Notebook: Gator Bowl will provide elite special teams matchup

There are plenty of ways to measure special teams success.

On the NCAA’s official statistics website, nine different special teams categories, ranging from blocked kicks to punt returns, can be sorted with national leaderboards.

Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Mason doesn’t necessarily ignore those, but he has a different way of measuring success at the end of the season: the special teams FEI ratings provided by Football Outsiders.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, CFP No. 21 Notre Dame (8-4) is tied for fifth alongside Alabama and Texas with a rating of .84. No. 19 South Carolina, Notre Dame’s opponent in the Dec. 30 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., is ranked No. 1 with a rating of 1.57.

“It’s our objective to be No. 1 in the country,” Mason said Sunday. “The last five years, we were never in the top 25, which certainly was an underachievement. This year we finished the regular season fifth in the country. We want to make improvements to be No. 1.”

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According to Football Outsiders, the special teams FEI ratings combine kickoff return, kickoff, punt return, punt and field goal efficiency into one overall rating. The numerical rating represents the team’s standard deviation above or below average. Notre Dame leading the country in blocked punts with seven can only do so much to impact its rating.

Whether that makes sense to you depends on your obsession with math. What it certainly means is South Carolina (8-4) is more than capable of challenging Notre Dame on special teams, which didn’t happen that often in Mason’s first season with the program. Only two previous Notre Dame opponents are ranked among the top 30 in special teams FEI ratings: Ohio State (20th) and Stanford (22nd).

“They’re really good in every single unit,” Mason said of South Carolina’s special teams. “It’s obviously a great challenge for us as we look — ‘Hey, we want to be No. 1. Well, we’re playing the No. 1 unit on paper in the country.’ They’re solid in every single unit.

“So that’s a great motivation for us to prepare during the bowl season. They’ve really done what we want to become.”

What Mason didn’t seem to fully realize was the man behind the FEI ratings is actually a fellow Notre Dame employee. FEI stands Fremeau Efficiency Index. Fremeau is Brian Fremeau, Notre Dame’s senior director of operations in the campus safety and university operations department.

Mason knew from Twitter that Fremeau was in South Bend, but he’s never met him.

“I’d certainly like to talk to him sometime,” Mason said. “That would be great.”

Mason will be preoccupied in the next two weeks preparing for the Gamecocks. It shouldn’t be surprising that a team led by head coach Shane Beamer has such good special teams play. Beamer’s father, Frank, was known for special teams being a crucial part of his success as a longtime Virginia Tech head coach.

Earlier this week, South Carolina special teams coach Pete Lembo received a one-year extension and annual pay increase of $260,000 to $725,000 to reward his excellent season. The Gamecocks blocked five punts and one field goal and returned two for touchdowns. They also faked eight punts or field goals this season, per Mason.

Punter Kai Kroeger, who is also the holder, is second in the FBS in punting average (46.8 yards per punt) and received multiple second-team All-America honors. Kroeger completed three passes for 84 yards and one touchdown on fakes this season.

“Obviously their head coach, coach Beamer, is a great special teams coach,” Mason said. “Pete Lembo, I’ve coached against three times. He was at Memphis when I was at Cincinnati. We coached against each other on three separate occasions.

“He’s been a lot of different places and has been a head coach. He’s a really, sharp veteran coach. So they’ve got two unbelievable special teams coaches on their staff.”

Mason and Cincinnati went 1-2 against Lembo and Memphis with the two losses coming in 2019 and the one victory in 2020. A strong special teams performance from Notre Dame in TIAA Bank Field could go a long way in allowing Mason to even up his head-to-head record against Lembo.

“They’re really aggressive and really solid in the same ways we would like to be, for sure,” Mason said. “They certainly put it on film.”

The Gator Bowl won’t be the last time Mason gets the chance to coach long snapper Michael Vinson. The former walk-on whose teammates call “Milk” announced earlier this month he will return to Notre Dame for a sixth season.

"It's huge,” Mason said. “We didn't know until the end of the year if he was going to come back or not. He ended up deciding to come back. He's clearly the leader of our group. When I got here last January, we had two long snappers, two freshmen kickers and that was it. It wasn't super difficult to be the leader of the group because he was one of four guys.

"As things have gone on, he's really around all the time. He's with myself and Jesse (Schmitt), our special teams assistant. He helps out all the time. He's in the office a ton. He watches a lot of film.

“You just can't easily replace somebody like that, especially because we have a young group. We brought in some grad transfers because we had a young group. We lose those grad transfers and we have a young group again.

"Milk coming in keeps that experience and leadership that we really need. It's going to be invaluable."

On Wednesday, the American Football Coaches Association named Vinson as a first-team All-American. Vinson completed the regular season without an errant snap.

A groin/hip flexor injury to freshman punter Bryce McFerson allowed walk-on freshman kicker Zac Yoakam to take over the kickoff duties to start the season. He even emerged as the backup place-kicker behind Blake Grupe, too.

In 12 games, Yoakam hit 40 of his 65 kickoffs for touchdowns. That 61.5% ranks No. 38 in the FBS.

"We knew Yoakam had a good kickoff leg and could be a solid kickoff guy,” Mason said. “He just needed to get some momentum to put that all together. Coming in not expecting to play as a walk-on freshman, very satisfied (with Yoakam).”

McFerson didn’t beat out Harvard grad transfer Jon Sot for the starting punting job, but Mason has little doubt about McFerson for next season.

"He's going to be the starting punter next year,” Mason said. “He's done an unbelievable job as the year has gone on, especially at the end of the year. He keeps getting momentum and more consistent.

“He has an unbelievable leg. We expect him to be the starting punter and feel very confident with him as the starting punter. Really excited for his future and certainly him being healthy next year."

With running back Chris Tyree back as Notre Dame’s kickoff returner, the unit had high expectations. It certainly fell short of them with an average of only 19.35 yards per return, which rank s No. 81 in the FBS.

"I think kickoff return is probably the most frustrating unit right now that we need to improve the most on,” Mason said. “That's certainly the unit we have not kind of achieved our objectives at and being as consistent as we want to.”

Mason said any improvements for that unit seemed to always be followed by regression of some kind. Tweaks to suit Notre Dame’s personnel didn’t produce consistent returns. It’s an operation that requires everyone to execute.

“Everybody always says we were close in the return game — woulda, coulda, shoulda. We just have to improve and be more consistent in kickoff return. We can't have situations where we give bad offensive field position like we did in the USC game and get a penalty or just have to call for fair catches."

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