McKnight is something special

DENNIS McKnight is a good special teams coach.

It seems like an obvious statement, but it isn't. It's a revelation.

Everyone says they emphasize special teams. Mostly, this consists of putting a stopwatch on the long snap, coming up with some new punt-protection scheme, running things a few times in a row, making sure there are 11 guys on the field with backups to match.

Everyone in America spends the same amount of time on this stuff. But it's what you do with that time.

McKnight catches stuff. He corrects stuff. He coaches. He coaches special teams the way June Jones coaches offense.

It's a science. Every little detail counts.

"That's how I made it in the league, as a long snapper," he says. "I played special teams for my entire 11 years in the (NFL). I've seen what it does for a team. And some of my best and favorite coaches that I had in the game were special teams coaches. They interacted with the entire team."

This isn't extra with him.

Everyone says they emphasize special teams. Everyone spends about the same amount of time. But McKnight is doing more than counting to 11. He's coaching. He's correcting. He catches every little thing.

» First an NFL assistant coach gets arrested for driving nude -- and not just for driving nude, but driving nude through a fast-food drive-thru! (Frank the Tank voice: "Honey, do you think KFC's still open?") Then there is the story of a backup punter at Northern Colorado allegedly stabbing the starting punter (in his punting leg, of course) -- and let's let the Associated Press story take over from here -- "in what court documents call a jealous attempt to take away Mendoza's starting job."

It's going to be one crazy football season.

» Both UNLV coach Mike Sanford and Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney have made much this week about Hawaii's tremendous home-field advantage due to the fact that visitors find themselves in an exotic, distraction-filled environment, which is a great point, and -- wait a minute, these guys are from LAS VEGAS.

» If I were the UH athletic department right now I would be tossing thousands of tickets in the air, dropping-leaflet style, and calling it "tickets distributed."

» If the Rainbow Wahine take a year off from being a national power will they still feel the love?

» "The only time we talked to BYU is when we were trying to fill our (2006) schedule," Herman Frazier told Dave Reardon this week. "It's an old story."

Um, OK. New story. BYU wants to start a series. I'd be on the phone. But you know, maybe that's just me.

Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com