Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Bubba Ventrone (9.18.25)
I was just gonna ask, if Corey (Bojorquez) couldn’t have gone, was it Andre (Szmyt) that would have handled the punting? Who would have been the punter in that situation?
“Yeah. Dre (Andre Szmyt) would have stepped in.”
Just wondering what happened on the blocked punt?
“Yeah, I mean, we just gotta protect better. Gotta block better, Gotta protect better. I mean, it’s pretty obvious what happened.”
I mean, Ronnie (Hickman) was the punt protector there. Is it as simple as that?
“We just gotta execute it better, blocking technique, have a base. Time our punch. Disappointing, but, yeah, it is what it is. You gotta coach it up and move on.”
Afterward, Grant (Delpit) took the spot at punt protector, will that be the case going forward?
“We’ll see this week. We’ll see how it goes, see how the practice setting goes. But, yeah, we made the change we felt we needed to do.”
How’s Corey’s (Bojorquez) ankle feeling?
“I mean, he’s a little nicked up. So we’ll see how he progresses throughout the week.”
Do you expect him to kick Sunday?
“We’ll see how the week goes.”
Bubba, that’s two weeks in a row now that you’ve given up a fairly long punt return. Do you need to make changes in your coverage unit or what can be done to…
“We need to tackle better. We actually, we didn’t cover the punt poorly. We actually didn’t get a great ball to cover. The hang was low and we missed a number of tackles on the play. We’ve got to find a way to get the returner down.”
So wait, so that’s two weeks in a row now. You said that the hang time wasn’t enough, is it? So, what can be done about that?
“Probably get more hang time on the kick.”
How about Isaiah Bond? Will he return punts again?
“We’re going to continue to get him reps back there. I think that he came in and did a solid job to be able to get us out of the game. So, I think that he’s been a really good worker for us so far in his short time here. Very, very receptive to any role that we put him in. He’s been back throwing kickoff returns as well, so he’s done a good job for us.”
Is that just a comfortability thing with him where he’s (Isaiah Bond) young? You’ve got to get him more reps there as the punt returner?
“Yeah, he hasn’t done a ton of it in-game. He’s done a lot of it in practice in a college setting. So, it’s different. I mean, being able to get there in an NFL game with a lot of bullets flying, so thought he did a solid job last week.”
Bubba, you guys talk so much about the complementary football, and I know you’re trying to get your special teams to pull their weight. So how disappointing frustrating is when these games are so close and big plays are costing?
“No, it’s…I mean, we obviously had the missed kicks in the first game, give up the block. I mean, that type of play impacts the game so much. It’s like a turnover or worse. You know, especially when you give… your defense is playing well. They had, I think, six drives that started on their side of the 50 in the minus territory. And I think they got a field goal out of those drives. And the other drives, they were in the plus territory. That’s where all their points came or off the turnover. So, there’s direct correlation in playing complementary football and giving the defense a long field and giving the offense a short field. So that’s going to be the goal moving forward. Look, it’s been a short season. There’s been two games played, so we’re gonna look to hopefully get back on track, address the areas that we need to improve on in the next couple days.”
Bubba, it seems like since you got here, even before you were here, just in special teams in general, here, where it feels like if it’s not one thing, it’s another. It feels like every week you’re having to maybe try and correct or fix something. Just how challenging has that been for you when you’ve not been able to get a lot of consistency?
“I would say last year, we were inconsistent in some areas, obviously, to start the season. I wouldn’t say since I got here, I think that’s a little bit inaccurate. [In] ’23, we had a good year, so we’re looking to get back to that type of ball.”
You know, when they ask you about the hang time, obviously more hang time would help. But Corey’s (Bojorquez) injury, would that affect, is it his plant foot or his kicking foot?
“It’s his plant.”
Does that affect…?
“Yeah, it would affect. I think it would affect it regardless of what foot it would be.”
If you’re not 100% sure that Corey’s (Bojorquez) going to be ready Sunday. How difficult would it be? You don’t have a guy on the roster, so you’d have to bring somebody and get him ready to hold. Like, how tough would that be?
“Yeah, we worked out a few punters, so we have that option if we needed it.”
And is (Dillon) Gabriel the holder?
“Yeah, yeah.”
What about Andre (Szymt) and making his kicks this week?
“Yeah, it was good to see him get back on track, like I said. I mean, the body of work that we’ve seen from him and his mental capacity, I would say, overall, for the position and being consistent. I think we had a lot of confidence that he would get back on track, and he did. He had a good week of prep last week. We got him in this. We got him back in the stadium on Wednesday, this week. So, I think that we trusted that he would get it done, and we have faith in him moving forward
(Damontae) Kazee, I saw that you guys moved him up on the punt return. Is there anything to that? You guys had him up, like, away from the line of scrimmage, like, closer to the returner. Is there anything to that?
“I would say it’s the scheme that we felt was best for that situation. Add a blocker near the ball.”
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