Quick hitters: What Notre Dame special teams coordinator Marty Biagi said about working with safeties

Notre Dame special teams coordinator Marty Biagi spoke to reporters Wednesday morning, shortly after the Irish completed their sixth spring practice. He discussed working with the safeties, several key specialists and more.

Here’s what Biagi had to say.

On being more involved with the secondary at Notre Dame

“A year ago, when [Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman] first hired me, we had a small conversation about maybe helping out on defense and then we both agreed I’d arrived so late that I should just focus on ST in that first year. He kind of came to me in January and said there might be some opportunities that coaches were going to be leaving the staff and was asking, but hoping I would get involved in the defense, knowing my background. 

I started out as a defensive graduate assistant at the University of Arkansas under Bobby Petrino, but [then-Arkansas defensive coordinator] Willie Robinson was similar to [Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden], more of an NFL vet, so he was going to make sure if I was going to be a kicker and try to learn on-ball defense, that I had to know everything. ‘Don’t even speak to a player until I know that you know the answer.’ So it really made me have to work to dot every I, cross every T, and that gave me confidence as a young coach going to Arkansas Pine-Bluff, going to Southern University, going to South Dakota to really feel that I could contribute being in the defensive back end off of that.”

On watching film in a cramped apartment in Fayetteville, Ark. as a GA

“Non-stop. I had playbook after playbook. The good part is, I was an education major, so I learned the more you write and the faster you write you’ll be able to really clean it up. So there’s great carryover here with our players, holding them to that standard as well. That really allowed me to know the scheme, to know the techniques, so then when I come into a room, guys would feel, ‘Okay, he’s not just a special teams guy. He’s a defensive guy doing special teams as well.’”

On new Notre Dame kicker Mitch Jeter

“Overall, it’s a little bit more of a full-unit assimilation in that we’re looking for who our long-snapper is going to be. We have our holders and whatnot, but he has to have confidence in the snap and putting those guys in pressure situations, really getting that field goal battery, the snapper, holder, kicker being very consistent in that regard. Then we’ll get into some more live-rep competitions, just to get him comfortable. 

“Of course we’ve seen Mitch can do it plenty, but just to get him in the feel, just to get him in our calls, and our mindset and cadence. Doing a lot of focus on film work. He’s a very big student of the game, so he’s often critical of himself just wanting to be perfect. He’s not one that ‘Oh well, it went in.’ He’s one that wants it to go right down the middle, which you can appreciate.”

On using Marshall transfer Jayden Harrison as more than just a kickoff returner at Notre Dame

“It’s the same thing we explained to him with Devyn Ford, who now has moved to safety but he had been a returner or an off-returner at Penn State. All of a sudden we realized what he could do and we wanted to get him in more and more schemes that we could in different positions, so I think Jayden has been awesome. He even said ‘I’ve never done the front line or back line kickoff return drill; just the returner.’ 

It’s a privilege to get to be the kick returner or punt returner at Notre Dame, so my philosophy is you’re going to go through this, you’re going to make sure you learn all the techniques and all the work the [front and back-line guys] are putting in. He’s in my office and there’s no ego there. I think it’s just going to help him to be able to contribute to special teams more than just as a returner.”

On if returning Notre Dame punter Bryce McFerson can handle kickoff duties

“It’ll be the same; we want him to really focus on being the most consistent. He definitely has the capability of kicking off, but we want him to really specialize and show this spring he can be that punter and show consistency and really feel like he’s going to be able to perform when needed. We’ll see how the summer goes. Once he shows that he’s consistent in the first role, then maybe go to the secondary role for him.”

On sophomore safeties Adon Shuler and Luke Talich

“I think they’ve done a great job, and what’s great is you have [Xavier Watts] and [Benjamin Morrison] around who are All-Americans, so it’s not like we have to go pull clips to show ‘here’s how an NFL guy does it.’ Those two guys practice and prepare like pros. So then we can say ‘Hey, you said you wanted to do this?’ So you don’t have to go find it. X is coming in this early, so now those guys are constantly coming into the film room, constantly taking care of their bodies, and really attaching to the hip of those veteran players who have shown it.

“It’s not just a three-hour commitment. They want to be doing extra. They’re both having a great spring.”