Assistant Head Coach/ Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (11.6.25)
So how did you sort of regroup or refresh or change things up over the bye week for your unit?
“I went back to Indy and saw my son play football all weekend, so that was good. It was a good week to just, you know, reset, get back on track and refocus for the next nine weeks.”
Bubba, looking back at the New England game, you tried two onside kicks there and was successful on the second one, but you started the first one with the (Corey) Bojorquez. So, you obviously got a few options.
“Yeah, we have a few options. Good execution on the second one with the kick and got the high hop there and Gage (Larvadain) was in a good spot. So, give our offense another opportunity with the ball.”
Bubba, when you look back at the first eight games, what are your biggest takeaways about your unit, and I guess the areas of improvement you’re trying to make the most in the second half?
“Yeah, we started slow, just a couple mishaps early. I felt like we got back on track about midway through the first half of the year. Definitely missed some opportunities in the return game, both on KR (kick return) and punt return. So, emphasis on that moving forward with also priority in coverage. That’s always going to be a huge thing for us.”
Losing Joe (Tryon-Shoyinka), how was that for you guys? He played a lot of special team snaps for you… Joe Tryon played a lot of special team snaps for you. So, is that, I mean, was that kind of a loss?
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve really gotten contributions from a number of different areas. We have a decent amount of D- linemen that are playing for us that don’t have a ton of like, I would say, like core type guys. So, I feel like we’re pulling from different parts of the team. So, it’s been a good thing for the D-line to give us some contributions there.”
What day of the week do you practice onside kicks?
“What day of the week? We talk through it throughout the week. We usually typically hit them on Friday. There’s times where we’ll hit them on Thursday as well. Friday is when I usually do like, I hit a lot of like, situational type things in my meeting, so.”
So, you never know whether it’s in a game plan or not. So, you practice them anyway?
“Yeah, you practice – we practice our onside kick and we practice our hands unit every week.”
Bubba, what about, just halfway through the year for Andre (Szmyt) and how you’ve kind of seen him come along and obviously work through some of the misses and struggles and things like that?
“Yeah, and like I said, I feel like early in the season, you know, first time out there, obviously missed a couple kicks against Cincy, which were critical, but then got back on track. Had a miss at Detroit on a deep kick. Missed a kick at New England, which would have been a big one, but I feel like he’s been really consistent in his practice reps. I feel like he’s in a good spot, you know, moving forward.”
Bubba, did you know Tommy before he got here last year? Tommy Rees?
“No, I didn’t. I knew who Tommy was, but I did not know him.”
When there’s a change, obviously Kevin (Stefanski) made the change on play caller this week. Do you feel that throughout the coaching staff? How do you react to something like that?
“Not really. Yeah, you know, I haven’t really felt anything different at all. I always tell Tommy I feel like, he’s younger than me – I want to say almost 10 years younger than me. I always feel like he’s like my age because we’re always talking and chopping it up and stuff. So, he’s a great football coach. He’s got a great mind, very smart. I think he’s been really good for our staff and for our team.”
Bubba, off that, though, obviously it doesn’t impact you directly that there’s a change in play caller, but what does it say about just Kevin from a leadership standpoint that he’s willing to pass that off? What message does that send to you guys as a coaching staff, to the team, that he’s willing to hand that off just to try to find a way to get this offense moving in the right direction?
“Yeah. I mean, I couldn’t say enough good things about Kev. I think he’s done a great job with the messaging to our football team, keeping our team connected, and we obviously have a lot of – I would say we have a lot of faith in him to be able to be able to lead this building. And then obviously to be able to hand it off Tommy. You don’t do that unless you trust the guy that you’re giving that to. So, I think Tommy’s, you know, earned that opportunity. So, I think Kevin definitely trusts him.”
Not to belabor the onside kick, but one last question. Given the changes in the rules and having to declare how much of an onside kick has become luck, in recovering it.
“Yeah. I mean, I think, practice execution, you know, you got to be able to hit a good kick, the formation is going to dictate how they are aligned to your personnel. People want to have other like, avenues and things like that to be able to like, change the play. I always feel like you shouldn’t…if you’re losing and trailing in the game, you shouldn’t have an opportunity to get the ball back. Why should we give a higher percentage of a recovery to a team that’s losing? So, to me, like, if you’re losing in the game, you should have did more earlier in the game to not put yourself in that spot.”
Just onside kicks, since it seems like onside kick day…
“Is this national onside kick day?”
There was a play in Cincinnati-Chicago on Sunday where the recovering team went up two yards, and it bounced off the guy’s foot. How much of that is a good teaching tool and stuff that, “Let it go the 10 yards. Don’t advance to try to get it.”
“Yeah. I think depending on how you’re coaching the plays, how those guys are going to react and how they’re going to play it, there’s different ways to be able to execute the recovery. There’s different alignments. There’s, you know, different positions that factor. Who are the ball handlers? Who are you telling to recover the ball? Do you have one guy recovering the ball? Is everyone an option? So not really trying to give too much away, but it just depends on how you’re coaching those players to do it. But ideally, you don’t want to, if you’re going to block, you don’t want to contact the ball before it hits, before it gets returned or before it gets to 10 yards.”
Just general lesson in it, because even on returns and stuff, if you’re going down and it bounces off you, it’s still live ball anyway too.
“Correct. Yeah.”
What do you see from Malachi Corley? He returned some kicks last game. What have you seen from him overall on your unit and as a returner?
“He’s developing, you know, he’s learning. I think that he’ll continue to improve the more opportunities he gets touch the ball, both in practice and in games. We cleaned up some things from the New England game that I think that we can better in. But I like the kid. Hard worker, good with the ball in his hands. You know, he almost is built like a running back, so we like that about him.”
You’ve got to be the only special teams coach who’s against onside kicks.
“I’m not against onside kicks, but I just don’t think that like we need to like gimmick the game up and have like a fourth and like 15 offensive play to try to get the ball back or something like that.”
Well, yeah, that’s radical. But you just said that you don’t understand why the team losing should have a chance to come back.
“Look, it’s a lower percentage recovery rate because they’re, I would say they’re trying to keep the play safe and eliminate the run up to the kick line. So that’s why, you know, now the one thing that they did to this year is now you’re allowed to have your front foot on the 35-yard line, whereas in the past you would have to have on the 34. Hasn’t made that much of a difference. But I’m in favor of the onside kick. But if you’re going to try to sustain the same formation and not have like overloaded formations and run ups to the line to be able to like, they want to be able to keep the play safe. That’s the way – I mean, you’re trying to eliminate speed over space. That’s why the kickoff play is what it is.”
Speaking of safety now at the midpoint of this season, have you been surprised with kick return rates and everything or what’s been your view of the modified rule?
“No, I mean, I told you guys back in the spring that it’s pretty much where I thought it was going to be. I thought it’d be about 85%. It’s just under 80, I think 79%. I’ve read that the injury rates are about the same as a normal play. So, the play’s proved to be a safe play. I think you’ll still start to see like evolvement of the play as like the years go on. I think there’s ways to improve it obviously. So, I think they’ll continue to tweak the play.”
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