Room for Improvement? How Marty Biagi Can Upgrade Special Teams at Notre Dame

Brian Mason transformed special teams in one season as a coordinator at Notre Dame. In 2022, the Fighting Irish blocked seven punts, including six blocks in a five-game span.

Fans fell in love with Mason’s ingenious week-to-week schematic adjustments that exposed opponent punt formation weaknesses with regularity.

At the end of the season, Notre Dame ranked No. 6 out of 131 FBS programs in Football Outsiders Special Teams Fremeau Efficiency Index ratings (STR), which evaluates a team’s kickoff, kickoff return, punt, punt return and field goal efficiency.

The Irish failed to finish higher than 28th under previous special teams coordinator Brian Polian. 

Mason often deflected the praise he received onto Marcus Freeman for the head coach’s commitment to the often-neglected third phase of football.

“It starts at the top,” Mason said in November. “Coach Freeman allows us on special teams to use some of our frontline players. We have some really good defensive players that are on the punt block team.”

Such a commitment also creates buy-in from the team’s most explosive players, who end up valuing the opportunity to play special teams. 

“They were really big on our best players, our starters, being on special team units,” Irish linebacker Prince Kollie said. “After last year, I see it how they see it and that's a big part of it.

Of course, Mason’s metamorphic impact led to the Indianapolis Colts hiring him for the same position in early March. 

Two weeks later, Notre Dame announced that the program hired Marty Biagi as its new special teams coordinator. He spent 2016 as the program’s special teams analyst in South Bend before stops at North Texas, Purdue and Mississippi as a special teams coordinator. 

Marty Biagi Playing & Coaching Career

- 2004-08 Marshall, Punter and Placekicker

- 2011 Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Co-Defensive Coordinator

- 2012-14 Southern, Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Backs

- 2015 South Dakota, Cornerbacks

- 2016 Notre Dame, Special Teams Analyst

- 2017-19 North Texas, Special Teams Coordinator

- 2020-21 Purdue, Special Teams Coordinator

- 2022 Mississippi, Special Teams Coordinator

Biagi stepped onto campus with big shoes to fill, but there’s still room for improvement heading into 2023. 

Placekicker Blake Grupe made 14 of 19 (73.7%) field goal attempts in his final season of eligibility at Notre Dame, a slight regression from his 80% hit rate as a senior at Arkansas State in 2021. 

Grupe was inconsistent on kicks between 38 and 47 yards, missing 5 of 11 attempts within this range. 

Similar struggles persisted in Mason’s four seasons as the special teams coordinator at Cincinnati. From 2018-2021, Bearcat placekickers made 37 of 63 (58.7%) field goal attempts.

Is this on Mason? Not exactly. Specialists employ private coaches, but the former collegiate running back felt more passionate about strategizing with the special team's coverage and return units than developing kickers and punters.

“He's called himself a hard-nosed guy from the D-III because he played D-III football at Denison,” Irish kicker Zac Yoakam said, “so he's more of like a he's going to leave the kickers alone.”

On the other hand, Biagi was a punter and placekicker at Marshall from 2004-2008. He’s one of the rare special teams coordinators with the experience and know-how to vastly improve the performance of a placekicker. 

“I treat it like indy (individual drills),” Biagi said. “Just like wide receivers are doing indy the first five periods and quarterbacks and defensive backs are doing indy, it’s really no different in my mind that they deserve to be coached and know the techniques to put them in a position to be successful.”

Biagi could be a guru based on the success of his past placekickers. He employed a different primary field goal kicker in all six of his seasons as a special teams coordinator and all but one ranked inside the top 25 in field goal percentage.

Biagi did a masterful job at Ole Miss in 2022 after the Rebel's placekicker Caden Costa tested positive for a banned substance and earned a one-year suspension from the NCAA.

Over the summer, Ole Miss picked up kicker Jonathan Cruz from the transfer portal. He made 14 of 22 (63.6%) field goal attempts in his prior two seasons at Charlotte.

Cruz transformed into one of the most efficient kickers in the nation at Ole Miss. He hit on 15 of 17 field goals, which included connecting a 53-yarder in a 22-19 win over No. 7 Kentucky. Last fall, he missed one kick inside 50 yards — a 39-yarder in a 42-27 road loss to Arkansas.

Notre Dame hopes Biagi can inspire similar improvements in kicker Spencer Shrader, a South Florida graduate transfer who arrives on campus this summer. 

Shrader made 20 of 26 (76.9%) field goal attempts over the last two seasons, with just one miss inside of 44 yards. 

Biagi also awaits the arrival of Penn punter transfer Ben Krimm. Last fall, he led the Ivy League with 41.6 yards per punt, which would’ve ranked 62nd among FBS punters with at least 43 boots.

“Now that I was hired full-time, I’ve been able to talk with them pretty regularly and am very excited for what they’re able to do, Biagi said. “In general, excited to get new guys to campus in that regard.”

First, Biagi will mold the specialists already on campus, walk-on kickers Zak Yoakam and Chris Salerno and punter Bryce McFerson.

For the placekickers, Biagi demands near-perfection on short and intermediate field goals in practice. He only allows his kickers to attempt field goals from 43 yards and in until they can make 95% from that distance. 

He’ll make mechanical adjustments and mental suggestions to help his kickers hit this mark.

“He helped me change my form a little bit,” Yoakam said. “I wasn't finishing toward my target destination. I want to finish straight towards the field goal, and I was finishing to the left a little bit, to the right a little bit, all over the place. Consistency is what he's really looking for it.”

Yoakam made all of his field goal attempts in Saturday’s open practice. 

McFerson is a rising sophomore. According to Kohl's Kicking, he came to Notre Dame as the No. 2 punter in 2022. Last fall, he sat behind graduate transfer punter Jon Sot, who averaged 43.9 yards per punt. 

There’s little doubt McFerson possesses the talent to be successful for the Irish, but a punter's most important trait is being dependable. 

“He’s working on fine-tuning his technique to be more consistent,” Biagi said. “His leg strength is clearly there. Very similar, if not even stronger, to a Tyler Newsome, who is somebody I coached before. But now we’re trying to make sure he can do it consistently. 

“When we get those indy periods, we’re working on specific drills that make to where he can perform at the right moment.”

*Purdue played six games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biagi-led special team units have also had success blocking kicks, ranking in the top 20 four times.

The biggest knock on Biagi is where his programs ranked in terms of overall special teams success.

Under Biagi, Ole Miss and Purdue ranked in the bottom third in Football Outsider’s STR. 

At the same time, his special teams units performed well at North Texas from 2017-19, where Mean Green coach Seth Littrell opened the roster to Biagi, allowing him to use frontline players. 

That wasn’t always the case at his next two stops, but he can expect a firm commitment to special teams at Notre Dame.

“The fact that Coach Freeman comes into my office literally on a day-to-day basis is very exciting,” Biagi said. “Having open-door policies with him to be able to come in and say, ‘coach, here’s where I’m thinking.’ 

“[He] gives me even a quick yes or no as opposed to a false promise where you’re banking on a kid, and then right the week of the game it’s, ‘Ah, we can’t use him.’ That kind of thing. The open line of communication has been awesome.”

With Freeman’s support, Biagi can build off the already established buy-in from the roster, just as Cincinnati did in its first season post-Mason. The Bearcats finished 2022 ranked fifth in STR under defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator Kerry Combs. 

That’s one spot ahead of Notre Dame and seven places higher than Cincinnati ranked in 2021 and 2020.

“For me, it’s taking my ego out, seeing what things blend previously with Coach Mase, keeping a lot of the same terminology,” Biagi said. “There’s no point having a hundred guys learn something different just because this is how I said it if I can learn if it’s the same concept. That will speed up the process.”