, feeling like he could contribute something really positive in this win the following week?
“Yeah, I mean, I think anything to be able to give our team an added boost, to be able to give our offense a good starting field position, it’s going to ultimately help our team.”
It felt like there’s been a few where he’s maybe been close to breaking one. Has that been the case over the last few weeks?
“Yeah, I think so. I think that he’s just trying to – he’s relatively new to the position, so I think he’s still trying to figure out like how to be more decisive with his running. I think that once he gets that – I think being able to set up on the ball well, that way he’s square and has a two-way go on the catch, I think that’s going to help him. But he’s definitely improved as the season has gone along.”
It feels like Andre (Szmyt) has found a lot of consistency from how he started the year for you guys. How have you seen him get through some of those early struggles to where he’s at now, and also what challenge will this week be with the weather that we’re looking forward to?
“Yeah, I think it ultimately starts with the process, right? The practice repetitions, being able to consistently hit the ball in practice. And then, obviously, when we get to the game, it’s being able to connect and have a start it out with, again, your warmup, figuring out what the wind’s doing, figuring out the elements. We’ve played a decent amount of those this year with wind and rain and things like that. So, I think that having done that, I think that will help him moving forward. But his process has been very good, he’s been very consistent in both practice and in games.”
How about Skyy Moore and what a nice job he’s been doing?
“Very talented returner, vert y talented. Does it both for them – punt and kick return. Productive player. Played against him when I was in Indy (Colts). So, pretty familiar with his skill set and his running ability. He’s got good vision, aggressive returner, has the ability to run all the types of returns – field returns, boundary. But he’s a good player. He’s from Pittsburgh, too.”
It seems like Matt Gay’s going to kick for them again.
“It feels like it’s trending that way, yeah.”
If it’s him or if it’s (Eddy) Pineiro. What’s the difference between the two kickers? How much of an adjustment is that for you and your units depending on which guy it ends up being?
I coached both players with the Colts. I had Eddy in training camp – one year he competed with Rodrigo Blankenship. And then I had Matt on practice squad for about half the year. That was in 2020 I want to say, before he ended up getting poached to L.A. (Rams). Pretty familiar with both guys. Both are very, very talented. Both have been accurate in their careers. I would say, like, some of their kickoff stuff is different. Both guys do a really good job though, so we’ll be prepared for both.”
We talked about Corey (Bojorquez) last week, and you said you’re looking for more consistency. And then after the game, Kevin (Stefanski) singles him out for kicking like you wanted. How pleased were you with what he was able to do last week?
“Yeah, did a good job with his placement. The hang times were good. He’d like to have that one plus-50 ball back that kind of drifted toward the middle of the field. But I think aside from that, he was really executing at a high level for us on what we wanted him to do. I thought we got a good performance out of our new gunner, D’Angelo Ross, did a nice job in the game, both forcing fair catches and nearly had the one tackle, but he factored for us for sure.”
The punt from the 29. What went into that decision? Sort of abnormal I would assume, and have you ever seen that before?
“Yeah, when I was coaching in New England (Patriots), we had situations like that quite a bit at the end of games. So, the ball’s initially on the 34-yard line. So at that point, do you want to kick a field goal? You know, the only thing that can beat you at that point is really a blocked kick, and then they score and then they have the opportunity kick the onside kick. I just feel like I was trained in my coaching career to…if you can end the game, let’s end the game. Let’s not give the other team an opportunity to get the ball back. So, the thought of hitting the punt there, you don’t risk really getting the kick blocked because of how we’re executing on the punt. We’re getting that thing out super quick, super-fast, we’re hitting it out of bounds. The one thing we could have done was, obviously, they jumped off-sides and had the penalty for illegal formation for covering up the snapper. The ball goes now to the 29-yard line. We could have potentially tried to draw them offsides again. It was fourth and two at that point, and then that would have backed it up. If we had taken a delay of game, that would have backed it up, then we would just execute the same way. I had that situation a number of times when I was in New England, a couple of times in Indy, but never from the 29-yard line.”
As a player who has crossed Villanova, New England, a lot of these cold cities, how did you like playing in potential snow games? And then how has your view changed, if at all, coming as a special teams coach?
“Yeah, I mean, playing in the elements as a player, it’s fun. You know, last year we had the game against Pittsburgh (Steelers). I’ve had games in my career as a player, where you remember those types of games because it’s uncomfortable, and you just find a way to grind through it and get the win and figure it out any way you can. And obviously we play outside in Cleveland right now, and it’s going to, probably, be one of those types of games where you just got to figure it out, and grind through it and find a way.”
But when you talk about the return game, did you think…I’m sure it’s a combination, but was it more blocking versus returners on why you haven’t had as many explosives as you’d like?
“Yeah, I think it’s a combination. There’s been times where it feels like we’re like one block away or we didn’t make the right read. I think we all have a hand in that. I think it’s the blocking, the returning. I think we think we can definitely improve in all those areas. But, yeah, to your point, I think it’s a combination of everything.”
Can you just talk about how hard the team fought in that game, and how all the different phases of the game fed off of each other and how great it was to be part of something like that?
“Yeah, I think the way that you win football games is being able to play complimentary to one another – offense, defense, special teams. Be able to control the field, helping out your offense in the return game, helping out your defense in coverage. So, being able to do that in all three phases was a good thing to have in the game. But hopefully we can continue to do that in the next six games.”
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