Special Teams Coordinator Brian Schneider Press Conference

Special Teams Coordinator Brian Schneider

Press Conference – September 29, 2022

San Francisco 49ers

How much pride in your room do you guys take when one of the guys in that room gets the NFC Special Teams Player of the Month?

“A lot of pride. Really happy for him. He’s worked extremely hard and he knows it takes all those guys in there from [LS Taybor Pepper] Pep snapping, [K] Robbie [Gould]’s input and really all the guys covering and all the guys in there, so I’m just really happy for [P] Mitch [Wishnowsky]. Well deserved.”

What has he done so well? I guess a fresh set of eyes, you coming in here, what kind of stands out to you about where he is with his game and what he’s been doing so well?

“Well, I think he’s really talented, number one. He has a lot of leg strength, but I think what I’ve noticed is just his approach mentally to the game. Him, I think, really thinking about the kicks that he wants to do and in game situations and practice. And I just think the mental approach to him, I’ve really been impressed with and he’s really taken ownership of that. But there’s no doubt he has the physical tools too.”

The 65-yarder after the safety, I think Denver took over on their own 19 after that, what’s typical? What are you expecting after a safety when there’s a punt?

“Well, if you’re returning it, you’re expecting to be at midfield. So most of the time that’s really the judge. Your mind is 15 yards back and everything’s a little bit different, so that was a tremendous play by Mitch. Actually, where he placed the ball, allowing guys to cover it. And then the coverage is really great, when you can get a penalty on that, I don’t think often you see the ball inside the 20, so that was an excellent play by those guys.”

Do you feel like he’s benefiting from not doing the kickoffs? Is that leg stronger than what it would be if he was doing that as well?

“Oh, I think so. I think it’s two different movements, and when you’re working that throughout the week and in the game and it takes some stress off that. For him to focus on that, and he’s still able to kick off if we need to, but I think that focus for him has been nice.”

With Robbie doing the kickoffs, it seems like he really enjoys the strategic element of that, does that go beyond just the kickoffs? It seems like he’s really–?

“Well, Robbie’s into everything. He loves to watch football. He knows football, so really, not only is he a specialist and a kicker, but he likes looking, breaking down everything. He likes to look at the kickoff return of the opponent and he’ll come give me notes, so it’s great. Yeah, he likes all that stuff.”

Is that unique for a kicker?

“Very unique. Most kickers, obviously, watch themselves and they watch all the kickers throughout the league and they look through that. Not many of them, that I’ve been around, break down the big four or the frontline on kickoff returns or anything like that. But he really loves it, enjoys it.”

Do you know his brother Los Angeles Chargers assistant special teams coach Chris Gould very well?

“Yeah, I know who he is. Yeah, we met a couple times down with the Chargers.”

Do you think that kind of comes with the territory?

“I would think so, yeah. I just know he enjoys doing it. I know he is coaching his kids’ football teams now, so I think he might be a coach at heart.”

There were a couple of kickoffs, when WR Ray-Ray McCloud got pinned in the corner and he tried to run across the field, is that what you’d like him to do in that situation or do you want him to get–?

“It kind of all depends. We had a big field return, in hindsight, me looking back at that, it wasn’t a very good plan in terms of what we wanted. I needed to adjust earlier on that, but every game is different in terms of what team you’re going against, what they do well and how we’re trying to attack them. So yeah, sometimes it’s big field, sometimes it’s boundary.”

This organization invested a lot in special teams this offseason with some of the new guys coming in, how do you feel about where you guys are three weeks in?

“I think we’re on track. I think there’s a lot of things we can improve on and the little details. And in fact, I told them all I need to keep improving as a coach on coaching the details. And they need to keep working on fixing those on the field. And it’s not a lot of huge things I should say, but there’s a lot of little things that I think we can do better to improve.”