AJC Ken on Special Teams Coach

[AE 87]

LINK

For some reason, I don't see this article on the front page of the GT page, but it's a nice write-up.

In March, after another year of mediocre play in the kicking game, coach Paul Johnson broke from his career-long philosophy of divvying up special-teams responsibilities among assistants by hiring a special-teams coach. He has found a man consumed by the intricacies of kickoff coverage and punt returns.
“You know you’re a special-teams nerd when you meet for an hour over field goal [protection schemes],” he said.
​

Well, the rest of the article has some good stuff about Wolkosky, but I found it funny to think of CPJ calling himself a nerd. gooble gobble

 

[gtzulu]

I think the nerd quote is actually from Walkosky. Ken's fault for using an ambiguous indefinite pronoun.

 

[jts1207]

Im ready!

 

[Malone]

Mark my words...

We will win one game predominantly because of special teams

 

[Wreck Em]

Mark my words...

We will win one game predominantly because of special teams

I say 2 games. But all games will be affected for the better.

 

[beej67]

Mark my words...

We will win one game predominantly because of special teams

If we can simply not lose one game due to STs, we would have +1 the past two seasons.

 

[Valdosta_Jacket]

If we can simply not lose one game due to STs, we would have +1 the past two seasons.

This, we've lost at least 1 game per season because of poor special teams.

 

[BlackJacket]

More from Ken on this subject: http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2012/04/03/how-walkosky-ended-up-at-georgia-tech/

 

[gtrower]

More from Ken on this subject: http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2012/04/03/how-walkosky-ended-up-at-georgia-tech/

I hadn't thought about the recruiting angle of that before. He claims to have some decent connections after coaching for 11 years in Ohio.

 

[GATechAE07]

More from Ken on this subject: http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-sports/2012/04/03/how-walkosky-ended-up-at-georgia-tech/

His coach that year was Nick Saban, who was in his first year as a head coach.

“I always say I got him started,” Walkosky said. “I’m sure he feels the same way.”

 

[ThisIsAtlanta]

I hadn't thought about the recruiting angle of that before. He claims to have some decent connections after coaching for 11 years in Ohio.

This is as important as the special teams portion of his job. This guy was a great hire, on paper. If he gets the results, we will see a vast benefit from him.

 

[alpha]

Ken posted a follow up to Walkosky's hire that I found interesting:
http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-tech-s...orgia-tech/?cxntfid=blogs_georgia_tech_sports

When he heard from Minnesota Vikings special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer that Tech might be hiring a special-teams coach, Walkosky said he wasn’t looking to leave his job as defensive coordinator of the Calgary Stampeders. As he put it, he doesn’t “chase logos.”

However, Priefer’s endorsement of coach Paul Johnson (the two worked together as assistants at Navy, and Johnson called Priefer “a really close friend of mine”) made a difference, as did Walkosky’s guiding philosophy on choosing jobs – “who you coach with, who you coach for and a chance to win. Other than that, nothing really matters.”