I'm not so sure that Russell isn't a better special teams coach than most of us think. Our special team woes were primarily centered around two poor kickers, our punter and our placekicker...a couple of highly-touted recruits who appear to be head cases. I think a ST coach has more influence on things like coverage, blocking, etc. We weren't bad in those areas. In fact, kick and punt coverage was probably as good as it has been in several years for much of the season.
That said, I'm not sad to see him go.
Coverage teams were good, but all other areas were terrible. The kickers may even be regressing, and it was obvious that our best kick returner is having his natural instincts coached out of him. He went from being a threat on every return to being completely harmless in less than a season.
