Wasn't That Special? A Scandurro Story

BY TIM SCANDURRO

“Here I am in my third Pro Bowl, about to go in and throw a touchdown pass to Jerry Rice, and we’re talking about our idiot kicker…what has the sports world come to?”—Peyton

Manning, 2003  

Coaches always talk about the three phases of a football team.  But it often feels  that the special teams phase is not on the same level as offense and defense.  Special teams are on the field far less, and they are often seen as populated with players who aren’t quite good enough to be regulars.  You pay your dues on special teams, hoping one day to get elevated to offense or defense.  So for many it’s really more like two-and-a-half phases.  

Then you have these peculiar roster fillers who have highly specialized roles: kicker, punter, long snapper.  Despite the lip service, some question whether these specialists are really “football players.”  This bias dates to the old days when placekickers, long snappers and punters were also position players.  George Blanda.  Paul Hornung.  Pat Summerall.  Sammy Baugh. Bruce Matthews.  Frank Gifford.  These guys kicked or punted or snapped, but they tended to always have the respect of their teammates because those roles were secondary to their “real” positions.  

Sometime in the 1970s as these kicking roles began to become more specialized, you started to hear players whine about playing hard for 59 minutes and 55 seconds only to watch their fate decided by a 155 pound soccer player who spoke with an accent.  The poster child for this era was left-footed kicker Garo Yepremian, a Cyprus native who began his NFL career in Detroit where Lions star Alex Karras said “these soccer guys don’t belong.  They run around saying  ‘I keek a touchdown, I keek a touchdown.’”  As a Dolphin, Yepremian underscored the point when he had a field goal blocked in the Super Bowl, picked it up and made perhaps the worst pass ever thrown at any level of football. Google it if you don’t believe me. 

This may surprise you, but in the mid-1980s when Bill Walsh’s 49ers and Buddy Ryan’s Bears were revolutionizing NFL offenses and defenses, only 12 NFL teams—less than half-- had a dedicated special teams coach.

The times, of course, have changed.  Many specialists are superb athletes now.  And whatever their misgivings may be about this small group of guys who often practice off on the side with their assorted tees and nets, players and fans today as well as coaches know how important they are to winning and losing.  And the pressure, my goodness.  If you mess up a run fit at linebacker and somebody runs 60 yards for a touchdown, a lot of fans won’t even know whose fault it was.

But shank a punt from your twenty yard line that goes backwards to your eight yard line on national television (as Bucknell’s punter did against Air Force Saturday night), or kick an extra point under the cross bar (as our own Ethan Head did last year at Oklahoma), and you end up going viral on a Barstool Sports clip. 

Enter new Tulane special teams coordinator Johnathan Galante. 

You may not know much about Coach Galante, but consider this pedigree.  As an undersized walk-on linebacker at Virginia Tech, he earned his stripes (and eventually his scholarship) on special teams.  He played for the Hokies at the tail end of Frank Beamer’s coaching career.  Coach Beamer’s teams were known for their exceptional special teams play and the time they spent on it, particularly their aptitude for blocking kicks. 

Coach Galante got his coaching start in Blacksburg as a graduate assistant in 2017.  Two years later he was hired away by an even bigger coaching legend.  As a special teams analyst at Alabama, he trained under the detail-oriented, maniacally intense Nick Saban.  When Saban’s rising star assistant Charles Huff got the head job at Marshall before the 2022 season, he took Coach Galante with him to run his special teams.  He did that for two very successful years which featured multiple blocked kicks, an All-American returner, and a No. 10 ranking in overall special teams efficiency.  He was headed to USM with Coach Huff after last season.  But another overachieving former college linebacker had his eyes on him and when veteran special teams coach Greg McMahon retired at the end of last season, Coach Sumrall hired Coach Galante.

Coach Galante walked into a situation in which last year’s punter had transferred to UCLA, and last year’s kicker had struggled especially late in the season…albeit in part due to injuries and problems with his holder.  And did I mention the long snapper and punt returner had graduated, and the kickoff returner went to Auburn?  For units so dependent on coordination and teamwork, it was quite the challenge.  Welcome to The Big Not-So-Easy, Coach.

He put his head down and went to work.  Saturday, the fruits of this young coach’s labor and talent were on display.  Placekicker Patrick Durkin, the subject of a Saturday morning “I hope this game doesn’t come down to a Durkin field goal attempt” text from my college roommate, was flawless.  He hit all three of his field goal attempts, both of his extra points, and to my eye most impressively, did not allow any kickoff returns.  One of Northwestern’s few game breaking athletes is Joseph Himon, their reserve tailback and one of the best kickoff returners in the Big Ten.  There is no quicker way to flip the momentum of a football game than a KOR for a touchdown.  He was never given the opportunity.  Some of those kicks were into the wind coming out of the north end zone, and Durkin drove those lower to cut through it.  Patrick wasn’t even supposed to be our kickoff guy, but Cooper Helmke is still on the mend.  Just masterful preparation and execution.

Ditto with our punting game. “To be a good punter,” Bill Belichick once said, “you can’t just be a long driver.  You have to be able to place the ball, speed up your operation in rush situations, be able to directional kick and handle all the different conditions.  Most punters are holders as well, and that’s certainly an important part of that position too.”

The holder on all of those flawless field goal attempts was Alec Clark, who doubles as our punter.  What a day he had.  He rocketed a 70 yard punt over the head of the returner (something he’s done several times in practice) and  had a couple of beautifully executed rugby kicks, one that narrowly got in the end zone and another one that checked up on the one yard line and was downed by Armani Cargo.  None of his punts were returned.  Alec Clark is an Australian and a Marshall transfer who believes in Coach Galante and followed him here. 

As well as our defense played Saturday, you can make the case that no unit was more instrumental to victory than our kicking game.   Of course there is room for improvement.  We weren’t real sharp in our return game.  Northwestern was very sound covering kicks, but I can assure you that while you are reading this article our special teams coach is cleaning that up. 

We also didn’t have any situations where we tried to block a kick, but as practice observers know, Coach Galante has a number of different schemes and packages for those situations that are still in his bag.  We will block some kicks this year: write it down.

Jonathan Galante is a rising star on a staff of rising stars.  For those who remember the days when every snap, hold and kick was an adventure, what a comfort it is to have our kicking game in such good hands…and on such good feet. 

It sure feels special.