Frank Gansz has coached for 37 years, including 24 in the NFL (photo by SMU athletics).

For all of the talk and expectations surrounding the offense new head coach June Jones is bringing to SMU — and based on his track record, there’s good reason for the hype — there’s a very real possibility that no newcomer will have as significant an immediate impact as special teams coach Frank Gansz.

Gansz is considered perhaps the world’s leading special teams expert at any level of football. A 37-year coaching veteran — including 24 seasons coaching in the NFL — Gansz immediately established a commanding presence at SMU practices this spring, putting his charges through tackling and blocking drills while barking instructions through a public address system connected to a microphone attached to his headset.

Gansz last coached in 2001, when he was special teams coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He has had offers since then to return to coaching, at the collegiate and professional levels, but eschewed those opportunities in favor of additional time in his dual roles as father and grandfather. The fact that he returned to coaching at all speaks volumes about the depth of his relationship with SMU head coach June Jones.

“June and I worked together first with the Detroit Lions, in 1989, on the staff (Detroit head coach) Wayne Fontes put together,” Gansz said. “If you can’t get along with June, you can’t get along with anybody. He’d come in my (special teams) meetings, even though he didn’t work with special teams, but he came in and listened. Then he went to Atlanta and wanted to hire me. The Lions didn’t release me to go with him, but the fact that he tried to get me to Atlanta like he did was something I deeply appreciated. June and I have a very special relationship, but that made me admire him even more than I already did.

“If it hadn’t been June who called … we have a pretty rare relationship. He asked me to come to Hawaii a couple of times, and I just couldn’t do it at the time, but June is very special to me. I think, in a way, we’re kindred spirits. We have a lot of the same beliefs and principles and thoughts about things should be done.”

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT SPECIAL TEAMS?

Gansz acknowledges that coaching special teams is a little different from coaching offense or defense, because of the need for a consistent message in order to bring about performances from players who don’t have the benefit of a complete possession to impact games.

“It’s a process of constant communication,” he said. “You can’t be up and down with the guys — you have to stay consistent. When something goes wrong, you have to be able to identify the problem quickly, find a solution and convey that solution to the players. You almost have to re-introduce them to the ideas of what makes them successful. It’s about the team — it’s not about you, it’s not about me. You have to have team success as a priority over personal success. Unless you’re the kicker or punter or the returner, you’re doing something extra for the team.

“Everyone has to take on the team-first mentality. They have to learn to ask ‘what does the team need from me to reach its full potential?’ You have to look for every opportunity to gain an edge. When I was in Detroit, we had a return game we thought was pretty good, with Mel Gray. With other teams, we’ve gone after kicks more. But everywhere I’ve been, we’ve had pretty good special teams, and in Kansas City, we were a playoff team. In Detroit, we were a playoff team. The St. Louis Rams — we were a playoff team.”

Gansz even suggested that because of the one-and-out nature of special teams plays, their importance to the outcome of games can not be underscored.

Gansz says of special teams: "... if you don’t try to gain an advantage, you’re giving an advantage to the other team." (photo by Webmaster).

“Special teams are really key to the outcome of games,” Gansz said. “On special teams, it’s one play and out, so if you don’t try to gain an advantage, you’re giving an advantage to the other team. If you don’t handle the ball well, if you don’t block well, if you don’t tackle well, if you don’t kick field goals well — you can hand them the game.”

SMU — A ‘SPECIAL’ PLACE

Gansz does not have a specific geographic region for recruiting (he did recruit former Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick for the Naval Academy, although he didn't get him); instead, he said, he acts at the discretion of Jones, if the Mustangs’ coach wants his special teams guru to get involved in a particular recruiting relationship. Recruiting to SMU, even with its academic reputation, is not difficult for a man who can speak first-hand about what it takes for players to achieve their career goals — a path that likely will include some time on Gansz’ special teams.

“I’ve been to the NFL, and I have a Super Bowl ring,” he said. “Where does every high school player want to go? To the NFL. Unless you’re a quarterback or an offensive lineman, or a talent like Barry Sanders, they’re all going to have to contribute on special teams. Some of my best players on special teams, for example, have been defensive linemen: Kelvin Pritchett, Marc Spindler — guys like that.”

It also helps that he has had relationships with a number of players and coaches throughout his career who have had strong feelings about SMU. Because of those relationships, Gansz said, had arrived in Dallas with a strong sense of the football tradition on the Hilltop.

“I coached Jerry Ball in Detroit,” Gansz said. “I worked for Forrest Gregg in Cincinnati and Raymond Berry in Detroit, and coached Harvey Armstrong with the Philadelphia Eagles — I’ve known for a long time what a great tradition SMU has.”

Gansz even admitted he has a warm spot in his heart for a former employer who couldn’t hide his affinity for SMU — former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt — even though their personal relationship extended well after their professional relationship had ended.

“I worked for Lamar Hunt when I coached the Chiefs,” Gansz said. “He’s one of my favorite people I’ve ever worked with … and he fired me as head coach in Kansas City, but he had no choice. He was a very classy man, and he spoke very fondly of SMU.

“I knew what a special place this was, long before I got here.”

SIMPLY THE BEST

Gansz no longer has to rely on the testimonials of past players and coaches. He’s a fixture in the SMU football office and on the practice field. He’s already planning for opponents, because he knows that his reputation precedes him, and that the Ponies’ 2008 opponents already are preparing for the Mustangs — and, specifically, for him. Rarely will a coach acknowledge that he might be part of an opposing coaching staff’s preparation, but when a coach has a résumé as impressive as the one Gansz has compiled, it’s not cocky to realize that modesty sometimes needs to step aside for a little dose of reality.

“We know they’ll be ready for us, and they’re going to play their starters on special teams,” Gansz said. “I’m not trying to be egotistical about this, but it’s because I’m here. Teams will know we’re going to play well on special teams.”

Gansz said only June Jones could have talked him out of retirement. "We're kindred spirits," he said (photo by Webmaster).

Gansz said that respect his units garner from opponents only reflects the exceptional performances he demands from his teams — performances he can expect only because they’re exactly what he expects from himself.

“You have to be into every game,” he said. “You can’t do this for as many years as I have and not take every game seriously — it’s a tough business.”

Because he allows himself nothing short of excellence, he makes no bones about demanding the same from his players.

“You have to be on the razor’s edge of performance,” Gansz said. “No excuses, no alibis — if you’re not ready, you’re going to get your [rear ends] kicked.

“People say ‘top 25’ around here, but I don’t see things that way. I want us to be No. 1 in what we do. It may take a while, but there’s no compromise, no alibi. That’s the objective, and it will pay dividends if we have the right attitude — that’s the fun in all this.”