The last 5 years of James Shibest's Special Teams Units:
2011 Ole Miss - Finished 13th in Football Outsiders' Fremeau Efficiency Index , and 5th in ESPN's Efficiency Ratings
2012 Memphis - 15th in FEI, 23rd in ESPN's Efficiency Ratings
2013 Memphis - 15th in FEI, 9th by ESPN
2014 Memphis - 3rd in FEI, 3rd by ESPN
2015 Memphis - 7th in FEI, 6th by ESPN
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/feist
http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings/_/sort/stEffi...
Not sure how the formulas are calculated, but it sure looks like he's produced some consistent, elite special teams units. Unlike offense and defense ratings, the Special teams ratings seem to vary greatly from year to year. One year a team will be near the top, the next year they might fall off. Only a few units seem to hover around the top from all the time (Kansas State, Ohio State, Utah, Duke the past couple of years), but Shibest does manage to pull it off every year!
IDK if we'll be blocking kicks left and right like the old days, but I'm excited to know that our legacy of special teams is being preserved by hiring (IMO) the best special teams coordinator in the nation!
Comments
For comparison, we were 8th in FEI this year. So you can expect our ceiling to be roughly what it has been, but our floor will hopefully be a bit higher.
SHIBESTBALL?
BEAMERBALL forever?
#Shibeamerball!
Alright, I'll quit posting this
#Shipoopi ?
I once had a fantasy team called the London Silly Nannies
I doubt we'll be blocking kicks left and right. The game has evolved. But I do think that we will see more kneeling in the end zone on kickoffs, fair catches at the right time on punt returns, and good coverage on punts and kickoffs.
I read Let Me Be Frank a few months ago, and it was pretty interesting Beamer talking about Special Teams.
He said that formations, coverages and protections have changed that make it extremely difficult to block punts now, and its part of the reason he said they've changed their approach in recent years and pick their times when to go after it and when not to.
That doesn't really explain why guys who don't know when to kneel/call a fair catch are returning kickoffs/punts.
He basically said his philosophy on that is "If you dont shoot you cant score". I think hes said that interviews as well.
But if you miss every time...
I think we all appreciate the impact Beamer had on VT, but I think what you're referencing is indicative of the impact he had on college football as a whole. People sat up and took note of what our special teams were doing in the '90s and as more coaches began to emulate Beamer, a corresponding change to protecting the kickers came to pass. This is why people who don't give 2 craps about VT still consider Beamer a legend.
I figure as long as we don't do this
We're gonna be great.
Oh, so that's why you aren't supposed to hit the kicker..
But if your going to, hit him hard so he remembers it next time.
Unless it's Jimmy Kibble, in which case he's going to come hit you with his helmet.
* unless we're playing Miami.
Meh, that was close to being legal in my book. Rugby style kickers have a disadvantage because they can run out of the tackle box. He (and his 3 protectors) run to his left - the two defenders in the clip are actually outside the tackle box when he kicks it.
They ran into him while his leg was still in the air from the kick.
It's not legal in American football, anyway.
Article 16.a.4. The kicker's protection under this rule ends (a)when he has had a reasonable time to regain his balance(A.R. 9-1-16-IV); or (b)when he carries the ball outside the tackle box (Rule 2-34) before kicking.
If he leaves the tackle box, you can hit them. You can also hit them if it's a bad snap and the ball is fumbled. Much like AJ could have been rocked without penalty when recovered the high snap in the endzone. Or even this hit on the punter in the Baylor game is legal because the ball was fumbled first.
also, in the video, wouldn't it be legal regardless since he still had the ball when the D made contact?
I don't know how many yards it went for, but that's a hell of a punt with Oakman bearing down on you like that. Granted, the punter isn't exactly a small guy himself... He's got a little bit of the Nic Schmitt thing going for him
IIRC, the punt went for about 15-20 yards. Pretty impressive since it seemed he made contact with the ball when he was almost lateral to the ground.
Why should we not do that? It's entirely legal and it probably affects his punting the rest of the game. Hell, I'd coach the guys up to try and do that every time.
I think he is speaking from the kicking point of view as Shibest previously coached Ole Miss (the kickers team if I am seeing this correctly)
Possible, though that video is from this year's game.
Except they got a 15 yard penalty for that play.
According to the rule, that was a bad penalty.
Its hard to tell on the video perspective. My eyes have him right on the edge but that could be an optical illusion. I do know that right after that flag they showed Fuente and he was arguing with the ref and making motions of running with the ball so he probably thought the punter was outside the tackles too.
Its not shown in the gif but the punter started on the right hash marks then ran left. The 3 up men ran left also.
Yeah, they really dont go into detail of how FEI scores are calculated, other than, "its a way to attribute point differentials to a phase of the game based on a cumulation of every snap".
That being said, there was something out there that showed a really strong correlation between FEI ranking and team rankings/winning percentages, so youve got that going for you.
That being said, it looks like BeamerBall is in good hands.
More like Shibeast am I right?
Man!! I am going to sorely miss the catch and take three steps back punt returns.....they were always my favorite thing to watch!
What would a spectator sport be with out a few high-risk, low-reward plays here and there?
In Stroman's defense, it wasn't like he was turning the ball over. Should most of them have been a fair catch? Yes, but if he didn't catch them and let them bounce, then our field position would have been a lot worse this year.
I rather he lose 3 - 5 yards, in attempt to make a play, than let it bounce and it goes another 10 - 15 yards further.
I think he'd have been better off just catching it than running it 5-10 yards the wrong way and getting pummeled.
Yes, it's called "a fair catch", and is an alternative to letting it bounce down the field. It was pretty clear that it should have been used more often.
So...only punter currently on roster will be Mitchell Ludwig as a Senior next year. Any prospects? Any WRs with a leg?
Slye and Santamaria will be Jr. and r-So. next year, so PK may be set for a while.
Punter Recruiting
Will be playing in the High School Army All-American game.
Are we finally going to go to that 3-man shield punt protectiong thing that every other school does? That would be odd.
One thing I've noticed the last few years is that our return game is totally out of whack. The returners themselves haven't been good, but returns games are all about timing of the blocks. Our timing has been awful, it would be nice to see that improve.
We could also use some more team speed. One thing I've seen more and more with the spread teams is they have a plethora of guys who hit the alleys at full speed. We don't have many fast guys anymore. That's probably why Stroma was pushed and pulled all over the field this year, he's the only guy with a shread of speed on our team. Ford and Phillips aren't fast. Knowles was fast but not quick and certainly not instinctual. Green and JCC aren't fast.
Need. More. Speed.
Agree about the speed. I think we have fast guys but we don't have guys that can accelerate quickly.
god dammit. I had this locked and loaded to reply to someone....I was really hoping someone would say "speed kills." O well, I'm posting it anyway. #noshame
That made me think of this:
ouch
he's gonna be awesome
I think we should go for it on 4th & short more often then we do!
so...what you're saying is that Shibest is Thibest?
Don't forget coaching a Ray Guy award winner.
Shibetter than recruiting at walmart. Although that kid held his own if I remember right.
In the lead photo, are those players bowing to him? Hontoo ni sensei mitai. He must be a true master at what he does.
Go Hokies!