Chad Wilt, Keith Bhonapha looking to develop deep, reliable Michigan State special teams room
East Lansing, Mich. – All of a sudden, Michigan State has found itself in what running backs coach and co-special teams coordinator Keith Bhonapha described as “the big separator week” of fall camp.
With the Spartans’ first fall scrimmage scheduled for Saturday, the staff’s process of closely evaluating each player on the roster will soon reach a defining checkpoint. Each phase of Michigan State’s operation will be put to the test during the scrimmage, including special teams.
For Bhonapha and fellow special teams coordinator Chad Wilt, they want to see the same level of consistency and dependability from special teams players that they demand from other position groups.
“I just think, overall, when it comes to special teams, you’re trying to evaluate talent, evaluate dependability, evaluate consistency and then you’re trying to create depth,” Bhonapha said. “And I think that the main thing that we’re trying to focus on is like, ‘Who are the guys who we can count on, who are going to be those two- to four-phase guys when it comes to special teams?’ The more we can evaluate talent and create depth, you feel better going through the course of the season.
“I know I keep harping on, ‘It’s going to be a long football season,’ but we’re going to need more than the first 11 guys who run out on Aug. 30. We’re going to need to have guys who we feel comfortable with, who can patch in and fill in. And they won’t be our main guys, it’s going to be the guys who are, right now, being given looks, and that’s what we’re trying to build: dependable depth.”
Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith hired Wilt as rush ends coach and co-special teams coordinator on Jan. 4. Less than a week later, he added special teams coordinator duties to Bhonapha’s job title.
Both Bhonapha and Wilt coached special teams before they arrived at Michigan State. Bhonapha accumulated five years of special teams experience during his time at Hawaii, Washington and Boise State. Wilt, meanwhile, coached special teams for seven seasons at Virginia, Liberty and Central Connecticut State.
At Michigan State, Wilt handles the coverage unit – which he described as the defensive side of the special teams operation – while Bhonapha oversees the return game, which reflects his offensive background.
Bhonapha has enjoyed bouncing ideas off of Wilt during their short time together in East Lansing.
“Anytime you can have multiple right minds and smart minds who can give input and give you some version of a checks and balances system and hopefully watch each others’ blindspots, that’s really the benefit,” Bhonapha said. “I think sometimes you can get into your hole and think you have all the answers, and then, next thing you know, you’re looking up like, ‘That didn’t make sense.’ But you want that. You want to have those conversations of intellectual honesty when you’re trying to take the next step as a group, which is all better for the Spartans anyway.”
There are still moments where Wilt and Bhonapha – along with Michigan State’s special teams support staff – work together, too.
“We still come together, we still meet,” Wilt said. “We have a staff of analysts and support staff where we’re putting the whole thing together as a staff, but, yeah, those guys kind of lean toward more of the returns and I’m more coverage, which helps us divide our time still between offensive and defensive responsibilities.”
With their individual responsibilities – and a vision for the entire operation – in mind, Wilt and Bhonapha hope to see the special teams unit take several positive steps during Saturday’s scrimmage. Ultimately, Saturday’s results will help coaches formulate a depth chart heading into the season.
“I think it’s really (about) starting to stack the roster,” Wilt said of Saturday’s scrimmage. “Like, ‘Who’s where on every phase, offense, defense, kicking game?’ Starting to stack the roster of, ‘OK, who can we trust? Who’s going to, in a moment when there’s a little bit of heat and competition, who’s going to rise, who’s going to go down, who’s going to respond to the moment, who’s the moment maybe going to be a little too big for, even in a scrimmage?’ So I think it’s really an evaluation time right now.”
“We know the concepts, we know what the schemes are, so we’re seeing, ‘OK, who’s out there making plays?’” Bhonapha said. “And I don’t think you judge it all on Saturday. I think you’re like, ‘OK, this guy has been making plays over the course of these nine to 10 practices.’ That’s really more how we look at it.”
For as much as Michigan State has to improve upon from a special teams perspective after last season’s disastrous finish, Wilt and Bhonapha know they at least have two specialists that they can count on heading into the fall: Redshirt sophomore punter Ryan Eckley and sixth-year kicker Jonathan Kim.
Eckley earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors last season after ranking second in the conference and eighth in the nation with a 46.8-yard punting average. Kim earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honors in his first season as primary placekicker. Both return this fall looking to build upon their success from last season.
“Overall, just a couple of young men who are very intentional about the work, very intentional about the process,” Wilt said of Eckley and Kim. “As you look at who they are, they’re just very focused young men. I think they are also young men where they come out everyday with an intent and goal of, ‘I’m going to get better at this.’
“You go out to a practice everyday like, ‘I have to get better at my takeoff, I have to get better with my hands, I have to get better with how I bend, how I move, the C-gap.’ You’re working all of those things, right? But part of that process of building is, ‘I’m going to walk off this field today knowing I was better at X, Y or Z.’ And you choose that. But those are young men who walk out like, ‘I’m going to work on this fundamental today and be better when I walk out of there than when I walked in.’”
Wilt and Bhonapha feel confident in their kicking unit with Kim as the placekicker and Eckley as the holder. Now it’s up to transfer addition Kaden Schickel to build chemistry with them and emerge as a reliable option at long snapper.
Schickel, a redshirt junior, transferred to Michigan State after three seasons at James Madison. He beat out Drew Wilson, who joined the program ahead of last season after two years at Long Beach (Calif.) Community College, for the starting long snapper job this spring.
Wilson entered the transfer portal following spring practice, leaving Schickel as the only long snapper on the roster, until Jack Carson Wentz transferred into the program in June after spending last season at West Georgia.
Schickel still projects as the starter coming out of fall camp. After enduring a troubling level of inconsistency from the long snapping position in 2023, Michigan State appears to have found another reliable long snapping option in Schickel. He has spent the summer getting acclimated with Kim and Eckley as members of the kicking operation.
“I think we’re looking at a very consistent battery of Kaden Schickel as the long snapper, but Eckley has done a great job of holding,” Wilt said. “We have another little group of guys who have been staying ready, but that battery from last year of Eckley and Kim, they’re very comfortable with each other.”
As for kickoff and punt returners, Michigan State has a few options with prior experience at the positions. Alante Brown and Montorie Foster, two redshirt senior wide receivers, have both returned for the Spartans in years past. Wilt and Bhonapha enjoy having two proven pieces at their disposal, but they’re working out a handful of other players at the position as well.
“I think that does bring comfort,” Bhonapha said of having Foster and Brown in the room. “It gives you an opportunity to feel like, ‘OK, at least these guys can do it.’ I think when it comes to where college football is at, I go back to the ability to build depth. I think we have guys on top of Montorie and Alante who are back there working. Like I said, I’m just excited to get these guys going to see what they do Saturday.”
“There are certainly good young men back there, obviously,” Wilt said. “Alante – Cadillac – has done a great job back there and has been consistent. And then we’re just trying to find some other young men who are ready for this moment. I think there’s a group of guys who we keep attacking, keep evaluating.”
Wilt and Bhonapha plan to test their returners during Saturday’s scrimmage to help solidify a depth chart at the position.
“I’ll have a better idea on Saturday because we’re going to do a little bit more of that,” Bhonapha said. “A lot of the stuff has been getting the chemistry and the frontline stuff together. Today (Thursday) was really the first day, from a kickoff return standpoint, where we were able to get the scout team guys going. We felt pretty good about where we are with our drill work and our fundamentals when it came to that, but come Saturday, I think we’ll have a better idea.”
Michigan State co-special teams coordinators Chad Wilt and Keith Bhonapha – Nick King, USA TODAY Sports
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