Kornacki: U-M Gets Special Teams Kick with Baxter
1/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- John Baxter, Michigan's new special teams coordinator, has a record of excellence both on and off the field.
He developed an "Academic Gameplan" program in 1986 that thrived at Fresno State. Baxter continued it at Southern California and implemented it this week for the Wolverines. It did wonders at his previous schools, and he authored a book about getting academically focused that has a foreword from Trojans athletic director Pat Haden, a Rhodes Scholar.
Baxter's kick and punt return and coverage units have excelled as surely as his placekickers. And the propensity of blocked kicks Baxter has gotten out of his players is off the charts. His special teams blocked seven kicks in both 2010 and 2011 at Southern California, and blocked 84 in his 13 seasons at Fresno State -- including a national-best 49 from 2002 through 2009.
"Blocking kicks is a big deal," said Baxter, who was named FootballScoop.com Special Teams Coordinator of the Year in 2011. "So, we're going to teach the technique of it, find players to do it, and put together the schematics for them to be successful.
"Those plays are sudden-change game-changers, and so we pay a lot attention to it and develop some prowess with it."
He will assess which players will make various special teams units most effective and coach them up. Starters, backups and reserves will all be considered.
"Everybody comes here and wants to be first team," said Baxter. "I'm only looking for team-firsters. Whatever your skill set is, just bring it. And we're going to develop it and find a place to use it. And we're going to put the best person in for the job we need done.
"Most of our kicks at USC and Fresno State were blocked by linemen."
While most think of high-jumping cornerbacks, safeties and linebackers blocking kicks, Baxter said, "I think of 6-foot-9 and 350 pounds moving the pile." And that frees up kick blocks.
But the Bulldogs did more than block kicks.
Fresno State led the nation in the fewest punt return yards allowed in 2004 and 2005. Bulldogs punt returner Clifton Smith set a school record with five touchdowns, and A.J. Jefferson led the nation in kickoff return average (35.8 yards) in 2007.
"Special teams are really about player development," said Baxter. "You take whatever a kid's skill set is and ask them to bring that every day. Football comes down to making and escaping contact, and you teach the art of making contact and the art of escaping contact.
"What makes great special teams play is, No. 1, you have to have a kicker and a punter the same way you have to have a quarterback on offense. No. 2, you have to have players who are trained to cover, to block and to tackle. No. 3, you really have to develop depth. And that's why it's player development. So, there are guys who aren't a thought on the depth chart who are going to be in football games for us next year."
Baxter grew up in Chicago, graduating from Loyola Academy and said "everybody dreams of being with the winged helmets," but didn't think that would be possible. He played for and graduated from Loras College, a small school in Dubuque, Iowa, and began his coaching career there.
"To be at this school, at this time, with this coach is incredible," said Baxter. "The legacy of excellence here is amazing. And I've been to a school like that at USC. Not that I'm not competitive any way, but it really inspires you to not want to be a letdown to the place. You want to hopefully add something. It's all surreal to me."
Baxter knows John Harbaugh, the older brother of Jim, who now coaches the Baltimore Ravens but first made a name for himself as a special teams coach. Baxter became acquainted with Jim when Harbaugh visited Southern California and Fresno State to evaluate players for NFL teams. Harbaugh sent D.J. Durkin, then his special teams coach at Stanford, to study Baxter's special teams approach at Fresno State.
"He came for a day and stayed a week," said Baxter. "So our connection is my body of work."
Harbaugh was in his first year at Stanford in 2007, when he led the Cardinal, who had been 1-11 the previous season and were 1-3 at that point, to a huge upset of No. 1 Southern California.
"Jim beat us," said Baxter. "His teams are well-prepared, and his teams are tough. And at the end of the day, they find a way to win."
Baxter said they connected almost instantly during his two-hour phone job interview.
"I felt like I was talking to my brother or something," said Baxter. "I think we've got similar values and beliefs. You know who got him to follow the Pope on Twitter?"
Baxter pointed to himself and laughed.
"I told him, 'You've got to follow the Pope on Twitter.' He said, 'How?' And I said, '@Pontifex.' "
Baxter, 51, has studied Bo Schembechler, the coach who molded Harbaugh at Michigan, and Schembechler's mentor and later adversary, Ohio State coach Woody Hayes.
"I only have two coach's pictures in my house autographed to me," said Baxter. "One from Bo and one from Woody."
While coaching at Iowa State in 1986, he wrote a letter to Hayes and received the autographed photo. He got Schembechler's through a friend who knew the Michigan team chaplain.
Those two football coaching legends and UCLA basketball coach John Wooden are his inspirations as a coach, teacher and community leader. Baxter had 141 Academic All-WAC players in 13 seasons at Fresno State, and was named Clovis (California) Co-Citizen of the Year in 2006.
"I want to be known as a passionate guy who can teach the game and who had technicians who win the game," said Baxter. "I always tell players there has to be substance behind the sticker. There has to be substance beyond the winged helmet. And then people are drawn to you because of that.
"The higher you go, the greater your platform is -- which is why I wrote the Academic Gameplan and this book, 'I Hate School,' which is about just the opposite of that."
Haden wrote in the book's foreword: "(John) is the most remarkable special teams football coach I have met in over 40 years involved in the game of football. What makes John so different, so special, is his ability to teach and relate to young men and help them with their academic and life success."
Baxter said, "I want to impact this community and young people through example. I want people to say this is college football -- not football college."
