A painful glance back at the first half of Northwestern’s showdown with Minnesota last October serves as evidence for the special teams struggles that gave coach Randy Walker season-long migraines.
The first blow came when Tellis Redmon strolled through the Wildcats’ punt coverage on an 83-yard touchdown return in the first quarter (Walker: perplexed). Then the Golden Gophers duped NU in the second quarter with a perfectly executed fake punt resulting in a 45-yard touchdown (Walker: fuming).
So heading into spring ball without one of his top assistants, Walker set out to find some relief for the Cats – and his head.
Going on a tip from offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, Walker phoned Northern Iowa head man Mike Dunbar, a 20-year coaching veteran. One hour later, Walker had his man.
“We talked about everything from what you do on the bubble screen to ‘tell me about your wife and kids,'” Walker said. “I hung up the phone and called Kevin and said, ‘Gosh, if we can get Mike, that would be the coup of the year.'”
Dunbar rushed to Evanston for an interview with Walker and was hired on March 15 to coach NU’s tight ends, fullbacks (H-backs) and, mercifully, its special teams. After a multitude of coaches had taken on the special teams load last season, Dunbar becomes NU’s first special teams coordinator in the Walker era.
Fortunately for NU’s special teamers, Dunbar said he had not seen the game tapes from last season and instead preached the need to move forward. As head coach at Northern Iowa and Central Washington, Dunbar has worked extensively with special teams in an “overseeing” role, but the NU job will be his first direct involvement.
“You can win a lot of football games with special teams and you can also lose a lot of games with special teams,” Dunbar said. “Everybody thinks offense and defense all the time, but 35-40 plays a game are special teams and they are all potential big plays because of the space, because of the field position and because of all the crazy things that happen.”
Linebacker Pat Durr had a front-row seat for those crazy things last season. Durr was one of the Cats’ few bright spots on a kickoff coverage team that yielded 18.9 yards per return. Although Walker maintained that NU’s lack of experienced special teamers put it at a disadvantage, Durr cited the squad’s “attention to detail” as the major flaw.
With Dunbar’s arrival, Durr said he hopes that many of the “little things” are ironed out.
“Coach (Jack) Glowik and the other coaches did a good job, but it seemed like they had to emphasize their positions more than worrying about special teams,” Durr said. “With coach Dunbar, that’s his thing, he can sit down in his office and concentrate on planning for whatever team we’re playing that Saturday.
“It’s a lot better that we have one man to focus on.”
Walker points out that Dunbar’s responsibilities will go beyond special teams – he will work with the seldom-used tight ends and H-backs and assist other coaches with the offense.
“Any time you make a change you want to take things forward, and in this case we’ve been able to do that,” Walker said. “This guy brings a wealth of backgrounds and, for my benefit, here’s a guy who has been a head coach for 12 years. He can really be valuable to our coaching staff.”
Participating in his first practice Wednesday, Dunbar seemed to mix in well with Walker’s other assistants – he wore the purple NU pullover, put his players through normal drills and minced the same encouraging and not-so-encouraging words. Perhaps Dunbar’s lone distinction was his white hair, making him stand out amid the players and Walker’s other staffers.
“I’m still green here, just getting my feet on the ground, but I’ve been very impressed with the direction I see things are going and the opportunity to compete in one of the greatest conferences in the country,” Dunbar said.
