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The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

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  • The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

    Check out this stat line from the Players of the Week article:

    Special Teams Players of the Week
    JoseLuis Moreno
    Kicker/Punter
    Minot State

    Moreno had a fantastic day in a 41-28 win over Mary. He was 2-for-2 kicking field goals, hitting a school-record 58-yard field goal to go along with one from 44 yards. He also averaged 42.6 yards per punt on seven attempts with one being downed inside the Mary 20-yard line. One of his punts, which went for 88 yards, tied a school record.

    First of all, how does Minot State come up with a guy named JoseLouis Moreno? Maybe his dad/mother are at the military base there because I can't imagine anyone going to school there on purpose. On a serious note, most of the kicking I've seen so far this season has been atrocious, and at all levels. It's confusing to me because you see high school kids pounding the ball through the uprights like it's nothing, including this young gal who after being named homecoming queen took the field and was responsible for seven of her team's 13 points in an overtime victory. This is worth a few minutes of your time to watch: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/GMA_Day/v...ctory-57800435

  • #2
    Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

    I'm in lockstep with you on this one, as far as kicking in local high schools. Haven't seen one yet that I'd trust from 40, and I've hit six games already this season.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

      Such an important phase.

      If you watch closely there are very few touchbacks at this level. That's such an advantage to have a kicker who can just bury them. It keeps your roster healthier. So many concussions come on kick coverage.

      Kickers take the heat on misses but it isn't always their fault. Lot of moving parts. Snap, hold, kick and blocking.

      In the IUP vs Ashland game we saw IUP blow FGs three different ways ... bad snap, block and miss.

      Those guys don't get much love but they are so important.

      Recall a couple years ago ... we all closed our eyes every time IUP kicked an XP.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

        Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
        Such an important phase.

        If you watch closely there are very few touchbacks at this level. That's such an advantage to have a kicker who can just bury them. It keeps your roster healthier. So many concussions come on kick coverage.

        Kickers take the heat on misses but it isn't always their fault. Lot of moving parts. Snap, hold, kick and blocking.

        In the IUP vs Ashland game we saw IUP blow FGs three different ways ... bad snap, block and miss.

        Those guys don't get much love but they are so important.

        Recall a couple years ago ... we all closed our eyes every time IUP kicked an XP.
        That's why NCAA instituted the new rule this season. Fair catch inside the 25, ball comes out to the 25.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

          Originally posted by Horror Child View Post
          That's why NCAA instituted the new rule this season. Fair catch inside the 25, ball comes out to the 25.
          Valid point ... I just haven't seen much of it. Players and teams are still geared that it's a live ball and it's 'go time' ...

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

            So many programs, the kickers and punters are not coached by an expert. It's often a "football guy" who picks up special-teams assistant along with his other duties. What coaching they do involves the kicking as part of the total play -- coverage, etc. There's very little technical kicking instruction.

            Watch a practice sometime, and you'll see the specialists off in a corner for most of the practice doing their own thing.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

              Originally posted by jrshooter View Post
              So many programs, the kickers and punters are not coached by an expert. It's often a "football guy" who picks up special-teams assistant along with his other duties. What coaching they do involves the kicking as part of the total play -- coverage, etc. There's very little technical kicking instruction.

              Watch a practice sometime, and you'll see the specialists off in a corner for most of the practice doing their own thing.
              You raise a good point. How many DII programs in particular can afford to have a kicking specialist standing around. I guess they figure the day-to-day work to get better is on the kicker, and I'm guessing many seek some outside help on their own. That would be a heck of a niche if you knew something about kicking. You could travel around the country and work with college and high school kickers.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

                Originally posted by EyeoftheHawk View Post
                You raise a good point. How many DII programs in particular can afford to have a kicking specialist standing around. I guess they figure the day-to-day work to get better is on the kicker, and I'm guessing many seek some outside help on their own. That would be a heck of a niche if you knew something about kicking. You could travel around the country and work with college and high school kickers.
                Oh, it is quite the cottage industry. Story is five years old, as true now as then.

                https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...ickers/278908/

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                • #9
                  Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

                  Place kickers are the most undervalued position on the team, IMO.
                  But, a coach sure hopes he has someone reliable with 30 seconds left in the game, the ball on the 25, and you're down by 1. Yet so many coaches don't recruit kickers (or punters) don't give them scholarships and treat them as second class players.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
                    Valid point ... I just haven't seen much of it. Players and teams are still geared that it's a live ball and it's 'go time' ...

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead



                      Just think of the amount of games won and lost in the kicking game. It's an absurd number.

                      When you factor in coverage, return, FG/XP, ... even having that kicker who can bury the ball in the endzone is such a huge factor.

                      Recall a year ago IUP's kickoff coverage wanted to be the boom squad and took about 2 personal fouls a game.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: The Kicking Game Isn't Totally Dead

                        Originally posted by VulCanDoIt View Post
                        Place kickers are the most undervalued position on the team, IMO.
                        But, a coach sure hopes he has someone reliable with 30 seconds left in the game, the ball on the 25, and you're down by 1. Yet so many coaches don't recruit kickers (or punters) don't give them scholarships and treat them as second class players.
                        ESU's kicker is battle-tested...

                        K Jordan Walters - Paratrooper with 82nd Airborne in U.S. Army, serving from September 2013 through January 2017 ... tour of duty in Iraq from February-September 2015 ... stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. during his contract ... performed 22 jumps with 82nd Airborne...

                        No one on the ESU staff considers him to be anything but a Warrior...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post
                          Just think of the amount of games won and lost in the kicking game. It's an absurd number.

                          When you factor in coverage, return, FG/XP, ... even having that kicker who can bury the ball in the endzone is such a huge factor.

                          Recall a year ago IUP's kickoff coverage wanted to be the boom squad and took about 2 personal fouls a game.

                          Comment

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