The Ray Rychleski guide to looking cool with sunglasses

Less than three months on the job and Ray Rychleski is a hit as the Colts new special teams coach. Gone is the man who looked like your 8th grade chem teacher. Replacing him is a dude who knows how to work the bald angle, soul patch, and a pair of designer sunglasses.

Oh, and unlike the previous guy who coached Indy's special teams, Ray Rychleski might actually know what he's doing.

Stampede Blue's contempt for former special teams coach Russ Purnell is well known. The man is an incompetent boob of a coach. I don't say this lightly, but after seven years of crappy special teams play, I think it is fairly safe to assume that Russ Purnell cannot coach special teams. Why he's still employed at the NFL level, I don't know. Yes, I know he has two Super Bowl rings as a ST coach (one with the Baltimore Ravens and one with Indy). This fact should continue to give strength to the sentiment that rings alone do not define greatness. Purnell special teams units were consistently horrible in Indy, and the feeling was Purnell never owned up to the unit's failures. If anything, the popular excuse was that the team used young and inexperienced players on special teams. This supposedly justified why the unit consistently underperformed.

Former-special teams coach Russ Purnell, center, sucked at his job.

When Tony Dungy retired this year, the writing was on the wall for Purnell. New coach Jim Caldwell chose not to re-sign Purnell and instead signed a well-known, colorful, and respected coach assistant coach to work with the special teams: Ray Rychleski. During mini-camp, Caldwell had this to say about the special teams and Rychleski:

"There are only a few signs in our locker room we have," Caldwell said. "One is ‘No excuses, no explanations.’ We don’t make any excuses for where we’ve been, just in terms of our performance. Our goal is to certainly not make any excuses for a lack of execution and things of that nature. We want to get it done. That’s our business, is to make sure we get some improvement in that area. We think we have more than enough talent to develop a good special teams unit and that’s what we expect."

The "no excuses" comment struck me as a dig at Purnell, who (in my humble estimation) was not well liked or respected by his colleagues during his tenure in Indy. This is, of course, my opinion. No one has told me that Purnell was disliked. But, for me personally, it's pretty obvious just how little people thought of Purnell.

Last season, Colts punt and kick coverage improved dramatically. They went from the worst in football to being pretty solid. Using Football Outsiders special team efficiency as a guide (I've already perked shake n bake's attention), the Colts went from #32 in 2007 to #22 in 2008. They would have had a much higher ranking if not for the injury to T.J. Rushing in pre-season. Indy's return yardage on punts and kicks was way down from previous years, but  their coverage units were way up. On punt coverage, a traditional Achilles heel, the Colts ranked 8.6, making them one of the better punt coverage units in football. Again, for the Colts, that's a pretty dramatic turnaround.

Consistent special teams, and the play of Peyton Manning, were the two major factors in Indy engineering a 12-4 record after a 3-4 start. But what helped the Colts improve so well in coverage? Did Purnell run a new drill? Did he bench certain players and use others in a more creative way?

No, he pretty much didn't do jack squat.

It was former-Colts special teams ace Darrell Reid (now a with the Denver Broncos) who was the catalyst for the group's improvement.

Mostly, the Colts’ fourth-year defensive tackle said this week, what he did early this season was about not having the Colts’ kickoff coverage unit – a unit he felt a huge part of – be a weakness anymore.

As Reid saw it, he’d been through that already.

And this year, he wanted it to stop.

...

In December of last season, he was named the AFC’s Special Teams Player of the Week after a game in which he delivered one of the team’s biggest hits of the season.

Early this season, teammates said Reid put that special-teams credibility to use.

Along with two other four-year veterans who played extensively on kickoff coverage – outside linebacker Tyjuan Hagler and safety Matt Giordano – Reid began calling extra meetings each week for the unit.

"Darrell and I have been here for four years now, and with those four years of experience, we understand how valuable special teams are," Giordano said.

The meetings last for about 10 or 15 minutes, but in those minutes, Giordano and Reid said much is accomplished.

I wrote about this revelation back in December of last year. There's nothing overt in the article, nothing that flat out states that the players do not respect Purnell. But when the players essentially gather, on their own, and decide that enough is enough, that does not paint a favorable picture of the position coach. Purnell did not seem to motivate these men to do something different, nor did he scheme anything that helped the group.

Essentially, it seems as if the players got sick of him, started meeting on their one, and the result was an improved special teams unit. Purnell's tenure with Indy ended two months after the Darrell Reid article was published.

What last year's team showed is that Indy had the players to be effective on special teams all along. Guys like Giordano, Hagler, Freddy Keiaho, Jacob Tamme, and Roy Hall are all excellent special teamers. If you cannot coach these men to cover punts and kicks, you cannot coach. It is literally that simple.

Exit Purnell. Enter Rychleski.

Already, just like new defensive coordinator Larry Coyer, Rychleski is making his presence felt. But while Coyer is more a quiet, sage-like mentor to players, Rychleski is certainly not the "quiet strength" type of coach. From ColtPower's Eric Hartz:

New special teams coach Ray Rychleski has a lot of energy and a BIG voice. He could be heard barking out encouragement all from all corners of the field.

At one point, when the punt unit wasn’t quick enough to line up to Rychleski’s liking, he cracked, "what are we, union?" which got a laugh from players and fans alike. He reminded me a bit of James Tolkan, the actor best known as Principal Strickland in "Back to the Future" and Stinger in "Top Gun." I think it’s safe to say Rychleski won’t be putting up with any "slackers" on the Colts’ special teams. . .

Such energy and enthusiasm is in stark contrast to Purnell. I've been to many training camps and seen several special teams practices. Tony Dungy used to dedicate entire sessions (usually in the afternoon) to special teams play. When I watched these sessions, Purnell never stood out. If anything, it was a struggle to find him. He certainly did not have the kind of commanding presence Rychleski seems to have, nor does Purnell have the creativity Rychleski is known for.

Caldwell, who coached with Rychleski at Penn State in 1991 then hired him as an assistant when he was the head coach at Wake Forest from 1993-2000, recently painted a picture of Rychleski as the prototypical special teams coach: a motivational, theatrical coach, but one with an emphasis on fundamentals.

"You can anticipate that Ray's a very enthusiastic guy who is creative," Caldwell said with a smile.

A classic special teams coach?

"Exactly," Caldwell said, nodding. "He's one of those high-energy guys."

Caldwell said that aggressiveness was a trait Rychleski's units showed in college, first at Wake Forest, then at Maryland and South Carolina.

Now, of course, the cynic in all of us is saying Of course Caldwell is going to call Rychleski "creative." He's Caldwell's hire. But Caldwell's opinion of Rychleski is shared by SB Nation's college bloggers, in particular our South Carolina and Maryland bloggers:

Testudo Times (Maryland Terrapins blog)

August 2008:

Maryland lost their great special teams coach Ray Rychleski to South Carolina this year, which is in itself very bad news. Rychleski was responsible for the great lineage of punters, from Brooks Barnard all the way to last year’s freshman standout Travis Baltz. Also, during Rychelski’s entire duration at UMD, the Terps never had a punt blocked, which is the longest current streak.

Garnett and Black Attack (South Carolina Gamecocks blog)

August 2008:

Ray Rychleski has worked to train our guys to get more yards on returns and to protect the ball by eliminating the punt protection problems that killed us against Florida and Clemson last year (well, actually, a number of things killed us against Florida). The special teams units will not make any mistakes that will jeopardize the solid performances of the offense and defense.

June 2009:

Rychleski has long been considered one of the best special teams coaches in the game, and his arrival in Columbia last season made an instant difference. Rychleski was rewarded for his success with a swanky position with the Indianapolis Colts.

The turnover of players in college football is tremendous, forcing many special teams coaches to be creative in how they work players into coverage units and return units. Trust me when I say this: When our college bloggers talk up a position coach, he is a damn fine position coach. Head coaches are treated as Gods in the college ranks. Position coaches are usually always the scape goats. So, when you see not one but two college bloggers raving about a position coach, he's a keeper.

Maryland's special teams were some of the best in the country

when Rychleski was their coach

With special teams stalwarts Darrell Reid and punter Hunter Smith gone, Rychleski will need to work with a new, likely rookie punter in Pat McAfee and find a new leader from the players to replace Darrell Reid. With the wedge formation finally banned by the NFL, teams can no longer form human walls in order to protect their returners. This allows creative coaches like Rychleski to find new ways to position players to tackle the ball carrier. Players like Matt Giordano or Tyjuan Hagler seem to have the character to step up and fill the leadership void left by Reid. Meanwhile, if players like rookie DT Pat Kuntz or even veteran DT Keyunta Dawson want to have any hope of making this team for 2009, they must prove they can play special teams. With Reid gone, Kuntz or Dawson could step up and take his place.

Regardless of who does step up, the message from both Jim Caldwell and Ray Rychleski is clear: There will be no more excuses for this special teams unit. Play well, or you are gone. Like Caldwell and Rychleski, I don't buy the "excuse" argument that the make-up of the Colts roster prevents them from playing good special teams. The Colts have tons of speed, quickness, and tackling ability on ST. Always have. There is simply no logical reason why this unit has not played better, and if last year taught us anything it's that the person that seemed to hold the unit back was their position coach. He's now gone, replaced by the "prototypical" special teams coach.

I'd be shocked if this area did not dramatically improve in 2009.

Coach Ray (now referred to as Coach Ray-Band) is left, talking shop.