Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Mason put together a Twitter thread of Notre Dame's special team achievements this season. Since it's a lot of tweets, I've pasted them below rather than embedding all the tweets.
Great first season on special teams! Time to celebrate some major milestones after completing self scout studies this week.
#ChaosKills = Aggressive, tough, & disciplined mentality on special teams to win the battle of field position & generate explosive plays!
#GoIrish ☘️
2022 Average Field Position
Off Starting FP = #1 in NCAA!
-33.4 YL
Def Starting FP = #5
-26.1 YL
Net Starting FP = #2
+7.3
FEI @fboutsiders FP data goes back 15 years. 1st time ranked top 10 in Off FP, best was #13 in 2014. Def FP ranked top 10 2x before in 2020 & 2019.
Field position is correlated to probability of scoring points and thus impacts winning.
2022
Won FP in 11 of 13 games (85%). Up from winning FP in 55% of games previous 5 seasons.
Record when Won FP 9-2
Record when Lost FP 0-2
Incredible success winning the battle of FP this year!
Our weekly objective is to not just win average starting field position. We want to dominate average starting FP by +10 yards over our opponent.
2022 - Won FP by 10+ yards 6x in 13 games!
ND 2017-2021 - 2x in 64 games
The battle of Punt vs Punt Return impacts FP more than any play in football.
Net Punt - #24 (41.02)
2nd time in over a decade ND ranked Top 25 in Net Punt.
Opponent Net Punt - #3 (31.9)
Won punt battle on average by 10 yards!
The key is to have an aggressive mentality in all phases, especially Punt Block!
6 different players blocked a total of 7 punts! Incredible effort and extra work put in by an elite unit.
In the previous 10 seasons ND blocked a combined 6 punts.
Aggressive Punt Block forces the punt team to protect instead of releasing in coverage.
Forces Punter to get rid of the punt faster. A faster operation increases probability of an affected punt / decreased hang time. Thus, increasing probability of return yards and better FP.
PR Average - #27 (10.1)
Total PR Yds - #14 (233)
First time in over a decade ND ranked in top 30 of either PR category.
Return % - #7 (Returned 44% of Punts)
20x this season the offense started in plus territory following ST! 14 of those were due to the Punt Block unit.
ST units finished #6 in the FEI efficiency rankings. In the previous 15 years we finished top 15 1x.
Our success is directly linked to the buy in from Coach Freeman, our staff, and players!
Never satisfied - Looking forward to continued improvement in year 2!
#ChaosKills
Great first season on special teams! Time to celebrate some major milestones after completing self scout studies this week.
#ChaosKills = Aggressive, tough, & disciplined mentality on special teams to win the battle of field position & generate explosive plays!
#GoIrish ☘️
2022 Average Field Position
Off Starting FP = #1 in NCAA!
-33.4 YL
Def Starting FP = #5
-26.1 YL
Net Starting FP = #2
+7.3
FEI @fboutsiders FP data goes back 15 years. 1st time ranked top 10 in Off FP, best was #13 in 2014. Def FP ranked top 10 2x before in 2020 & 2019.
Field position is correlated to probability of scoring points and thus impacts winning.
2022
Won FP in 11 of 13 games (85%). Up from winning FP in 55% of games previous 5 seasons.
Record when Won FP 9-2
Record when Lost FP 0-2
Incredible success winning the battle of FP this year!
Our weekly objective is to not just win average starting field position. We want to dominate average starting FP by +10 yards over our opponent.
2022 - Won FP by 10+ yards 6x in 13 games!
ND 2017-2021 - 2x in 64 games
The battle of Punt vs Punt Return impacts FP more than any play in football.
Net Punt - #24 (41.02)
2nd time in over a decade ND ranked Top 25 in Net Punt.
Opponent Net Punt - #3 (31.9)
Won punt battle on average by 10 yards!
The key is to have an aggressive mentality in all phases, especially Punt Block!
6 different players blocked a total of 7 punts! Incredible effort and extra work put in by an elite unit.
In the previous 10 seasons ND blocked a combined 6 punts.
Aggressive Punt Block forces the punt team to protect instead of releasing in coverage.
Forces Punter to get rid of the punt faster. A faster operation increases probability of an affected punt / decreased hang time. Thus, increasing probability of return yards and better FP.
PR Average - #27 (10.1)
Total PR Yds - #14 (233)
First time in over a decade ND ranked in top 30 of either PR category.
Return % - #7 (Returned 44% of Punts)
20x this season the offense started in plus territory following ST! 14 of those were due to the Punt Block unit.
ST units finished #6 in the FEI efficiency rankings. In the previous 15 years we finished top 15 1x.
Our success is directly linked to the buy in from Coach Freeman, our staff, and players!
Never satisfied - Looking forward to continued improvement in year 2!
#ChaosKills
