STATESBORO - The 2024 preseason football camp is underway and GSEagles.com is catching up with each of the 10 position coaches early in August to get their take on their position room. Up next is special teams coordinator Turner West.

Q: Let's talk about spring and summer. We didn't get to speak after the spring, but what were your thoughts on how your guys did on the field in the spring and how they've attacked the off-season?
TW: So starting with our punter, Alex Smith. It was his first year last season, and he had a very productive first year in college football. He's taken the steps this past spring and is working to fine-tune his craft. I think he's gotten to a level right now where his accuracy, operation time, and everything else are next level, and I'm excited to see where he will go and what he will do this year. Snapper-wise, we've got Jackson Wheeler back again. He was our short snapper last year. He did an excellent job this past spring. He got a lot more accurate. Speed's never an issue with him, but he's really taken on the work and really producing at a high level. And then we got Bryce Bernard, a transfer in from South Florida, that right now is running with the ones on punt and the twos on field goal. He and Jackson are in an open competition, which'll be determined after training camp the week before the first game. Gaines Wood is another young snapper who's continuing to develop. We tweaked some things with him, making him more of a look snapper than a no-look snapper. And he has, just like he did in 2022 when you had to come in versus Marshall and App State, fought to get better. I mean, the kid's a fighter. He is a worker and continues to do everything he's asked to do, and he's developing at a high level.

Q: On the flip side, you have to replace your kicker and have two new guys coming in. Can you talk about TJ Hartley and Gavin Stewart and what they bring to the team?
TW: TJ's a young guy who spent last year at Austin Peay. He's from Georgia, and we're fortunate to get him. He's got a super strong leg and is really talented. He's a combo guy, so he can punt as well. And then Gavin, who's done it at a high level at Georgia Tech and has been a 65, 70% touchback guy and a 75% field goal guy. Looking at our operation here with Matt Daniel coming back at holder and whichever snapper we go with, that operation will perform at a high level. And then we've got Chase Folser, who's continuing to develop and come along as a kicker. He's had a really, really good summer. Another guy is Walker Bradberry, who is looking to be the kickoff guy right now. Walker is our Swiss Army knife. He can kick field goals. He can punt. He can hold. He really can do it all. And I'm really excited about where he's at as well.

Q: What are your top priorities in camp, either from those main kicking areas or returns or coverages? 
TW: If you want to be elite on special teams—and this is a Bill Belichick thing—you've got to be unbelievable in coverage units, and you have to make sure that you play penalty-free and get the ball back to our offense and return units. That's our primary goal. We want to continue to build on our success from last year on kickoff return. We've got a competition at kick returner right now and punt returner between LV Bunkley-Shelton, OJ Arnold, DeAndre Buchannon and Dalen Cobb. So, I am getting to see all those guys work and compete and trying to get David Mbadinga and Taylor Bradshaw and some guys like that in the mix. But we'll teach a few different fundamentals and techniques on certain units to see if we can better ourselves on those.

Q: You've got a freshman All-American, a kick returner took a 100-yarder to the house against App State in DeAndre, and you're talking about there being a battle with three, four, or five other guys. How much does that say about the depth and athleticism playing on special teams?
TW: It says a ton. And the main thing that I want us to do, since we do have that depth, is always make it a competition. Competition breeds success, and I don't want anybody to get complacent. The other thing that the average person doesn't look at in a game is that there are a lot of decisions to be made when you're a return guy. We've got to make sure that not only do we have the best returner back there, but he's also got to be the best decision-maker to make sure that, as we said earlier, we get that ball back to our offense.

Q: Who are some guys who are special teams demons that you get excited about when looking at filling out your units?
TW: As far as the guys that I know I can count on and the guys that have done it and have come up through the ranks, if you will, since I've been here are guys like Jeffrey Smyth, Reid Dedman, Tracy Hill Jr., Jacob Hammonds, Chris Crouch, Prince Green, Justin Meyers and I'm sure I'm leaving off some guys because we have a lot of core guys I count on. We've got so many, and those were five right there. But we will see so many more guys in training camp. We saw a little bit this spring, but we'll see more in training camp. We could end up having 10 to 12 core guys and I've never been a part of that.

Q: You've got your core guys, but who's a young guy that Eagle Nation may not know who impressed you in the spring? 
TW: So two new transfers really stuck out to me this spring from Kennesaw State, Deontre Morris and Chance Gamble. Those guys are going to have a real chance to be core guys on special teams in addition to their work on defense. The other young guy is Jamari Whitehead; he has come a long way and looks great out there. Then, the other one that we didn't get to see a ton of this spring but had the most significant jump, in my opinion, was Branden Palmer. He was out there and looked completely different than he's ever looked. He's moving fast; he's a big body. He looks really good out there. Another guy who could be a core guy for us is Demarcious Robinson, the transfer linebacker. He is going to be a special player. Another one I left off is Josh Dallas; he's another core guy. We lost Jon Ferguson, who was a huge, huge contributor for us on special teams last year. And to be able to replenish with multiple guys with that type of body is going to help us a lot this year.

Q: Some schools want their starters out there on special teams. Do you like to do that, or do you feel you've got enough athletes to be on special teams that you don't have to play starters?
TW: Initially, when we were going through it, I wanted to find the guys who were good at their craft. The difference between special teams and offense and defense is space play. Who can play in space? Some people have spatial anxiety. You want a guy who's confident in what he does, moves well, takes good angles, takes the coaching, and also, effort and selflessness are huge, huge parts of special teams. We look at those things first; then, we will look over player participation every week to see how many snaps on offense, how many on defense, and how many on special teams they play. And you try to, without hurting your units,  see if there might be a guy who can help out. You try to do it to keep the guys as fresh as possible, but you also don't want special teams to be where you go just if you're not starting on offense or defense. It is an acquired skill set. And to have 20 or so guys like the ones I've named who are bought into and have a high pride factor.

Q: If you're playing on special teams, you can't think of it as a demotion. Do you feel like these teams are a way to get on the field and affect the ball game?
TW: It is a huge way to affect the game. And when we talk to them all the time about how we affect the game by field position, momentum and points. People say special teams are a third of the game. It's not; it's 20% of the game, but it formulates 80% of all the yardage in the game. So, these special teams plays are huge plays in a game and can fundamentally change the game.

Q: Finally, what's one thing you'd like to improve this year? Is it blocking kicks? Is it returns? Is it cutting down on penalties? What's the top priority for you?
A: Looking back over last season, one thing that we have to get better at is punt coverage. That's something that we have to get better at. We had the big return versus JMU, the 48-yard return, which knocks you from being third in the Sun Belt in net punting to 12th in one return. That's how important special teams are. It's a one-shot mentality. We don't have a second and 12. So, punt coverage is a huge one. The next one is no penalties in the return game. We had seven penalties, four on kick returns and like three on punt returns, whether it be running into the punter, a block in the back, or a hold. And those things right there just set you back 10 to 15 yards depending on the call, so those are some things we're going to really, really work on this year.

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