Confidence bottomed out for many players on the Pitt roster throughout the course of a 3-9 season last fall and that can be said for punter Caleb Junko more so than anyone.
Junko started off promising, but Pitt’s punt game became an area of concern midway through the year. It came to a head when he averaged 35.3 yards per punt against Wake Forest and his final punt of the day with the Panthers leading by three points and less than 40 seconds to play traveled only 32 yards to Pitt’s 48-yard line. It set up a Wake Forest game-winning drive.
It’s safe to say that Junko was drained and searching for answers.
“After last season, I lost it and even during the season I didn’t have too much confidence in myself,” Junko said. “That’s one of the biggest things for a punter and kicker is you need to have confidence in yourself, and I didn’t really do my job last year and giving the defense good position and bailing the offense out, so I kind of lost confidence in myself.”
Entering his fourth season with the Panthers, Junko needed a psyche shakeup and in came special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski.
Priority No. 1 for Bronowski was to get Junko’s mind right.
“Overall confidence in myself, he helped re-instill that,” Junko said.
The energy that Bronowski has infused since joining the program has immensely helped Junko.
“When coach (Bronowski) came in here, he really lit a fire under everyone’s butt to show that special teams are one of the most important aspects of football, so now everyone is taking it seriously, really learning fundamentals, we really started over with everything. I feel more confident back there and comfortable than I ever have.”
It was of high importance for Bronowski to help build Junko’s state of mind back up because he knows his starting punter has untapped potential.
“He’s special,” Bronowski said. “When you watch him punt, he has tremendous leg speed. From there, it’s just getting him to see that in himself and a big piece of that is his consistency. We minimize the things and thoughts in his mind to two or three things that then he can go out there and grind on those one or two things.”
Part of Bronowski’s approach was helping Junko understand his purpose on the field.
“Last year, there were some ebbs and flows. This offseason was like, let’s get some conviction behind what you’re doing, understand the whys behind what you’re doing all the time and that consistency’s going to come. With that, comes confidence and that’s what we’re really starting to see with him.”
Throughout fall camp, the Akron, Ohio has received high praise, and it has been backed up by his reps that have included a 44-yard average and a 5.0-plus second hang time.
“He’s had a phenomenal camp. Coach (Bronowski), I give him the credit, he’s gotten his mind right during the summer,” head coach Pat Narduzzi said.
The confidence and mechanics have improved this offseason and that can be partially attributed to a punting camp he attended this summer in Orlando.
Junko worked with Adam Tanalski, who owns and operates Hammer Kicking Academy. The punter worked with Tanalski’s staff for a week and competed against specialists from around the country.
Based on hangtime, distance and good field positioning, Junko won the invite-only college camp competition.
“It was really cool competing against some of the biggest legs in college and showing that I can match them and beat them. It was a really cool experience, I’d love to do it again,” Junko said.
Since returning, Narduzzi has seen a noticeable change in Junko’s mechanics and confidence.
“He went down to a kicking competition this summer and that helped him a lot,” Narduzzi said. “He came back with a lot of confidence. He’s just consistent. His stance is different, his drop is different and it’s all in the drop, how you drop that ball.”
As Bronowski has helped shape Junko’s mind, the kicking camp was the type of result he needed to further his confidence.
“I think when he came back from that it was, ‘OK, I can be special at this,” Bronowski said. “I’m proud of him because that’s the work that he’s put in.”
With each punt, Bronowski wants Junko to look at it in a certain light, almost as if you are focused in on hitting a golf ball.
“When you go out there, it’s no different than golf,” Bronowski said. “When you go out there thinking about 100 different things, good luck actually doing the one thing you’re supposed to do and hit a pure shot. On game day, I’m going to put those guys in situations to be successful in handling the wind and different things like that and our different sets that we can do so that way they can go out there and have most confidence known to man and they can go do their job.”
When Junko thinks about Bronowski’s comparison, he links it to one thought.
“Telling myself one phrase out there, just be smooth,” Junko said. “At the end of the day, that’s all a punter can do is be smooth. As long as I stay smooth, all the pieces click together. I’ve been doing it so long that once you get into that flow, everything just works.”
For Junko, he’s not as worried about all the metrics that can be traced as a punter. It’s more about setting up his team to be successful.
“Giving the defense good field position,” he said. “If I can get the ball inside the 20 every time and they got to drive at least 80 yards, that’s a win in my book. As much as I love hitting that 60-yard, 5.33, realistically it’s not going to be that every time, so hitting consistent A and B ball mixture, not hitting a 60-yard ball and then a 10-yard ball. It’s hitting a 45, 43 just in that range every single time and then you can be the best punter in the country.”
