In Brian Kelly’s first three seasons, special teams were not great. They were a mess in Kelly’s first season in 2022, and it resulted in special teams coordinator Brian Polian losing his job.
Special teams were better in 2023, and last year they were ranked 59th in the SP+metric. Pro Football Focus had LSU’s special teams ranked as the worst in the Southeastern Conference.
In January, Kelly hired Aman Anaud, who was the special teams coordinator at Grambling last season. He’s also coached at Baylor and Penn State.
Kelly is impressed with Anaud’s teaching style.
“I think he is very bright, he breaks special teams down to its fundamental form,” said Kelly. “I think he’s done an incredible job of utilizing the entire coaching staff, so the entire coaching staff is involved and really breaking it down to its details.”
Since Kelly has been at LSU, the Tigers have not had much of a punt return game.
Malik Nabers muffing two punts in the season opener against Florida State in 2022 set the tone. Eventually, the Tigers turned to Gregory Clayton, who was mainly asked to just fair catch punts.
Last season, Zavion Thomas was brought in from Mississippi State, but he averaged less than five yards a return.
Kelly wants to see more big plays in the punt return game this year.
“We have game breakers, we know they can flip the field, so you punt it to us, we want to return that son of a gun every single time,” Kelly said.
Thomas will likely be asked to return punts again this season. He only had 66 punt return yards last season, but at Mississippi State in two seasons he averaged 12.5 yards a return and returned a punt for a touchdown his freshman season.
Related
Kentucky transfer Barion Brown can also return punts, but kickoff return is his specialty. Brown has five kick off returns for a touchdown, which is an SEC record for a career.
Damien Ramos has been steady as a field goal kicker, making 80-percent of his field goals over the last two seasons. Not the strongest leg, but accurate.
Aeron “Bigfoot” Burrell will be the kick-off specialist. The Bossier City native ranked third in touchback percentage last season.
Middle State transfer Grant Chadwick is the punter. Chadwick averaged 43 yards a punt last season, which ranked fourth among freshmen FBS punters.