Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
"We’ve got to bridge that gap” - Q&A with Special Teams Coordinator Luke Paschall
2/12/2024 2:13:00 PM | Football
The former Blue Raider has found a knack for developing special team units since graduating from MTSU
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Luke Paschall hadn't been back on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University since 2007 when he decided to return to his alma mater on Derek Mason's first staff. But the former MTSU wide receiver knew there was much that had changed.
One thing that hasn't changed though? The offensive coordinator office, where Bodie Reeder sets up shop in the same corner of the second floor of the Murphy Center that Paschall's OCs, from Blake Anderson to Darin Henshaw to G. A. Magnus had operated out of when Paschall first started as a walk-on, before earning a scholarship his sophomore year. Paschall hauled in 13 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown as a senior on MTSU's first bowl team as an FBS program.
"Some things have changed, a lot of things on campus have changed," Paschall said. "A lot of things are still the same, it's very nostalgic coming back."
It was a long road back to Murfreesboro for Paschall, who was tabbed by Derek Mason as the Blue Raiders' new Special Teams Coordinator after two seasons in that same role at Louisiana. Paschall spent much of that road on the staff of former Blue Raider coaches, with both Larry Fedora and Blake Anderson, former MTSU Offensive Coordinators, picking Paschall to lead their wide receiver rooms at UNC and Arkansas State, respectively.
Paschall said he's already gelled with the "bundle of energy" Mason brings to the football staff every day. But deciding to leave Louisiana, where he led the Ragin' Cajuns to be a top 10 unit on special teams in the national FEI rankings, was all about coming home.
"I've got a lot of family still in the area," Paschall, a Dickson, Tenn. native, said. "Sometimes as you get older, getting back home is very important. That was a huge thing for me. I'm excited to be here."
As a former Blue Raider and a former walk-on, Paschall can connect with many different types of players on MTSU's roster, a much-needed skillset when you work across so many disparate groups within a team on special teams. And the skills he's picked up teaching special teams promises to help remake a unit that's proven to be a path to the NFL for players and a path to winning in college football.
GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton sat down with Paschall earlier this month to talk about how the coach got into working with special teams, what having only special teams directly on his plate can unlock on the field, coaching philosophies and navigating a coaching staff change with returning players, something Paschall experienced during his time as a Blue Raider.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.
---
As a former wide receiver, how did special teams come into your coaching expertise as you worked up the ranks? Did you break into the lineup here at MTSU on teams before wide receiver?
Not as much. I was the holder here for three years. But I played a little bit on punt in situations where it was pooch scenarios. Back then, I didn't understand the importance of (special teams) when I was in college as a player. I always thought, like most players do sometimes, that it's just another phase of the game that's not as important.
Once I started getting into it through the coaching aspect of it, mainly when I got to Oklahoma State in 2008, 2009 and 2010. I worked for a guy named Joe DeForest, who's now the safeties coach at NC State. Back then, he was one of the godfathers of special teams in college football at the time. He had multiple opportunities to go to the NFL. He never did, he never wanted to.
He imprinted on me how important special teams are. We were playing starters on special teams there, the emphasis on schemes. He taught me a lot about how important it is to play in space and do drills more than scheme to teach guys how to play in space, because they're not really used to it.
And also, how to help the player himself understand how much value you can create for yourself, especially going to the next level. Sometimes these big time recruits, they don't want to play on special teams. But if you want to play in the NFL, it's only a 53-man roster, somebody has to play special teams. You can create value for yourself and give yourself a chance to stick in the NFL. Not just make it but stick in the NFL for a long period of time, if you have tools that are ready to go by the time you get up there.
You've coached wide receivers and special teams at many of your stops, including Arkansas State, UNC and UMass. But at Louisiana, as you will be here at MTSU, you oversaw just special teams and not a position group. What can you unlock in focusing just on special teams that might be unavailable to you if you're also coaching a position group?
The one thing it gave me an opportunity to do, which I think is very unique, it gave me the opportunity to walk around. When you coach a position sometimes, you've got that position, you've got drills, you've got things to do, to get accomplished, plays to install.
I explained this to them in passing and in meetings. I get to walk around and watch the DBs now. And watch how you're taking coaching within that specific drill, whatever they're doing. It may not have anything to do with special teams, but everything is relevant. I can see how seriously you're taking things, or not taking things. That's also relevant to me in terms of getting you incorporated in special teams.
If a guy is trending in the right direction, I need to get him on some things and start teaching him how to play a little bit on special teams (because) his buy-in is there, that's more than half the battle.
All that ends up doing, when you explain it to them like that, it just makes the player better. It makes him want to work hard, because he knows that if he trends in the right direction, he's going to get a chance to come on the field, ultimately.
Is the key to running special teams well is getting that sort of buy-in from all 11 guys, or is it broader than that, like something schematically you want to impart on them as well?
Schematically, we've talked about it here in a couple of meetings. It's not about what you run, it's how you run it. A lot of times, it's better to keep things really simple. I don't want to say we're complicated, but we're multiple in what we do. Onside kicks, fakes, multiple formations on punt, there are things we do on kickoff that I can see are tough to deal with for the opponent. But in the end, none of that stuff matters if you don't have a bunch of guys that believe in the importance of the unit, believe in the importance of the standard in which we are setting.
I tell the guys all the time, I do not care about the result. I'm not looking at the result. Are you playing that rep within the standard that we have created? If you're not, then the result probably won't be very good. If you are playing to the standard we set, and the standard is very high, if they are playing to that standard on that rep, everything that encompasses that rep, then that rep will probably be good.
How much have you picked up about the art of kicking, punting, long snapping and everything that goes into being a specialist in your time with special team units, particularly as someone who didn't do that when you played collegiately?
I never put foot to leather, but I tell the guys this at every stop I go to. I've been around enough good ones to know what I'm looking at.
In the end, I don't really want to change the specialists too much. We always talk about tweaking things. Not wholesale changing things, let's tweak a thing here or there. Maybe I've got something that works for you, maybe it doesn't work for you. But just small tweaks so that we're always learning, we're always trying to evolve to be the best version of ourselves, both as a coach and as a player.
They know. I'll give certain points here and there and their eyes will open a little bit. Like 'Oh, I didn't know he knew that my plant foot shouldn't be that shallow or the angle of the drop should be like this.' Little things like that, they're like, 'Ok, maybe he knows what he's talking about just a little bit.'
Being a UNC alum myself, I was excited when I heard about your hire because I knew the quality of the returners you coached while I was a student there, like Ryan Switzer and Dazz Newsome. How do you find dynamic return threats within your roster? Is it just speed or is there more to it than that?
Every returner, if you ask them, they know that I really don't (mess with them). It's not that I don't care about them, I do. We work a ton of drills, especially for punt returners, because there's a lot more that's going on in that situation rather than the distance away on a kickoff. But either you've got it, or you don't in terms of the juice. You're fast and you're quick and that all helps.
But hopefully they'd (also) be able to tell you my number one thing in terms of a returner is you have to be an elite decision maker. In a split second, in a three or four second time frame, you have to be an elite decision maker and know what to do and not put the ball in harm's way and not to put the team in harm's way in terms of your bad decision.
I don't always narrow that down to what they do on the field. Who you are off the field is a lot of times who you are on the field. If you're showing up on lifts, if you're a guy that's always late to stuff, how can I trust you if I can't trust you during the week? My future and my livelihood are in your hands and the decisions that you make. So that's got to be number one.
Then we drill all the other things inside of it. A lot of times, if a guy is real natural at it, I'll just leave him alone. I'll get him to understand where block leverages are and stuff like that. But if a guy's natural, I'm not going to screw him up.
You were a part of the last coaching transition here at MTSU, but as a player, not a coach. What can you impart on these guys during this time of transition from being on both sides of the fence at this point in your career?
Bridging the gap, understanding that the new staff, that's what's in front of you. You can't control what happened in the past. The more you dwell on it, the more you stay stuck right where you're at, rather than progressing the way you need to. The new staff, that's what is in front of you. It's our job to earn their trust and respect with the way we work consistently, the way we communicate, how much clarity we have on a day-to-day basis. And we model the behavior we want.
Ultimately their trust will come with how they act throughout the semester, throughout the year and so on. But we're the new ones, we have to earn their trust and respect first. I will say, to help bridge that gap, sometimes there can be resistance with change. But change, as we all know, is inevitable. It's going to happen. If you fight it? You stay stagnant. If you accept it as a challenge and a new obstacle that you can go and respond to, rather than react to? You'll give yourself an opportunity to have a special football team. But we've got to bridge that gap, sooner rather than later.
One thing that hasn't changed though? The offensive coordinator office, where Bodie Reeder sets up shop in the same corner of the second floor of the Murphy Center that Paschall's OCs, from Blake Anderson to Darin Henshaw to G. A. Magnus had operated out of when Paschall first started as a walk-on, before earning a scholarship his sophomore year. Paschall hauled in 13 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown as a senior on MTSU's first bowl team as an FBS program.
"Some things have changed, a lot of things on campus have changed," Paschall said. "A lot of things are still the same, it's very nostalgic coming back."
It was a long road back to Murfreesboro for Paschall, who was tabbed by Derek Mason as the Blue Raiders' new Special Teams Coordinator after two seasons in that same role at Louisiana. Paschall spent much of that road on the staff of former Blue Raider coaches, with both Larry Fedora and Blake Anderson, former MTSU Offensive Coordinators, picking Paschall to lead their wide receiver rooms at UNC and Arkansas State, respectively.
Paschall said he's already gelled with the "bundle of energy" Mason brings to the football staff every day. But deciding to leave Louisiana, where he led the Ragin' Cajuns to be a top 10 unit on special teams in the national FEI rankings, was all about coming home.
"I've got a lot of family still in the area," Paschall, a Dickson, Tenn. native, said. "Sometimes as you get older, getting back home is very important. That was a huge thing for me. I'm excited to be here."
As a former Blue Raider and a former walk-on, Paschall can connect with many different types of players on MTSU's roster, a much-needed skillset when you work across so many disparate groups within a team on special teams. And the skills he's picked up teaching special teams promises to help remake a unit that's proven to be a path to the NFL for players and a path to winning in college football.
GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton sat down with Paschall earlier this month to talk about how the coach got into working with special teams, what having only special teams directly on his plate can unlock on the field, coaching philosophies and navigating a coaching staff change with returning players, something Paschall experienced during his time as a Blue Raider.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and space.
---
As a former wide receiver, how did special teams come into your coaching expertise as you worked up the ranks? Did you break into the lineup here at MTSU on teams before wide receiver?
Not as much. I was the holder here for three years. But I played a little bit on punt in situations where it was pooch scenarios. Back then, I didn't understand the importance of (special teams) when I was in college as a player. I always thought, like most players do sometimes, that it's just another phase of the game that's not as important.
Once I started getting into it through the coaching aspect of it, mainly when I got to Oklahoma State in 2008, 2009 and 2010. I worked for a guy named Joe DeForest, who's now the safeties coach at NC State. Back then, he was one of the godfathers of special teams in college football at the time. He had multiple opportunities to go to the NFL. He never did, he never wanted to.
He imprinted on me how important special teams are. We were playing starters on special teams there, the emphasis on schemes. He taught me a lot about how important it is to play in space and do drills more than scheme to teach guys how to play in space, because they're not really used to it.
And also, how to help the player himself understand how much value you can create for yourself, especially going to the next level. Sometimes these big time recruits, they don't want to play on special teams. But if you want to play in the NFL, it's only a 53-man roster, somebody has to play special teams. You can create value for yourself and give yourself a chance to stick in the NFL. Not just make it but stick in the NFL for a long period of time, if you have tools that are ready to go by the time you get up there.
You've coached wide receivers and special teams at many of your stops, including Arkansas State, UNC and UMass. But at Louisiana, as you will be here at MTSU, you oversaw just special teams and not a position group. What can you unlock in focusing just on special teams that might be unavailable to you if you're also coaching a position group?
The one thing it gave me an opportunity to do, which I think is very unique, it gave me the opportunity to walk around. When you coach a position sometimes, you've got that position, you've got drills, you've got things to do, to get accomplished, plays to install.
I explained this to them in passing and in meetings. I get to walk around and watch the DBs now. And watch how you're taking coaching within that specific drill, whatever they're doing. It may not have anything to do with special teams, but everything is relevant. I can see how seriously you're taking things, or not taking things. That's also relevant to me in terms of getting you incorporated in special teams.
If a guy is trending in the right direction, I need to get him on some things and start teaching him how to play a little bit on special teams (because) his buy-in is there, that's more than half the battle.
All that ends up doing, when you explain it to them like that, it just makes the player better. It makes him want to work hard, because he knows that if he trends in the right direction, he's going to get a chance to come on the field, ultimately.
Is the key to running special teams well is getting that sort of buy-in from all 11 guys, or is it broader than that, like something schematically you want to impart on them as well?
Schematically, we've talked about it here in a couple of meetings. It's not about what you run, it's how you run it. A lot of times, it's better to keep things really simple. I don't want to say we're complicated, but we're multiple in what we do. Onside kicks, fakes, multiple formations on punt, there are things we do on kickoff that I can see are tough to deal with for the opponent. But in the end, none of that stuff matters if you don't have a bunch of guys that believe in the importance of the unit, believe in the importance of the standard in which we are setting.
I tell the guys all the time, I do not care about the result. I'm not looking at the result. Are you playing that rep within the standard that we have created? If you're not, then the result probably won't be very good. If you are playing to the standard we set, and the standard is very high, if they are playing to that standard on that rep, everything that encompasses that rep, then that rep will probably be good.
How much have you picked up about the art of kicking, punting, long snapping and everything that goes into being a specialist in your time with special team units, particularly as someone who didn't do that when you played collegiately?
I never put foot to leather, but I tell the guys this at every stop I go to. I've been around enough good ones to know what I'm looking at.
In the end, I don't really want to change the specialists too much. We always talk about tweaking things. Not wholesale changing things, let's tweak a thing here or there. Maybe I've got something that works for you, maybe it doesn't work for you. But just small tweaks so that we're always learning, we're always trying to evolve to be the best version of ourselves, both as a coach and as a player.
They know. I'll give certain points here and there and their eyes will open a little bit. Like 'Oh, I didn't know he knew that my plant foot shouldn't be that shallow or the angle of the drop should be like this.' Little things like that, they're like, 'Ok, maybe he knows what he's talking about just a little bit.'
Being a UNC alum myself, I was excited when I heard about your hire because I knew the quality of the returners you coached while I was a student there, like Ryan Switzer and Dazz Newsome. How do you find dynamic return threats within your roster? Is it just speed or is there more to it than that?
Every returner, if you ask them, they know that I really don't (mess with them). It's not that I don't care about them, I do. We work a ton of drills, especially for punt returners, because there's a lot more that's going on in that situation rather than the distance away on a kickoff. But either you've got it, or you don't in terms of the juice. You're fast and you're quick and that all helps.
But hopefully they'd (also) be able to tell you my number one thing in terms of a returner is you have to be an elite decision maker. In a split second, in a three or four second time frame, you have to be an elite decision maker and know what to do and not put the ball in harm's way and not to put the team in harm's way in terms of your bad decision.
I don't always narrow that down to what they do on the field. Who you are off the field is a lot of times who you are on the field. If you're showing up on lifts, if you're a guy that's always late to stuff, how can I trust you if I can't trust you during the week? My future and my livelihood are in your hands and the decisions that you make. So that's got to be number one.
Then we drill all the other things inside of it. A lot of times, if a guy is real natural at it, I'll just leave him alone. I'll get him to understand where block leverages are and stuff like that. But if a guy's natural, I'm not going to screw him up.
You were a part of the last coaching transition here at MTSU, but as a player, not a coach. What can you impart on these guys during this time of transition from being on both sides of the fence at this point in your career?
Bridging the gap, understanding that the new staff, that's what's in front of you. You can't control what happened in the past. The more you dwell on it, the more you stay stuck right where you're at, rather than progressing the way you need to. The new staff, that's what is in front of you. It's our job to earn their trust and respect with the way we work consistently, the way we communicate, how much clarity we have on a day-to-day basis. And we model the behavior we want.
Ultimately their trust will come with how they act throughout the semester, throughout the year and so on. But we're the new ones, we have to earn their trust and respect first. I will say, to help bridge that gap, sometimes there can be resistance with change. But change, as we all know, is inevitable. It's going to happen. If you fight it? You stay stagnant. If you accept it as a challenge and a new obstacle that you can go and respond to, rather than react to? You'll give yourself an opportunity to have a special football team. But we've got to bridge that gap, sooner rather than later.
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