3 Notable Quotes: Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer

Mike Priefer has joined forces with Head Coach Bill Belichick with the hope of improving UNC's special teams situation. The media was able to dive into his background and the strategy he when going about his position.

Below are three things Coach Priefer had to say to the media.

On the kind of growth freshmen can have contributing on special teams:

"Sure, that's a question that can apply. I did Coach 21 years in the NFL, the last 17 in the league, as a special teams coordinator and and every time we had a rookie, exact same thing. So these rookies will come in, if they're not a first or second round draft pick, typically, they played and, you know, cut their teeth on playing on special teams, and then it evolved into being a start on offense and defense if they were good enough.

"That's exact same thing that we'll have here. We have these young players coming in. They don't have to be true freshmen. They could be guys coming from the portal, different young players that come in and earn their way on special teams roles. For that matter, like coach said, everything's earned here, nothing's going to be given, and that means special teams roles as well. And that's the exact same process we're going to have here as we had in the NFL."

On the conversations with Bill Belichick and the vision:

"So obviously, like he keeps saying, we want to make this the 33rd NFL franchise. And I think when you bring in a head coach that's been in the league for what 50 Years and and especially in coordinator has been a league for a long time, I think, having those experiences that we have, and he understood and and we had talked about the success we had in the NFL and special teams in the places I've been, and trying to bring that to the collegiate environment, the schemes obviously will be a little bit different."

"The players are much younger, so the techniques and fundamentals that we teach, we have to make sure we cover those more often than we would in the NFL, per se, maybe, but those are the conversations we've had about player development." 

"I think that's the most important piece for a special teams coordinator, whether it's in college football or the NFL, is a player development piece. And that's what we were selling our players, and they're buying in. And we talk to our recruits about that all the time. And you know, you want to come to North Carolina because you're going to be developed as a football player and as a person. And I think that that's exactly what you know, he wanted to bring here in special teams. And I think that's what I can provide."