Daniel DaPrato (left) and head coach Rob Ash
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Logan Jones' Record-Tying Return Began with Sideline Conversation
10/24/2015 9:35:00 AM | Football
In-game adjustment takes true freshman end zone to end zone
One of the most exciting plays of Montana State's 2015 football season didn't begin when freshman Logan Jones took Portland State's first kickoff of the third quarter near his team's own goal line. It began with a conversation that didn't even involve Jones earlier in the game.
Daniel DaPrato, MSU's mad scientist special teams coordinator whose exuberance in coaching is surpassed only by his brilliance in producing exciting and important plays, had implement kickoff kickoff return designs for Portland State that he thought would result in big plays. "But they're really well coached," he said, and PSU's adjustments thwarted MSU's blocking scheme.
So a conversation with receivers Connor Sullivan and Mitchell Herbert, the two keys to DaPrato's design, communicated to DaPrato that if he thought the play would work to their side it would likely work the other way, as well. "Their communication is what helped us make the adjustment and get the big return."
So on MSU's first possession of the second half began when Logan Jones took Marcus Kinsella's kickoff at the goal line. He moved to his right, and near the 20 received a crushing double-team block from a pair of players more used to tackling, defensive linemen Nate Bignell and Devin Jeffries.
"That was a great block," DaPrato said with a smile.
Jones did the rest, finding the hole created by that block and barely deviating from the path it set. The true freshman from Kalispell Glacier finished the run nearly untouched, 100 yards, from one goal line to the other and into the record books on a line that can never be erased. In college football return yardage is measured only from goal line to goal line, yards accrued in the end zone don't count, so Jones' record will be tied but never broken.
He became the fifth player in Bobcat history to return a kick 100 yards. The last, Shawn Johnson in 2013, also occurred on DaPrato's watch. Jones joins a club that includes Demetrius Crawford (2008), Corey Smith (2003), and Harvey Wylie (1954).
DaPrato said that, after the return, after celebrating with Jones and congratulating Jeffries and Bignell, DaPrato had one task left. "I told Mitch and Connor thanks," he said. "They said, 'We didn't do anything.' But if they wouldn't have shared that information Logan's return might not have happened."
Daniel DaPrato, MSU's mad scientist special teams coordinator whose exuberance in coaching is surpassed only by his brilliance in producing exciting and important plays, had implement kickoff kickoff return designs for Portland State that he thought would result in big plays. "But they're really well coached," he said, and PSU's adjustments thwarted MSU's blocking scheme.
So a conversation with receivers Connor Sullivan and Mitchell Herbert, the two keys to DaPrato's design, communicated to DaPrato that if he thought the play would work to their side it would likely work the other way, as well. "Their communication is what helped us make the adjustment and get the big return."
So on MSU's first possession of the second half began when Logan Jones took Marcus Kinsella's kickoff at the goal line. He moved to his right, and near the 20 received a crushing double-team block from a pair of players more used to tackling, defensive linemen Nate Bignell and Devin Jeffries.
"That was a great block," DaPrato said with a smile.
Jones did the rest, finding the hole created by that block and barely deviating from the path it set. The true freshman from Kalispell Glacier finished the run nearly untouched, 100 yards, from one goal line to the other and into the record books on a line that can never be erased. In college football return yardage is measured only from goal line to goal line, yards accrued in the end zone don't count, so Jones' record will be tied but never broken.
He became the fifth player in Bobcat history to return a kick 100 yards. The last, Shawn Johnson in 2013, also occurred on DaPrato's watch. Jones joins a club that includes Demetrius Crawford (2008), Corey Smith (2003), and Harvey Wylie (1954).
DaPrato said that, after the return, after celebrating with Jones and congratulating Jeffries and Bignell, DaPrato had one task left. "I told Mitch and Connor thanks," he said. "They said, 'We didn't do anything.' But if they wouldn't have shared that information Logan's return might not have happened."
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