Far too often, whether it’s during the recruiting process or in the post-game reactions, the role of special teams gets overlooked.
That goes beyond game-winning field goals, runbacks for touchdowns, and blocked punts that can define outcomes. It’s the aspects that don’t show up in the final box scores but are still turning points between winning and losing.
Bill Busch is determined to make sure those areas are not ignored at Nebraska any longer.
After spending 2021 as an analyst with the Huskers, Busch and his accomplished résumé was promoted to become the first full-time special teams coordinator under fourth-year head coach Scott Frost this offseason.
Having served the same role at NU from 2004-07, the Pender, Neb., native has wasted no time hammering home the third element’s importance since the moment he took over.
In some of his first special teams meetings leading up to Nebraska’s opening spring practice this week, Busch showed his players game film of LSU’s punt team from their national championship season in 2019.
On a squad loaded with NFL talent, Busch pointed to one future draft pick after another – 10 of the 11 starters, to be exact, including several future first-rounders – lining up on one of the least-glamorous units in football.
Each one of those players was willing to do whatever it took to make an impact for their team, Busch said, and it helped pave their path to future success.
“I like selfish people,” Busch said. “I like selfish people that want to be in the NFL, that want to do good things. I’m all about that.”
Busch inherits a Nebraska special teams group that ranked among the worst in college football last season. That’s why he’s wasted no time making that phase a top priority.
Rather than drag NU’s returning special teams contributors for their past failures, Busch said he “buried the ball” from last season and turned the page to the future.
“There will never be one time out of my mouth: ‘Remember last year?’” Busch said. “Last year is over, and I’m not dealing with that at all.”
That said, it’s not like Busch wasn’t well aware of the Huskers’ issues in 2021. While he declined to go into detail about what went all wrong last year, he said the basics of “hitting the ball” in the kicking and punting games stood out as much as anything.
Nebraska addressed both of those positions via the transfer portal this offseason with Montana punter Brian Buschini and Fordham kicker Timmy Bleekrode.
The Huskers also brought in LSU wide receiver and return specialist Trey Palmer, who is expected to immediately push for one or both of the starting returner jobs.
But Busch’s plan for improving NU’s overall special teams play goes beyond just revamping the personnel.
His goal is to have “the best players at every spot” on all of the Huskers kicking, punting, and return units. That means everyone from offensive and defensive starters to “LPRs” (limited role players) could be called upon for special teams duties.
Even walk-on quarterback Matt Masker, wearing a green no-contact jersey, was running down the field during kickoff team drills at the beginning of Monday’s session.
Busch and Frost also agreed to spend the first 10 minutes of every practice with special teams work to put further emphasis and attention on those areas as soon as the horn sounded at the end of stretching.
Busch also changed the dynamics of special teams meetings, and so far, Nebraska’s players have responded exactly as he had hoped. For example, the new rule is that for a 7 a.m. meeting, the door closes at 6:59 a.m.
On Monday, Busch said he had to stall for several minutes because everyone was already seated and ready to go well before the 6:59 deadline.
There’s a specific way he instructs players to sit during special teams meetings, too, which Busch calls “S.L.A.N.T.”
Sit up. Lean forward. Act interested. Nod your head. Track the speaker.
“You have to be so organized on special teams,” Busch said. “You can’t have a ‘palms up.’ Everyone knows where they’re going, they’re getting lined up, and you’re getting into your next drill immediately.
“All we talk about is little things are big things. How do we line up? Where’s our toe at? When am I doing this? What’s the tempo? All those little things can add up.”
Nebraska has only held two spring practices with a full-time special teams coordinator, but Frost has already seen a difference with Busch running the show.
“He was with us last year, and I think a lot of the improvement we made was because of him schematically,” Frost said. “Now he has a voice, which is great running the meetings, and there is not two layers of communication then.
“Right away, you can see a lot of buy-in from players and a lot of detail from Coach that I think is going to make us better.”
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