Read the full transcript from STC Chris Tabor's media availability on November 5, 2026.

I wanted to ask you about Kaytron Allen. The long punt return, I saw him come from the left side of the field, makes the big hit, then the other punt return, maybe he is unblocked and he just makes a beeline. What have you seen from him, and what was his special teams background?

Chris Tabor: Really not a lot of special teams background at all. This was his second game playing I think ever in special teams. I know he had probably a little bit of preseason, but did a nice job. I saw an improvement from Game 1 to Game 2, which is what I think we always talk about. So real pleased with him and hopefully we can continue to get him better as he's learning what special teams is about and all those things. Obviously he was a great running back at Penn State.

What are some of the areas where you can find someone like that, you said doesn't have the experience on special teams, but you can see and find some value in, he might have some of the traits we're looking for?

Chris Tabor: Well he has to, right? Just from the standpoint, just wherever you're at in the roster, I mean, think about it; if you're the third running back, you have to have value as a special teams player. I think really he's been very willing and is doing a nice job. You can kind of see as we're going through that he's learning it, right? There's still going to be some experiences that are going to happen, maybe some hopefully more good than bad, but he's developing. So he's understanding that value.

Jaylen Wright had another kick return where it was like this close to breaking. Just what has he done well from the kick return standpoint?

Chris Tabor: I was real pleased with him last week. We really worked hard last week of just trying to get to the spot, right? Beat the ball to the spot and not let it hit the ground, whereas the previous weeks, we had a couple of those. And last week, he did a beautiful job of fielding all of them, so I was really proud. I know that sounds not like a big deal, but it is a big deal just with regards – kickoff return, it's an offensive play, and offensive plays are based on timing and spacing. For him to handle the ball in the air and all those things, I was just real pleased with him. I love what he's doing. He's a good football player and it's a great skill set for this new dynamic kickoff.

Could I ask you about Zane's 42-yard miss, what happened on that play?

Chris Tabor: Sometimes those are operational things. Obviously he knows he needs to make those, but it always goes a little deeper than that.

I wanted to ask about the onside kick at the end of the game. Was there any thought given to just kicking it for a touchback?

Chris Tabor: No.

Obviously being an NFL kicker is a very stressful job. Except for the ones who have great job security, it's almost kind of week to week. But it's a unique circumstance with Zane this week in the sense that it would be the final of the elevations. The team has to make a decision on him after this weekend. How do you approach him from a psychological standpoint? Do you just let him deal with that on his own? Do you worry about that creeping into his brain and creating an extra level of stress, or you just don't say anything to him?

Chris Tabor: No, we don't – I'll be honest with you. Thank you for bringing that up, that doesn't even cross my mind. I mean, we're on a one game – we're just worried about the process. He kicked yesterday, did a nice job. Today, it's what we call just Jiffy Lube, just doing stuff without a football, but still working mechanics. And then tomorrow we'll go in the stadium and kick, and then that hopefully sets us up to have a good game on Sunday. I understand about the three elevations, that's above my pay grade on all those things. I got a lot of confidence in Zane. He just came back, right, so we're still working out some of the kinks. Believe it or not, you just don't show up and then just start making everything. You want to, but if you miss one, there's other things that go into it.

I wanted to ask you about Seydou. He's on pace for around 350 special teams snaps this year. How has he progressed and what is it about his skillset that makes him a good four phase guy?

Chris Tabor: He's really, he's gotten better each week. He's a guy that, once again, has not played a lot of special teams and he's getting a lot of snaps and you're seeing him, I'd say that his arrow's up. He has strong hands, he's athletic and can move. And then he's an offensive player, so I think when we're in the offensive world of the punt returns and the kick returns, he can grasp those concepts a little faster. The coverage areas, which is a defensive play, that's where he's growing. We're working on – he's getting there, but we got to continue to work on finishing to the ball carrier. But I love his progress and where he's going. He's growing fast and I've been real pleased with him. I'll tell you the one thing that if you just watch him, his physicality, I've been really impressed with his physicality and nothing fazes him. I mean, he just plays and he's a lot of fun to coach.

I was talking to Bradley Pinion about punting. He was telling me he's got eight different punts that he has in his arsenal. And I was saying, I guess it's like golf, it depends on how you hit the ball. And he said, no, it's mostly on how you drop it. I see you during practice, you're walking with him and you're snapping. Is that what he's doing at that time?

Chris Tabor: Yeah, we're working some things. We're working obviously just setting the ball out on the table. We're trying to fix the laces quickly, all those type of things, and then just some of the footwork. But no, really today's punter, they do, they have a lot of different kicks. I think that's probably a credit to really a lot of Australian guys coming over in college football. They've kind of revamped what I would say an American punter has done.

How much do you coach him on that kind of stuff, the directional kicks? And before he punts, do you guys go over, we want this one to die here?

Chris Tabor: Oh yeah, no, we talk about it. I'm the catcher, right, and he's the pitcher. So we're talking about what pitches we're going to throw. It could be based on the animal that's back there that we got to cover. It could be based on wind, weather, where we're at on the field, all those type of things and what we're trying to accomplish. And sometimes there's other things that maybe that are happening on the inside core that maybe you have to hide or protect or those things. So there's a lot of things that go into it.

This is random and weird, but if you had to replace one of these positions every three weeks for an entire season, what would be the one you would pick – snapper, holder, kicker, punter?

Chris Tabor: Oh wow, you just went catcher, pitcher, centerfielder. You went right down the middle.

That'd be six guys, right? So would you go with six punters, six kickers, six snappers, or six holders?

Chris Tabor: It is a very random question, and here's what I'd say to you. Obviously, you want to have some continuity as best you can, and sometimes you don't always have that luxury at the moment. But those positions, they all have to work together. For example, if the laces are off on a snap, the holder has to fix it, right, so that the kicker can address the football and then get the best opportunity for it. It's a windy day and now the snap is fine, but the holder, he has to manipulate the football to help guide the football and make sure it stays straight. There's a lot of things that go into it, so it's a unit. I'm truly dodging your question.

I would go snapper.

Chris Tabor: I would not. No, because I'll say this, like when you go into the snapper world and you start rotating snappers, you're opening Pandora's box. Just because there's a lot of the – think about this, college snappers, they don't protect. They snap, they go down the field. In the NFL, they got to snap and protect and it's a totally different animal when you think about putting a defensive end over your guy who's interested in rushing the passer and does it for a living, now he's on your long snapper. So there's a lot of different things, but that's an interesting but good random question.

I'm wondering if you saw the Minnesota-Indiana game, the back-to-back 60-yard field goals.

Chris Tabor: I did.

Will that trickle up to the NFL? I know that one of them, the second one, was to tie the game at the end, and maybe you don't attempt that in the first quarter. But will that trickle up?

Chris Tabor: I say it, the kickers and punters are getting better and better. I think we talked about it a few weeks ago, it's probably the only position that people want to penalize them for. I mean, if we keep seeing 60-yard field goals, someone's probably going to suggest that we should shrink the field goals. I'm just, I'm throwing – I hope it's not in my lifetime, but it's on its way probably.

The team's going against the NFL's top rank offense. So how critical is it for the three phases to work cohesively, complementary football, and what is one thing you've been stressing to your group?

Chris Tabor: No, it's big. I mean, obviously when you have the No. 1 offense, our job is to handle field position, right? The longer that you can make them drive a longer field, obviously, the more opportunity, hopefully, that they somewhere make a mistake along the way, right? So we got to do a good job in our coverage units. I think obviously we've still been a work in progress, but I'm seeing things that we're hopefully trending in the right way. But this is, once again, I know broken record, this will be another big challenge for us. I mean, you talked about Jaylen Wright at kick return, they're fifth in the league in kickoff coverage. They do a really good job and their specialists are really good at pinning the ball on the sidelines and all those things, so we've got our work cut out for us so that hopefully we can help field position and help that area right there.

I know one guy who contributes to that is Jack Fox. What makes him an effective punter, and what do you want Malik keeping in mind back there?

Chris Tabor: I think he's probably, in my opinion, to what we face and no slight to anyone else, but he's probably one of the most consistent guys with hang and distance. He's what I would say big time ratio punter. So if the ball's 47 yards, he's a minimum at 4.7 (seconds) already. They got two really good gunners on the outside that can run, so he's able to feed the ball to those returners right there. He has great control. He'll hit some over 5 second hangs. He has the ability to take away people just by the way he punts the ball, so got our work cut out for us. And once again, obviously, if we can limit some field position, then if he does hit bombs, you're stretching the field and maybe give yourself an opportunity. But they do a really good job in coverage. They don't give up much and we've got our work cut out.

How is Kyle Louis' growth as a gunner? I've noticed him on that first punt, the long one, and that Schooler pushed him out of bounds, and then he got walled off.

Chris Tabor: He got walled off, and he was there. There's just one more coaching point to the end of that, that's his play and to limit that. Actually, a couple guys had the opportunity. Marcus obviously just kind of outran us.

Did Zayne not trust the footing on the wet field? It looked like Zayne Anderson was there too and it looked like he kind of maybe pulled up that he didn't trust his footing or something?

Chris Tabor: We were there and that's where we have to do a better job, all of us collectively – coaching, playing – of finishing on the ball carrier. But yes, going back to your question with regard to Kyle, did he get better? He did. So that's encouraging. It's like anything, right? The more you play, the better hopefully you're getting.