Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial
October 17, 2024
Q: How much of a challenge has it been to have injuries to both your specialists now?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: It's tough to deal with any injury. But the fact of the matter is in this league, that happens. We just got to be prepared for whoever's out there to perform at their best. It's our job to get the guys enough reps in practice to give them enough confidence to go out and execute in the game.
Q: Is there anything that could have been done to prevent (punter) Jamie (Gillan)’s injury?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: No. He just got hurt in practice.
Q: Have you ever had to deal with anything like this where you're trying to bring in guys to work out and constant turnover days before the game?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: I think people would look at it as it's happened a good amount this season. But the fact of the matter is every NFL season I've been part of, those workouts and those injuries happen. We have to stay connected to getting guys ready at multiple positions.
Q: Is there anything you can pinpoint with (kicker) Greg (Joseph) missing the field goals and his struggles in that game?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: The first one, he hit a good ball, but his target line was a little off. Then the second one, he just pulled it.
Q: The next night, (New York Jets kicker) Greg Zuerlein, who you've worked with, had similar troubles. Is that just a, ‘Welcome to the Meadowlands,’ type of a thing or is it technique?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Any outdoor stadium, there's always wind that you have to pay attention to, especially as you get into these months. So, we're not going to make excuses due to the weather. Our objective is always to go out there and make kicks and that's what we need to do. Doesn't matter whether it's a snowy game or anything. When we send out our field goal unit, we got to come out with points.
Q: How much of it is the operation part of that? Not only do you have a pretty new kicker, but you also have a new holder. What was that process like for the last few days?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: That's a fair question. But (punter) Matt (Haack) has held in this league. He's punted in this league and he's held a lot of footballs. So, nothing with the operation. We're not going to make excuses. Again, we got to go out and make the kicks.
Q: How do you think he did in his Giants debut as a punter?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: For showing up later in the week, I thought he did a solid job. I know he wants to have a couple punts back. But I thought he ended up averaging a good ball. Then he hit a really good ball that he needs to bottle that up and keep producing that one. The one outside the numbers with high hang and good distance. I know that's his objective every time and that's a standard that he'll hold himself to and same here.
Q: He's a punter. He's punted in the league, he has a good resume as a punter. So when you get him in, is it a philosophy thing? Is it just, ‘Kick it the way you can.’? Is it, ‘We like to do it this way here?’ You know what I'm saying? Or is his job as a punter to just kick it high and kick it far?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Obviously, as a coach, you want to make the transition into a new system as seamless as possible. It helps when a veteran guy comes in, because he's been in those situations. I've coached against him before, so I had an idea of what type of punts he'd hit. When he got in here, we just talked about, ‘What did you call this?’ and, ‘This is the same as this.’ So, the communication element, you're basically expediting that from my standpoint of just making it simpler for him. Like I said, the experience of knowing what type of punts he hits allowed me and him to have good communication on the sideline.
Q: Does he have to then spend extra time with the coverage guys and everything to be in unison on, ‘This is what I like to do.’ Because once he kicks it, he's not going to be able to tackle somebody else…
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Not as much as you'd think. I think the singular focus for him is hitting a good ball with hang time matching the distance. It doesn't matter what punter it is, we always challenge our punters to hit a hang time that matches the distance. So, for example, if we want to hit a 45-yard punt, we would want more of a 4.5-second hang time or above. If we hit a 50-yard punt, we'd want a 5.0-second hang time or above. That's really what he's focusing on, whether he's punting in the middle, left, right, any territory, that is the singular objective. Then our coverage, they got to cover the ball wherever it's at (laughs). We just got to have good fundamentals in terms of that.
Q: Did you know Matt (Haack) before lunch on Saturday, I guess? Or whenever it was?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: (laughs) I spoke to him pregame a couple times, but not enough to say that we were buddies or anything. But from my brief time with him… Again, you bring in a guy like that, he's a true pro. He understands the way this league operates. Everything that we've asked of him, he's came in and tried to do it to the best of his ability.
Q: Just to get back to Greg (Joseph) for a second, he struggled a little bit with those kicks. Does that give you pause at all when you're in a situation and (Head Coach) Dabs (Brian Daboll) says, ‘What do you think? Should we kick it? Can we kick it from here?’
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Before that point, obviously Greg (Joseph) had a little bit of success and he's had success in his career. He holds himself to a high standard and I hold him to that standard as well. He knows he wanted to make those kicks. The true pro in him, because he's such an awesome pro, he will evaluate the film and then he'll be very intentional and deliberate with his practice habits of making certain that doesn't happen again. His objective, and I'm telling you just because he is a true pro and he's had good percentage across the league, he wants to consistently make kicks regardless of where it's at on the field. It could be a chip shot, it could be a 60-yarder. He knows when he's out there, his singular focus is to make that kick.
Q: You've had some interesting injury situations with your specialists this year, but I’m not sure anyone could truly prepare, although you probably will, for what happened with Chicago with their long snapper. Just curious from afar, when you see something like that, do you come into this week and say, ‘You know what, if we had this amount of time getting extra long snappers ready, we're going to go that much further,’ knowing that they were essentially down to their third long snapper in that game?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Every week we do practice that. We practice all the flex positions and we make certain that we have a couple options there. This is not necessarily a reminder to do it, because we do it every week. But a good opportunity to show the guys this is why we do it. This is why we practice every week, because there's opportunities that Chicago was in that that guy had to go in and execute and he obviously did a nice job. Moreso a good reminder for the players like, ‘Yeah, this is why I have to stay connected to it.’
Q: Who is your back-up long snapper?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: Respectfully, I just want to keep that with us because it affects other positions and how we would move guys around.
Q: I don't respect that.
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: (laughs) I promise you, we do. You guys will probably take a look and see today or see yesterday or something.
Q: What happened with you having to call the timeout on the punt coverage there, did you have 12 men on the field?
MICHAEL GHOBRIAL: There was a confusion of what personnel was out there. That's on me. I got to make sure the right personnel is out there to where we're always having 11 on the field. It starts with me.
