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Panthers P
Todd Sauerbrun
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When dishing out annual awards, the common fan might not comb through the roster of a
1-15 team to find candidates. The thinking often is: Who on that team could have been
better than anyone else?
But the Panthers were no ordinary 1-15 team (they lost eight games by six points or
fewer), and their punter, Todd Sauerbrun, was no ordinary punter this season.
Sauerbrun’s extraordinary performance this season has earned him Pro Football
Weekly’s Golden Toe Trophy, awarded annually to the most valuable punter or
placekicker in the NFL.
There never was a doubt about Sauerbrun’s abilities as a punter after he set
several NCAA records at West Virginia, including the career gross-average mark (46.3 yards
per punt). It was simply a matter of finding the proper focus, something he and Panthers
special-teams coach Scott O’Brien set out to do this year.
"I think for somebody like me with a lot of raw talent, (O’Brien) was kind of
like a polisher," Sauerbrun said.
"I think I had some misdirection earlier on in my years in the coaching part of
it, and I think that hurt me in the beginning. It was mostly my fault, but I needed the
coaching, and I didn’t have it."
This season everything fell into place, resulting in his first Pro Bowl selection.
"Todd’s old-school," O’Brien said of Sauerbrun’s work ethic.
"He’s the old gym rat, a guy who’s constantly with a football, doing his
drops. … And that’s kind of refreshing — a guy who hangs out in the
equipment room. When you need to find him, he’s in there with the equipment
guy."
In his previous six seasons in the league (five with Chicago, one with Kansas City),
Sauerbrun never had a standout season like this year. Sauerbrun led the NFL in gross
(47.5) and net (38.9) averages and was one punt shy of the league lead in punts inside the
20-yard line.
Said O’Brien: "He was always known as this cannon leg, and for whatever
reason, he was never able to use it consistently, or he wasn’t very consistent in
using it himself."
While Sauerbrun had the potential to put together an award-winning season, it just
never came together for him. After five seasons with the Bears, Sauerbrun signed with the
Chiefs as an unrestricted free agent prior to the 2000 season. But a change of scenery
didn’t seem to make much of a difference — no major breakthrough.
Sauerbrun hit the road again after the 2000 season, this time signing in Carolina,
where O’Brien would finally solve the puzzle.
But that doesn’t mean the puzzle was simple. O’Brien believed the first big
challenge was to keep Sauerbrun focused, to "keep him channeled" on his goal of
improving.
What made focusing easier for Sauerbrun was O’Brien’s coaching strategy
— he tailored his plan specifically to Sauerbrun.
"Everybody’s different," O’Brien said. "Some specialists are
close (in size and shape); that’s why they look like one another. … But what
you’re looking at are locomotor skills, just modifying and refining Todd’s
techniques to get him to be consistent, and he wasn’t far off. Overall, he has very
good locomotor skills."
Sauerbrun bought into the strategy right away.
"He finds out what’s going to work for you with your body type, because all
punters and kickers are different," Sauerbrun said. "Some are 6-5, and I’m
5-11. So there’s going to be different ways of coaching them, and he knows what
he’s doing. You just trust him and do everything he tells you. Just do whatever he
says, and you’ll be on the right track."
Sauerbrun listened when O’Brien told him of a slight glitch in his delivery that
was causing some inconsistency in his punts.
"The No. 1 emphasis with him was his grip on the ball so he could get a more
consistent drop," O’Brien said. "He just wasn’t doing it the same way
all the time, and that’s where the focus and the energy went, as well as the
training."
When the hard work paid off, and Sauerbrun was selected to the Pro Bowl, there was
relief.
"It was definitely a goal of mine," Sauerbrun said. "I was just a little
aggravated it didn’t come sooner than it did."
But don’t mistake pride for arrogance. Sauerbrun is proud of his role as a
professional punter, and he knows that in order to keep his reputation as a "cannon
leg," he needs to remain in good shape physically and mentally and in good kicking
shape. Despite ranking third in the league with 93 punts this season, it was never a
concern that Sauerbrun would tire down the stretch.
"As far as players and coaches go, you have to be smart on the numbers (players)
deal with during the week so they do stay strong throughout the season," O’Brien
said.
"I think it’s a combination of the structure of the work they have to go
through in the long season, as well as being in pretty good shape physically. Because
it’s a lot different being in physical shape than in kicking shape. … Every time
they hit that ball, that leg explodes. So it’s a combination of both."
So how strong is Sauerbrun?
Said O’Brien: "I think what really separates Todd (from other punters) is, he
is so explosive, he’s so physically strong, that since they implemented the K-ball
structure into special teams, (he’d have to) be an explosive punter to do what he
does."
The NFL implemented the K-ball prior to the ’99 season to prevent teams from
tampering with the footballs by softening them up and making them easier to kick. K-balls,
which haven’t been softened up, are now used in the kicking game to level the playing
field.
O’Brien believes Sauerbrun was in great shape from Day One, and his consistency
was there from the beginning of camp.
"It’s that old cliché of, you either get better or you get worse, you never
stay the same," O’Brien said. "There were times where he might not have
done as well as the day before, but there weren’t very many of those days."
The success Sauerbrun is enjoying is a testament to the fact that he took to
O’Brien’s direction right away and stayed with it. Sauerbrun was hooked from the
start and sings the praises of O’Brien’s leadership.
"I learned more with Scott O’Brien in these five months with the Panthers
than I ever did my entire life," Sauerbrun said. "I was just a sponge, absorbing
whatever he had to tell me."
Now that Sauerbrun has unlocked the door to his own success, there’s nothing
holding him back in his mind.
"I’m just looking to have another repeat next season," Sauerbrun said.
"I feel there’s no reason I shouldn’t be this successful every year."
To see who won the Pro Football Weekly/Professsional Football Writers of America
individual awards for 2001, including Most Valuable Player, and who was voted to the
All-Conference and All-Rookie teams, you can purchase a copy of Vol. XVI, No. 29 (dated
Jan. 28, 2002) of Pro Football Weekly, now on sale at newsstands and bookstores
across the country. Or you can subscribe online to PFW's print
edition, or subscribe by calling 1-800-FOOTBALL (1-800-366-8225) and charging your
subscription to a major credit card. |
