Things have have been on the up and up for Utah’s special teams in the last two weeks of practice after some struggling at the start of the season. The unit had a really good spring, offseason and fall camp, but thus far into the season, its performance, overall, hasn’t been up to par with where the team stood last year at this time.
In order to return to the same confidence and mentality that the players had last year, the special teams has been working on finding rhythm and balance. Kicker Andy Phillips identified why he hasn’t been kicking exactly the way he, or Ute fans, would like to; he puts too much pressure on himself to be perfect.
Having the right mindset and mentality is what he thinks is necessary to being focused in those pressure moments.
“That kind of pressure, I don’t think is a healthy kind of pressure,” Phillips said. “It’s just like anything — you apply so much pressure on yourself at some point that you overthink things and you try to be so good, and so perfect at your mechanics, or your pregame routine. Sometimes you just gotta say, ‘I’m going to go out and kick.'”
Phillips relates this way of psyching himself out to practicing other skills in life — particularly in math.
“It’s like preparing for a test,” he said. “I notice it the most in math; you put so much pressure on yourself for that test, you miss a negative or you miss just the dumbest, easiest calculation and it messes up your entire problem.”
Regarding his past math troubles, Phillips believes he was overthinking, almost the same way he can overanalyze preparing for a game. By doing this, it takes a much larger toll on the kicker throughout the game, instead of being relaxed and confident.
Phillips and his teammate Tom Hackett have talked together about it and decided that they are going to focus on channeling their energy in the right direction so that their assignments can run more smoothly during practice and on Saturdays.
“I put so much pressure on myself that I miss something in my mechanics, or I rush Tom, and the rhythm’s off,” Phillips said. “It’s the little things in kicking that are so exact — you can’t mess up one thing, or else, just like the math problem, it leads to problems down the road.”
In the last week, Phillips has seen improvements in himself, and hopes that those will become habits that translate onto the field as well.
“We’re in the mentality now where we are looking forward, and have had a great last two weeks of practice,” Phillips said. “I can’t remember the last field goal I missed in practice, to be honest with you.”
This is the first year for Phillips and Hackett to have a high level of expectation to perform under. These kinds of expectations, change the way they handle certain situations. Hackett has gone through a similar process as Phillips has, to switch up his way of thinking a bit.
“This week has been really important to me,” Hackett said. “I spoke with Nicole Detling, the team psychologist, and had a word with her. I really tried to narrow it down to what I was doing well last year, and what I’m not doing well this year and how I can try and change my mindset going into games.”
Just like Phillips, Hackett has evaluated his thought process during practice versus during a game. During practice, the 2014 Ray Guy Award winner does well and has no issue. When it comes to game time, he’s doing bad, but Hackett want to do better, and be more prepared.
While anticipating Utah’s next opponent in Fresno State, Phillips has been looking forward to Utah’s first road game of the season. Phillips enjoys traveling to compete and loves the challenges that an away game brings, especially being in a different environment than Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“It’s really a challenge,” Phillips said. “I’ve never been to Fresno State, but from what we hear, it’s a pretty hostile environment.”
Hackett would like to see Utah step up as a team, especially the special teams and get the first win on the road. As for what kind of adjustments need to be made, Hackett will leave that up to the coaching staff.
“I just want to play well, because special teams hasn’t played well,” Hackett said. “Offensively and defensively we’ve made too many mistakes, but don’t ask me what they are, because I’m just telling you what Coach Whittingham tells us in meetings.”
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