The photo of Luke Huard is from two decades ago, since our photo archives don’t have anything more recent. Huard isn’t a coordinator. He is the inside receiver coach for the Trojans. Yet, on a staff with no set-aside special teams coordinator, the various coaches all have opportunities to develop players as special teams performers.
Huard has helped Zachariah Branch in the art of punt returning, as Branch himself explained to 247Sports:
“I give all the credit to Coach (Luke) Huard,” Branch said. “He did a great job educating me on the facts about punt returns and kickoff returns. There’s way more aspects that you have to kind of look at than just looking at the ball in the air and just go run. So I’m initially looking at how the ball comes off the punter’s foot. I try to see it off his foot, see which way it’s angling so I can get a jump on the ball pretty fast.
“And then once I catch the ball, I kind of pause for a little second just to basically scan the field, see where my blockers are at, trying to see where the leverage of those blocks are at. And then, shoot, once you see that crease, you’ve gotta hit it, because that hole is going to close up fast. Definitely you’ve gotta see the leverage of the blocks and everything. The rest is just instinct.”
Huard has definitely cultivated and refined those instincts.
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