Rutgers Special Teams Coordinator Eddie Allen talks Spring Practice: Press Conference

Rutgers Football continued spring ball this week on Thursday afternoon, and Special Teams Coordinator Eddie Allen spoke to the media for his first spring football press conference of the season.

Allen spoke for roughly eight minutes and addressed a range of questions, including the special teams unit, the mix of youth and veterans within it, and his journey to where he is now.

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Full Eddie Allen Presser Transcript

I just want to ask you, how’s the consistency of the kicking game? I know it’s spring, but Jai Patel and Jacob, what are you seeing from them? 

Yeah, it’s been good. I mean, we were excited, obviously, to have those guys back. It’s been good. They’ve been consistent. They’re getting back into the swing of things, doing what we need them to do. So, I mean, they’re older guys now. They’ve been in the program for about, Jacob, two years, going into his third year. Jai, going into his fourth year. I mean, he’s been in the program a long time. They know how to get themselves ready. So, we’re excited where they’re at.

Yeah, this program has been majority fair catches on kicks, punts, since Greg’s been back. Just what’s the philosophy behind that, and is that something that you expect to continue this season? 

Yeah, I think Coach has talked a lot about that over the last couple years, and, you know, I think the philosophy behind that is exactly what Coach has said.It’s the risk-reward. You know, we’ll take a look at it like we do every year, and we’ll see where we’re at going into the season and what our philosophy’s going to be. But I think what Coach has said about that the last couple years is exactly right. The risk-reward nature of that is very important. You know, we get the opportunity to get our offense as explosive as they’ve been the last couple years, the ball in the 25-yard line to start every drive. I mean, we’re going to take that. But, you know, we’ll see where we’re at as we get into it, and we’ll evaluate everything as we go. And then, you know, if that’s the decision we’re going to do, that’s the decision we’re going to do. But Coach is going to make that decision. And, you know, I think the risk-reward aspect of that is huge for what we’re trying to get done as a team. 

How have you seen Kaj Sanders grow in the unit over time now? 

Kaj has been awesome. In the past two years, he’s been really a core guy.He’s been on punt. He’s been on front block. He’s been on kickoff.He’s been on everything. So, you know, as he gets older and he gets more mature and he understands, you know, he really understands now what we expect. We’re only, you know, excited to see what he can do more as he goes through. But he’s a guy who’s played a lot of special team snaps for us the last two years. You know, we’re excited to see him continue to improve and get better and do more of an impact as we move forward. 

What’s the challenge like with a lot of new faces, you know, young guys getting into special teams now? What’s the challenge for you? 

Yeah, well, it’s a lot of fun, right? Because one of the unique things about special teams is you get to coach everybody on the team, right? You’re not stuck in your position or your side of the ball. So that’s been fun meeting with these guys every day, you know, one-on-one, getting to know the new players, you know. And I’m excited because we have a lot of really good players in the program right now. You know, we just got to get them caught up to what we do and what our culture is and what we do on special teams here.But I’m excited about them. I think we’ve got a lot of really good young players that are going to help us this year moving forward. We just got to keep getting them reps and get them more experience.And the more experience they get in practice, the better they’re going to be when we get to the fall. 

This is a program that really prides itself on special teams. What does Greg preach to you behind the scenes to, you know, really be that good in special teams? 

Yeah, I mean, I think it starts with the head coach.I mean, he’s incredibly involved, right, with every asset or every aspect of what we do on special teams. And you don’t get that everywhere. You know, I’ve been doing this a long time now, plus 20 years.And, you know, everywhere you go, you don’t get the head coaches that are as detailed as he is in the kicking game. And I think that’s a big piece of it. I think it shows a lot to the players when the head coach is sitting in the front row of the meetings.We’re in a special teams meeting and he’s getting up there and he’s demonstrating. And he’s showing them the techniques we want done. And he has a voice in it. And I think that’s really important. I think that’s been a big part of, you know, what we’ve done here, even the first time we were here, but more so now. With how important it is to him, the players see it, right? And that’s a huge asset for me as a special teams coordinator to be able to say, look, it’s important to us. We’ve got to get this done. It’s important to the head coach. This is what we need to do. And I think the players see that. So I think that’s a big piece of it. 

A good amount of injuries down the stretch of last season kind of pressed some of the younger guys into action, held out some of the core special teamers as veterans. How have you seen that experience that they got last year translate into this year as young guys? 

It’s only going to help them, right? I mean, the game reps are critically important. We try to prepare them every day in practice and the way we practice and how we take our reps. But, you know, getting those game reps are critically important for those guys.So, you know, again, we played a lot of guys last year, too. A lot of guys got reps. So we’re excited to see for those guys. You know, as we finish up spring here, we get another couple weeks in, get more reps. And then as we work into the summer program, camp, we’ll see where they progress. But like I said before, I think we’ve got a lot of talent on this roster.We’re going to have a lot of options for people to get out there. We just got to keep getting reps, getting young guys better, and getting some of those younger players opportunities to show us what they can do. 

I’ll start with Jai Patel.I guess where he is in his career, I guess what has been the focus this offseason as he continues to kind of try and develop and take that next step? 

Right. Well, I think Jai has obviously had a really good career to this point. And he started hot. He had some struggles last year that he worked through at the end of the year. But I think the best thing about Jay is that he understands who he is as a kicker and he understands what his approach needs to be every single time. And I think as a young kicker, you know, maybe those things can get lost at times.But now that he’s got the maturity, he’s got the experience, he’s really coming into his own. He really feels good this spring about who he is, right, how he needs to go approach every single kick. And that’s what we’re starting to see from him. And, you know, we’re excited. Obviously, we’re excited to have him back. He’s a leader in the unit. He’s been doing it for a long time. We’re just excited to see what he can do here going into his last year. 

Dino Kaliakmanis, who enters his third year in the program, is one of those core special teams.I can see that smile on your face. What has he brought to this unit on and off the field as a leader? 

Man, just a passion, you know, a passion for special teams. I mean, he’s a special guy, man. He really is. We love having him. We’re excited to get him back for another year.And, you know, you guys see what he brings to our kickoff team with his speed and his aggression and his energy and just his day-to-day detail. He wants to be great. You know, he’ll be in the weight room every day, you know, just working on his gunner release steps, working on his pump block technique.He is a huge part of what we do, and we’re really excited to have him. And I’m so glad when he got that extra year that I got another year to get a chance to coach him because he’s a great human being, you know, and he’s going to be a big player for us this year on special teams.

How do you guys go about choosing which guys are in the coverage units? Because obviously you want to play your best athletes. A lot of those best athletes are playing, you know, on defense or offense or whatever, the risk worth of guys potentially getting injured versus having your best athletes on the field, younger guys. How do you go about choosing who? 

Well, I think that goes back to, you know, the Coach Schiano question, the coach being involved with it.He’s very involved with that stuff. We’re going to find the right people that help us. We’re always going to put the best people on the field.I think that’s something that we’ve done here as a program since Coach has been here. The best players are going to play. So we try to teach them the techniques the best we can, get them to understand the scheme, what we’re trying to execute, and then we’re going to play the best players, whoever that may be.Some units are different than others, but ultimately, at the end of the day, it goes to the special teams philosophy of this program, right, that we are going to be a difference maker on special teams. And to do that, sometimes you’ve got to play some of the stars if they’re the best player at that position. So, you know, Coach does a great job of balancing that and making those decisions, and, you know, I think we’ll continue to do that.

Given that Coach Schiano had a track record at Miami working with special teams and so on, how impactful was that when you were first here as a student assistant in 2005, and then did that time impact why you wanted to come back? 

It was huge. I mean, for me, as a young coach in 2005, my first year here, you know, I really, you know, I was a quarterback before, you know, I got into the special teams world, right? So coming here, Coach putting me on special teams in 2005 really changed my life.It changed the direction I wanted to go. In those three years I was here is when I realized I wanted to be a special teams coach. That’s what I wanted to be.I enjoy coaching all the players. I enjoy this part of the game because I know how big of a difference it can make. And, you know, really Coach was the driver of that. Like, I cut my teeth here at Rutgers. You know what I mean? I’m from New Jersey. I cut my teeth here at Rutgers.It’s important to me that the special teams here plays at an elite level, and it’s important to me that we model what Coach wants. Like, that’s what I’m doing. I’m driving what Coach Yan wants every single day, and, you know, I think when we do that we’re going to be really special.I’m excited about the team we have, and I’m excited for the opportunity to be back here working for Coach. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to be. I’m a Jersey guy. This is where I want to be, and working for Coach is what I want to work for. So I’m excited about the opportunity.