MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — On Monday, the college football season will come to an end when Indiana football squares off with the University of Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship. So too will another competition — the Hoosiers’ special teams production leaderboard.
Hanging on the wall in special teams coordinator Grant Cain’s office is a whiteboard that lists all of Indiana’s special teams contributors. Each week, points are tallied up for various performance highlights, anything from blocking a punt to running through the back of the endzone on a touchback.
There are prizes, too.
The top scorers of each game are named special teams player of the week and awarded shirts. At the end of the season, Cain invites the leaderboard’s top 10 to his house for “a nice steak dinner.” And the grand prize? A package filled to the brim with an assortment of complimentary team gear.
But ask any Indiana player, and they’d say the real prize is the competition itself.
“They don’t even know what the prize is, they just want to win it,” Cain said during Saturday’s Media Day “It’s gonna come down to like four guys, and Charlie (Becker) wants to win so bad. But Charlie couldn’t tell you what the prize is. Charlie was in the top 10 last year and couldn’t even remember coming to my house.”
As it stands, sophomore wide receiver Charlie Becker, who doubles as a gunner on the punt team, sits atop the chart. But, with one game remaining in the season, the race is far from over.
“Jeff Utzinger, he’s a dog,” Becker said. “Me and him, we’re always tied. And then Isaiah Jones, he’s always up there too.”
Special teams is often an overlooked aspect of a football team. There’s a reason Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti will often reference Cain’s unit when asked about the keys to producing winning football.
It’s similar to a goalkeeper in soccer. Special teams go unnoticed for doing a routine job well but receive an unparalleled amount of blame in the few instances where routine turns to disaster. It's difficult to be mistake free, but it is often a necessity in the momentum-swinging sport of college football.
“It's critical to have good special teams,” redshirt sixth-year senior tight end Riley Nowakowski, a member of the punt team, said. “That's what's going to win you games. Special teams blunders can really hurt you.”
But fortunately for the Hoosiers, their unit has been the epitome of consistency. Redshirt sophomore kicker Nico Radicic has made 16 of his 17 field-goal attempts this season and has converted each of his 84 extra-point attempts. Indiana ranks top 10 in the nation in blocked punts, punt return yards and field goal percentage.
The Hoosiers’ special teams success is a testament of Cignetti’s detail-oriented coaching style and, in a large sense, a microcosm of Indiana’s coaching, culture and identity.
For starters — well — starters. Cain’s unit is loaded with players who have larger roles on offense or defense — players that many may assume should be above playing special teams. And yet, they’re the same players whose effort on special teams is undeniable.
Becker and Nowakowski are both starters. Junior cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, a surefire NFL draft pick, is an anchor on the punt block team, as evident by his scoop-and-score touchdown in the Hoosiers’ 63-10 win over Illinois on Sept. 10.
“If guys work hard on special teams, you’re gonna win games,” sophomore kickoff specialist Quinn Warren said. “There have been a lot of guys that just play special teams, there are a lot of starters that are on special teams and they’re taking every rep the same — 110% every time.”
Warren, who initially started the season as a backup, encapsulates another piece of Indiana’s identity. After senior punter Mitch McCarthy suffered an injury early in the season, Warren — who’s officially listed as a kicker — filled in for four games as the backup punter. Since sixth-year redshirt senior kickoff specialist Brendan Franke suffered an injury Oct. 25, Warren has taken over kickoff duties.
The Hoosiers’ “next man up” mentality, often brought up with respect to their defensive line and wide receiver injuries throughout the season, is also clear on special teams. After all, being prepared when called upon is the mark of a great special teamer. It’s a mental game as much as a physical one.
“My job’s pretty easy, I just get out there and kick the ball,” McCarthy said. “As a specialist, your biggest enemy is yourself.”
Kickers are often stereotyped as superstitious, and it's no surprise why. The rituals of kicking and punting make those jobs more similar to golf than football. Routines are necessary.
It's not all that different from Cignetti’s coaching approach. He discussed being on a “football schedule” when he talked to media after the team’s arrival to Miami, citing that he lost track of the actual day of the week.
Cignetti has emphasized numerous times that Indiana’s preparation for the national championship is no different than that of a regular season game. In a sense, his approach is that of a poised kicker, doing his standard warm-up routine to prepare for a game-winning field goal.
On Monday, that game-winning field goal is the national championship. A common saying is that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” But as is the case with Indiana’s special teams, sometimes taking a look at one part is a useful indicator of the whole.
“I think it's a window into the soul of a team and how they approach their work,” Cain said. “Although special teams isn’t in the limelight, there's a lot of things that aren’t in the limelight.”
When the Hoosiers suit up against the Hurricanes for the national championship, the special teams production leaderboard won’t be at the forefront of fans’ minds. But just like the whiteboard in Cain’s office, it’s the little things that will decide the result.
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
