Off-field closeness fosters on-field success for special teams
The specialists on the South Carolina football team are close. And if the music video set to Five for Fighting’s “100 Years” they starred in isn’t the tip off, maybe the group-owned Twitter account or the seven combined school records the group holds will be.
They’re attached at the hip on and off the field with the specialist seniors—placekicker Elliott Fry, punter Sean Kelly and long snapper Drew Williams —are all on extra point together and Kelly and Williams are both on punt team.
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On the field, the unit moves smoothly. Kelly tied a school record last season for punt average (44.3 yards) and Fry is second all-time in scoring, 41 points behind record holder Collin Mackie.
Off the field, they all go out weekly for tacos (aptly named Taco Tuesday) and vacation together. Last Spring Break, the specialist unit went on a cruise, and things didn’t go as smoothly as it does on the field.
“We were in Jamaica or somewhere and we went on a rollercoaster,” Kelly said. “It was probably the funniest thing. You sit in, there’s no seatbelt; bolts are hanging off and everything. You couldn’t even go through the audio Elliot was going through.”
Rounding out the unit are kickers Michael Almond, Joseph Charlton and Alex Woznick; and long snappers Wyman Baxley, Ben Asbury, Nick McGriff Harrison Freeman and Logan Crane.
The entire unit, Fry says, is close off the field and that translates to on-the-field success. Kelly pinned opposing offenses inside the 20-yard-line 25 times last season and had 14 punts of 50 yards are more.
Fry’s only missed extra point came over two years ago, and he’s hit 124 straight since then. He was named to the second-team All-SEC in 2014.
They credit the success of the unit as a whole to the closeness and antics off the field, saying it relives some of that pressure.
“You can’t be as serious all the time as a specialist. You miss a kick and you have to let that one go,” Kelly said. “You have to have that looseness to where if I hit a bad one: the next one. Or if I didn’t hit this one as far as I wanted to: the next one. I didn’t put it where I wanted, on to the next one.”
So where does the seriousness actually happen? In practice, that is.
Fry and Kelly are both self-proclaimed perfectionists, and really put the time in to make sure everything is the way it should be before a game. Kelly said they can get “heated” in practice trying to be perfect.
With with Fry, Kelly and Williams all on extra point team, it could easily be a two-on-one fight, Kelly said, and the fall guy is usually the starting long snapper.
“We get on each other a lot. I know with me, I want the holds to be perfect. I want the snaps to be perfect. I know (Kelly) wants the snaps to be perfect. So we give Drew a hard time sometimes,” Fry said, smirking.
The specialists are the second-most experienced group on the team this year with 28 percent of the group upperclassmen, second only to the defense. An anchor for a sputtering offense at times last season, Fry said the special teams is trying to lead by example this year.
And with the season around the corner, the Five for Fighting music videos and rickety rollercoaster rides may stop, but the Taco Tuesdays and the slick production on the field won’t.
“It’s a strong correlation between special teams friendship, being close off the field and on the field. I’ve always said we’ve had great special teams,” Fry said. “And one of the thing we’ve done as specialists is a field goal unit and punt unit, we have such a good rapport. I think that really translates. When you’re going out there with two of your best friends, it makes it a lot easier.”
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