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Andre Szmyt stared directly at the 10-yard line, focusing on the central part of the spray-painted white turf where the ball would be placed by holder Mike Midkiff.

After the ball hit the spot, Szmyt leaned back on his left foot before taking his usual three steps to kick the ball. But as the ball left the ground it was deflected by Virginia Tech’s Chamarri Conner, and it bounced onto the turf to the left of Szmyt. Syracuse’s McKinley Williams picked up the ball and tried to run forward before it was knocked out of his hands.

Szmyt walked to his left, trying to locate the ball in the scrum before finally seeing it in the hands of the Hokies’ Dorian Strong. Most SU players mimicked Szmyt’s slow movement and reacted too late as Strong had already taken off with an array of blockers around him. Kingsley Jonathan was the only Orange player to even touch Strong, and he only got his right hand on Strong’s left shoulder pad.

The game would’ve been tied at 14-14, but since Strong took the ball all the way back for a touchdown, Syracuse went into halftime with a 16-13 deficit.

Syracuse fought back through the help of Sean Tucker and Garrett Shrader to beat Virginia Tech 41-36, but costly special teams mistakes have lost wins for SU, erasing scoring possessions and tarnishing Syracuse’s reputation as Special Teams U. According to Football Outsiders’ Special Teams Fremeau Efficiency Index, the Orange had the 14th-best special teams unit in the nation last season. They’re 14th-best in the ACC this year — currently 97th out of 130 teams nationally.

So how does one of the best kicking groups in the country become one of the worst in less than a year? The answer is pretty simple — coaching, or more specifically a lack of coaching.

While Jonathan was one of the only players who got close to stopping Strong, he made a costly mistake at the beginning of the play. The Hokies overloaded the right side of Syracuse’s formation — directly in front of Jonathan — which forced him to choose the player he needed to block. Instead of working from the inside to outside, Jonathan grabbed the most exterior player, allowing Conner to get in front of the kick.

But it wasn’t just Jonathan’s fault that Strong ran the ball back all the way. The Orange were unprepared for what to do when a kick was blocked since it was the first time it had happened to SU this season.

Head coach Dino Babers didn’t just blame his players for the lack of execution, he also added that his assistant coaches have to do a better job, too. He used the analogy of a game being a test, and his assistant coaches being teaching assistants that couldn’t give the actual answers to players but could only help them through the process.

“I want my coaches to do a better job with reminders and then I want those guys to go out there and do a better job of execution,” Babers said. “It’s not rocket science out there.”

But why have TA’s giving advice when you can hire another full-time teacher? Of the 65 Power 5 schools, The Orange are one of only seven without a special teams coordinator on staff. Although Babers said he has certain assistants in charge of specific special teams’ operations, he didn’t specify who was in charge of each facet.

Syracuse doesn’t have space for a special teams coordinator because it already has 11 assistants — the maximum allowed. So Babers split up the jobs between a few assistants, including Blair Cavanaugh, who’s listed as the quality control staff member for special teams.

Last season, however, the makeup of the Orange’s coaching staff was different, with coordinator Justin Lustig in charge of special teams. Lustig left for Vanderbilt after the 2020 season, and Babers didn’t fill his spot.

It seems like Babers gave up on having specific kicking coaches in favor of trusting in the abilities of talented players that have carried the unit in the past. Babers said he normally talks with Szmyt himself about kicking distances.

“Andre normally speaks with me, but I’m not responsible for that unit. But he normally speaks with me because he’s like a quarterback,” Babers said. “What Andre wants, Andre’s going to get.”

This trust makes sense as Szmyt was named the best kicker in the country his freshman year. But this season, the makeup of the unit is different for the Orange since Szmyt has had to adapt to a new placeholder. Nolan Cooney was Syracuse’s placeholder for three seasons before joining the New Orleans Saints, and long snapper Midkiff has taken Cooney’s spot as holder.

A new holder means perfecting new timing for Szmyt, something he hasn’t been able to consistently do. Szmyt, who had a 86.15% success rate over the last three seasons, has fallen to a 58.3% success rate this year. Szmyt has hit just 42.9% of his attempts from over 35 yards. He’s missed easy kicks, too, including a 19-yard field goal and two extra points. With Cooney as holder, SU only missed two extra points on 125 attempts.

“He’s been consistently good, not occasionally great,” Babers said about Szmyt’s play this year.

With the unit filled with different players blocking and holding, coaching is a necessity even if the actual kicking aspect of a field goal attempt can be trusted. Just because Szmyt was one of the best kickers in the country at one point doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need coaching from someone other than Babers now.

Syracuse doesn’t just struggle with field goals, it’s punting has been subpar this season as well. James Williams replaced Cooney by averaging 39.4 yards per punt — the worst mark in the ACC. Cooney averaged 44.8 yards per punt last year, earning All-America and All-ACC honors.

But Williams has also missed games for unknown reasons and has been pulled out of games with no explanation. Redshirt senior Colby Barker replaced Williams for one punt against Rutgers, sending the ball eight yards past the line of scrimmage. Freshman Ian Hawkins replaced Williams against Florida State, averaging 33.17 per punt.

Against Clemson, however, Syracuse’s punting unit stepped up against a Tigers’ team that was unranked for the first time since 2014. Williams averaged 39.86 yards, with four of his punts landing inside the 20-yard line.

SU trailed for the majority of the game, but it clawed back in the fourth quarter and had one final drive to win or tie the game. Babers said he talked with Szmyt before the last series.

Szmyt wanted to kick from farther than where Babers wanted, Babers said, and the pair decided on a distance shorter than 50 yards to kick from. With 38 seconds left in the game, Szmyt took the field for a 48-yard attempt. But unlike his game-winning field goal two weeks earlier against Liberty, Szmyt’s kick was short and went wide left.

The blocking was good and Szmyt’s motion was standard, but Midkiff never flipped the ball, instead, holding the laces toward Szmyt. One of Babers’ TA’s must have forgotten to tell him that, leading to Syracuse’s third consecutive three-point loss.

Babers said the team is “OK” without a special teams coordinator right now, but “OK” doesn’t lead to a bowl appearance. The Orange have had four games decided by three points, and only one of which went in their favor. SU missed a field goal or PAT in all those losses.

It is too late to hire a coordinator for this season and because of that, Syracuse may miss out on its first bowl appearance since 2018. But Babers is always thinking about recruiting for next year. Maybe he should think about recruiting a special teams coordinator so SU can return to being Special Teams U and come out on top in close games.

Anish Vasudevan is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at asvasude@syr.edu or on Twitter @anish_vasu.

Published on November 7, 2021 at 9:40 pm