Jeremy Springer is fired up!
That’s the first thing you notice about the Arizona Wildcats’ new special-teams coordinator, whom we got to meet Wednesday night. He’s young (29), energetic and extremely gung-ho about special teams.
Springer played linebacker at UTEP from 2007-11. The special-teams coach there was Jeff Banks, who later brought Springer to Texas A&M to serve as his apprentice.
Springer made a big enough impression as a quality-control coach for Kevin Sumlin to hire him as one of his 10 full-time assistants at the UA. It’s Springer’s first full-time on-field coaching job, and he’s attacking it with relentless enthusiasm.
Springer talked about his approach, his playing career, his twin brother and other topics with a half-dozen media members at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. Here’s a portion of that conversation, which has been lightly edited for context and clarity:
On a scale of 1-10, how important are special teams to Kevin Sumlin?
A: “A 10-plus. The reason we were successful at A&M is that we put such a high importance on it. Jeff Banks and him built a culture there. The culture was playing special teams with an excellence, to a standard. That’s what we’re trying to build here.”
How do you get that message across?
A: “Be consistent with your energy, your passion, your technique. And coming to work every day. If you’re not consistent with it, the players are going to see it right away. And you’ve got to show them examples. You’ve got to show them how it’s done. At the same time, you’ve gotta talk like that. So you’re consistently trying to prove what championship special teams looks like.”
Arizona struggled at times on special teams last year. But Sumlin said he wasn’t focusing on the past. Are you the same?
A: “Zero evaluation of last year. Last year was a different system. This year is our system, the way we do things. I’m going to evaluate based on that. Totally different techniques. You know PowerPoint, right? All of a sudden … they switch you to Excel. It’s totally different, right? You can’t judge it off PowerPoint, right? That’s how I view special teams. It’s a totally different system, a way of thinking, a way of reading things.”
What did you learn during your time at A&M?
A: “Energy. Every day you’ve gotta bring something to the table. I love my life. I come to work every day (and) this is what I wear (T-shirt and shorts). I coach kids from Chicago, from Louisiana, from California. And we try to build a championship program. There are a lot of people who wish they were in my shoes, and I know that. I don’t take it for granted. Working at A&M, seeing that culture that was build there, helped me advance to come here and try to do the same things. And add my own kind of spice to it, because now I’m running it.”
What were some of the things you first tried to instill here?
A: “First things first, have a lot of passion and energy. You’re going to hear me say it a lot. I want guys to come out there and have fun with it. I don’t want to be that stagnant group where people are quiet and don’t want to be here. I want to make it fun for them.
"A lot of guys don’t come here to play special teams. Let’s just be honest. They come here to play offense and defense. Maybe they were the best player at their high school. They come here, they’ve gotta make a role for themselves.
“I try to make them get involved a little more. Through my presentations, through my actions every day, I want to make it fun for the guys."
What’s an example of something you do to make it fun?
A: “I make them into teams. We do a lot of competition. Whoever wins that day is going to get something in the meeting the next day. There’s a prize at the end of it.”
What are some of the prizes?
A: “The next day I might come in with a box of Snickers. Something like that. Or maybe a T-shirt. It’s all about having fun.”
How do you coach kickers or punters when you were never a kicker or punter yourself?
A: “That’s an acquired-learning type of deal. Obviously, yes, I played linebacker in college. But through my experiences coaching-wise, you get to develop those qualities. Not everyone starts off as a quarterback coach or a linebacker coach. They develop the qualities over time. It’s my profession. I’m going to do everything I can to learn. I’m nowhere (close) to where I need to be right now. But I promise you, as time goes on, I’ll get better and better.”
You were a QB your senior year of high school and started out there at UTEP. How did you become a linebacker?
A: “At the time, there was a (quarterback) named Trevor Vittatoe, who was way better than I was. I knew I wasn’t going to have an opportunity to play till my senior year of college. One day I went up to Mike Price after the season. I was like, ‘Let me switch to linebacker. My twin plays linebacker at Kansas.’ Made the switch, gained 30 pounds and it worked out for me. It was one of those things where I wanted to play so bad that I was going to make it happen.”
How would you describe yourself as a player at UTEP?
A: “Very passionate about the game. I was a hard worker. Very studious guy. I was very limited athletically, so I had to make up for that by watching film, knowing exactly where I needed to be, because I was a little stiff in the hips.”
How about your twin brother, Justin?
A: “My brother was better than me. I don’t like to say it, but I’ll admit it right now. He’s a minute older, so he had all the benefits. A little more athletic. A little bigger.”
Personality-wise, are you guys pretty similar?
A: “The same exact same person. Same voice, same everything. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Kicker Lucas Havrisik made a really big impression last year as a freshman. What have you seen out of him so far?
A: “I love that kid. He works hard. He’s quiet, but he’s very confident. Doesn’t mess up in the classroom. He’s a great character kid. Comes to everything on time. He doesn’t say much, but he’s got a special leg and he’s going to do special things for us in the near future.”
Josh Pollack did most of the placekicking last year. How do you envision their roles?
A: “We’re going to battle it out in fall camp. Right now I like Lucas as my kickoff guy. He’s going to be my kickoff guy unless he ups and goes somewhere else, which I highly doubt is going to happen. In terms of field-goal kicking, I told both those guys, fall camp, it’s going to be a real matchup. And the winner is going to kick field goals.”
