Coordinator's corner: Tony Levine, special teams

Tony Levine has extensive experience coaching special teams, even in the NFL, and is considered a mastermind in the discipline.

But Levine didn't necessarily like what he saw out of Purdue's units in the opening-game loss to Louisville Saturday.

Here's what the special teams coordinator told reporters Monday night.

GoldandBlack.com: Are the people you know in Houston OK?

Levine: "Yes, OK in terms of people I know have their health and they’re living. But it’s complete devastation. I have a deep appreciation for it, having lived there for nine years (including being head coach at Houston). Every coach is different. I’ve been around coaches that in their office, a lot of coaches nowadays have televisions mounted on their walls for some reason. I just found out last week ours can actually get TV on it, not just the video we’re watching. So I put on the weather channel, and it hits home when streets you’ve driven on and places you’ve been to are 15 feet underwater. There’s a high school coach I’ve been in his office dozens of times that had a very, very unfortunate accident. There’s not going to be anyone from Houston or that’s lived in Houston that doesn’t know someone that’s been affected by the weather and the storm there."

Q: What was the one takeaway you had from special teams Saturday? Overall, what happened?

Levine: "Our overall performance was extremely disappointing. There’s no sugarcoating that. While I’ll certainly give Louisville credit, they have good schemes, good coaches, good players, we do, too. I actually told the players (Monday) in our meeting that what I’d like to have happen is people notice us on the two or three positive plays we make in a game that change the game and make a difference and help us win the game. I think a lot of people say, quite often, how you can point to a handful of plays that were the difference in the game one way or the other, and I’m always very critical of myself and look myself in the mirror first and I think there were certainly a number of special teams plays that affected the outcome of the game.

"We’ve got four primary goals. First and foremost is to win the battle of field position. We didn’t do that on Saturday night. The second is to have no penalties. We didn’t do that Saturday night. We had a late hit out of bounds on a kickoff, which T.J. Jallow was giving great effort. He actually, when you watch the video, he engaged in the tackle in bounds and they went out of bounds. It’s a judgment call, and the official, 40 yards away, in his judgment, it was a late hit. So that ruined that goal. Our third one is to not turn the ball over, and we turned the ball over. Not only did we turn the ball over, we had some other inopportune balls bounce off of us, which provided us extremely poor field position. Then our fourth primary goal is to try to give our offense in plus-50 territory at least once, and we did that when Garrett Hudson deflected the first punt by them and set up a score for us. We made a play there.

"I thought Joe Schopper’s individual performance was one of the best I’ve been apart as a coach. He probably leads the nation in special teams tackles, which I’d like not to have happen. I thought Spencer Evans’ kickoffs were tremendous. He only did kick extra points in the game because we only attempted one field goal. I thought our long snapper was tremendous all night. We had a couple great efforts. Garrett Hudson, I already mentioned, Race Johnson played well, Jarrett Burgess did a tremendous job in the kicking game for us. But way too many negatives. We’ve got to get those cleaned up this week in a short week, and it’s my expectation that we will."

GoldandBlack.com: Do you stick with KeyRon Catlett on kickoffs?

Levine: "We’ll see. I’ll tell you Saturday." (Purdue plays Ohio on Friday.)

GoldandBlack.com: He looked like a freshman, but he did some good things, too.

Levine: "He did. The two things I saw him do — and, again, we saw him make mistakes, and we all made mistakes, I made mistakes — but I saw him hit the hole full speed and fearless, and he’s got great vision. Those things are attributes that I look for, and I think he’s got those."

GoldandBlack.com: Was there any consideration to flip-flopping and putting D.J. Knox as the returner instead of the off-returner? Or do you just like him better as an off-returner?

Levine: "D.J. had a tremendous game for us. The only special team he played on was as an off-returner, and he did a great job. You’re saying prior to the game or once Markell was injured?"

GoldandBlack.com: Once Markell went down.

Levine: "No, there was no consideration. KeyRon was going to be the next primary returner. I have no problem if a team kicks it to D.J., and I think at some point this season, we could see him as the primary returner in a game. But, no, as soon as Markell went down, KeyRon was the next one going into the game."

GoldandBlack.com: Why’d you decide to rotate the guys on extra points?

Levine: "Why did I decide that? Based on their performance in training camp."

GoldandBlack.com: So you’re still figuring it out?

Levine: "No, we’re not."

GoldandBlack.com: You’re just going to rotate them on extra points?

Levine: "I didn’t say that either. You said that."

GoldandBlack.com: Who is going to be your extra point kicker going forward?

Levine: "The one that runs out there."

GoldandBlack.com: I don’t know how many ways I can do this.

Levine: "No, no, you’re asking a great question."

Q: Is it Spencer Evans?

Levine: "He’ll be there Friday night."

GoldandBlack.com: You had J.D. Dellinger kick the 53-yard field goal. What was the plan with that going in? Was there going to be a long kicker and a short kicker?

Levine: "No, not necessarily. J.D. has had a tremendous camp, and he earned the right to attempt the first field goal. I feel badly for him. He hit the ball excellent. You may have to go back and watch the TV version. The officials mis-spotted the ball. We were lined up, and the 40-second clock was running. Then they blew the whistle and they moved the ball forward about two or three yards, and as soon as they did that, I was yelling at them on the sideline to now reset the 40-second clock, and they did not do that. We were barely set as an offensive front and when Joe Schopper, who is our holder, was looking back at J.D., J.D. knew the time was running, looked at the clock, as I was, and it was down to 3 seconds and said to Joe, ‘Joe, it’s at 3.’ Joe turned around and said, ‘Set,’ and it was a rushed kick. Although he hit it well, our line was not ready. So that was unfortunate. He hit the ball extremely well and he did all night on extra points and he did all night in warmups. So he earned the right to take that first field goal, and you’ll see him out there again Friday night."

Q: If you’re not kicking a touchback, do you base things on the return 25 yards and in as a positive for you?

Levine: "That’s correct. Our goal is inside the 25-yard line."

Q: They were able Saturday to get beyond that.

Levine: "Yes, they were. That was disappointing, in our coverage. We had guys there at times. We had guys fit things incorrectly at times. Those are things, it’s my expectation are cleaned up going into our game Friday night."

Q: Same way on the return, too?

Levine: "Well, no, we’d like to get to the 30. We’re a little more greedy there. We’d like to get to the 30 or beyond as an average starting point. We look at field position relative to kickoff coverage and kickoff return, it’s a deceiving stat when you just look at average. We’re looking at the field position start. And our average starting field position on kickoff returns, we’d like to be beyond the 30."

GoldandBlack.com: Was there any indication Schopper could tackle like that? Have you worked on tackling?

Levine: "Yes, we do work on it. But we don’t work on live tackling with our specialists. We do tackling drills with them and the defense. One time, I took a specialist out to eat at what’s called an occasional meal, which is legal by the NCAA, and they actually brought him the wrong drink. He ordered sweet tea, and they brought him a Mountain Dew, and he had some aggression. That might have been the only indication leading into last Saturday’s game that he had that in him. But his tackles were tremendous. I’d like to not have him or Spencer Evans, our kickoff guy, make tackles, I’d like the other 10 guys running down the field to be the ones to make the tackles."

Q: Can you define that aggression at the restaurant?

Levine: "He was pleasant, but you could see he had that fire in him. I mean, he didn’t tackle the waiter, if that’s what you’re asking. He didn’t do that."

Q: Is that what you did before the game with him? You switched up his drink?

Levine: "Definitely did not. He had a tremendous game. Tremendous game."

Q: With Markell Jones getting injured on return, is that part of the risk-reward that goes with wanting a dynamic guy back there but also potentially losing a starter?

Levine: "I guess it is. Unfortunately, there are injuries in this sport. You see programs at every level, National Football League, all the way to high school and below, that want to get the football and want to find ways to get the football in their playmakers’ hands. So that’s a risk or chance that some coaches are willing to take at times. Depending on how much a young man is going to play on offense or if it’s a defensive player, that’s a chance to get the ball in their hand another two, three, four, five times in space. It’s certainly unfortunate it happened. Hopefully, he’ll be back out there very soon."