While the rest of college football studies Notre Dame’s attention-commanding special teams units to pore over secrets to their success, Fighting Irish assistant coach Brian Mason conducts his own weekly appointment viewing with his players.
Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator and architect of units that own 18 blocked punts/kicks since 2020, Mason doesn’t gather his charges merely to examine their own success stories; there’s a world of good special teams moments every weekend, Mason figures, so why not expose his team to those other scenarios.
Thursdays, then, are for the clips.
“We watch as much college film as we can,” said Mason, whose special teams units at Cincinnati in 2020-21 helped the Bearcats to New Year’s Six and College Football Playoffs berths, respectively. “We pull as many learning clips as we can.
“We’ll kind of go through the analytical reports to see if there’s anything out of the ordinary. And then we always watch every blocked kick, punt and fake that we can. To then show our guys, either from a learning standpoint of blocking something or from a learning standpoint of how to defend a fake. We watch all those kinds of things.”
Opponents of the 2022 Irish, Mason’s first squad and part of his reunion with longtime colleague and friend, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, see Notre Dame blocking punts this fall at a record clip.
The Irish own a nation’s-best seven blocked punts this season, including a streak of five-straight games with a total of six blocked punts spanning parts of October and November. Lending perspective, consider Notre Dame’s special teams units combined for just six total blocked punts in the previous five seasons.
They'll try to keep it going Saturday at cross-country rival USC, as the No. 15 Irish seek a sixth-straight win and the chance to thwart the College Football Playoff hopes of the No. 5 Trojans.
Igniting the team’s beatdown of Clemson, Notre Dame’s Jordan Botelho blocked a punt that Prince Kollie snared midair and raced untouched 17 yards for a touchdown in an eventual 35-14 win that was that close in margin only.
What Mason calls “chaos,” Freeman attributes to determination, preparation and Mason’s teaching skills.
“Mase has those qualities in terms of work ethic, intelligence, the ability to connect with players that you see here 10, 11 years later that to me, in my mind, he’s one of the best,” said Freeman, who helped hire Mason as a defensive graduate assistant at Kent State in 2011. “He does a great job. But why? Because of his work ethic. Why? Because of his intelligence. Why? Because of his ability to teach and relate to players. You can have all these thoughts in your head but if your players can’t go out and execute it and have a belief in what you’re presenting them, you’re not a great coach.
“You might be really smart, but coaches are as good as their players can perform. That’s what really continues to make my belief in Brian Mason so strong. He’s continuing to get better. Listen, you’re not going to trick anybody. It’s not just punt block; I challenged the special teams unit in kickoff return. We have been below average in kickoff return and last (month at Syracuse) we got one opportunity and it came off for 30-plus yards.”
Take it to the house #GoIrish pic.twitter.com/3dswG74AZu
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) November 6, 2022
At this point, it’s reasonable to cue the Spiderman points at Spiderman meme. Freeman credits Mason’s teachings while Mason points directly to Freeman’s emphasis on special teams – right down to Freeman’s routine presence in the unit meetings and mandates for starters’ involvements on the various squads.
“The buy-in starts with Coach Freeman,” said Mason, also with previous stops at Ohio State and Purdue. “He’s an unbelievable head coach to work for with special teams because he’s active in meetings, he lets everybody on the team know it’s important. He makes sure everybody knows, at least everybody who’s a starter on offense and defense, is going to play on one special team.
“Certainly the better players you can use the more success and fun you can have. Really just buy-in, culture all that starts with the head coach.”
But, Mason explains, those elements are fostered inside that special teams room.
“It just says, I think to me, you have a really fundamentally sound, complementary football team that special teams is kind of the area where everybody gets together to learn your program fundamentals and to build your culture,” Mason said. “That’s kind of where culture gets put on film.”
Notre Dame starting quarterback Drew Pyne remembers Mason’s first address to the team and says he’s been commanding the Irish respect since first joining Freeman’s staff last January.
“I think kind of the moment he got here, he got up and spoke to the whole entire team and it was very impressive to me,” Pyne said. “Obviously with all the blocked punts, it’s just unbelievable. To be able to be on the sidelines. Just the stuff that Coach Mase does, he works so hard and he’s just a wizard. I’m just so lucky to have all that stuff happen for the team.
“Just hearing him speak and his demeanor is impressive to me and always has been. He’s a football guy.”