HartAttack20

January 16th, 2011 at 8:15 PM ^

It says he was the punter in the Army game. I'm hoping he plays both kicker and punter, otherwise I'm not too excited over this.

 

EDIT: Based off of the highlight shown above, it looks like he does in fact play both positions. It also looks like he has quite the leg.

Yostal

January 16th, 2011 at 9:20 PM ^

This actually brings me to an insane plan I had in the wake of the Hagerup suspension:

Provided Tate gets back into the good graces of academia and is reinstated to the team, I think he should get some practice as a punter.  Then, you have him in as a punter in "pooch situations" where it could be the incredibly surprising pooch punt, but then again maybe, just maybe, hey quarterback who can run.

Is this hypercrazy?  Or just regular grade crazy?

jg2112

January 16th, 2011 at 8:21 PM ^

Glad you don't believe in players ever getting better. I suppose you never thought Denard could become a functioning QB either.

Don't forget one rather huge point - you can't get better without game experience. Neither Gibbons nor Broekhuizen had enough attempts last year to truly get the opportunity to improve their game. 14 attempts in 12 games, with those split up? How in the world do we expect guys to get better if they don't get the chance to work on their craft?

I suspect that if those guys practice taking 100 kicks a day from now until September that they JUST MIGHT be better at kicking field goals. Just e-pinion.

JBE

January 16th, 2011 at 8:25 PM ^

I think I saw something along the lines of Hoke getting a coach to coach ST only.  If that is the case I would imagine either Gibbons or Broekhuizen or both would improve.  This guy may just be a backup or security blanket, which I really don't mind if we use a scholarship on another kicker at this point.  

jg2112

January 16th, 2011 at 8:30 PM ^

I completely agree, last year Hoke had a TE/ST coach, but a dedicated ST coach is fine by me. I would have no problem with having one scholarship used a year on kicking - it is SUCH an important component of the game, and teams neglect it to their detriment.

macdaddy

January 16th, 2011 at 8:35 PM ^

I don't believe it, in fact I hope it's true. We just didn't see much through the season last year. It's a Catch-22. The reason why they didn't get more game experience is that they didn't kick well in spite of apparently kicking very well in practice. Another kicker surely won't hurt.

wvgoblue

January 16th, 2011 at 8:15 PM ^

as long as he's good from 25yds+ better than nothing!  Lord knows how things could have went if we could have scored some of those field goals....

GoBlueX2

January 16th, 2011 at 8:25 PM ^

are currently speaking to OL Chris Bryant, maybe recently ended though.

 

Also, Illinois OL commit Pat Flavin has been reached by Michigan, Flavin had an offer from SDSU before committing to Illinois.

 

Info per TomVH twitter.