Kicking game upgrade
The only thing I am disappointed with the game today (obvi turnovers, a win, etc but this is a young team and I expected Iowa to win), is the kicking game. 2 kickoffs out of bounds and another missed field goal under 40 yards?? I went to a high school with 600 kids and we still had a kicker that could make a 40 yard field goal. This absolutely boggles my mind that our kicking game is so bad. I honestly think TF wouldn't have pressed quite as much on the last drive if it was a 7 point game instead of a 10. How do we improve this? Does Gibbons do a better job with a second chance? Do we go out to the next soccer game and pick someone up there??
October 16th, 2010 at 6:59 PM ^
How can you not just keep the ball between the sidelines on that last kickoff. That is really a baffling mistake. I cannot understand how that is not the first priority on the kicker's mind at that point.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^
October 16th, 2010 at 8:08 PM ^
UNACCEPTABLE wrong
October 16th, 2010 at 6:59 PM ^
I have to think that kicking a football is harder than it looks, especially in front of 110,000+ people. I'm sure that this will be the team's achilles heel for the season, but I have to believe that maybe we just take for granted good kickers.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:19 PM ^
It seems like the other 119 FBS schools have better kickers than we do.
Of course kicking is hard, but this is a big time program. How in the world are our kickers THIS BAD?
October 16th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
The only thing we seem to kick are my nuts anytime special teams takes the field.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^
two weeks ago and watched the EGR kicker kick the ball into the endzone or the one on every kick. why can't a college kid kick off 5 yards back and have the same results?
October 16th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^
Can Forcier just pooch punt the kickoffs?? SRSLY
October 16th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^
Yea out of bounds twice is ridiculous i can understand the fg since no one on campus can obviously kick a fg.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:18 PM ^
he kicked it out of bounds not once but twice, with the second one costing us the game IMO
October 16th, 2010 at 7:04 PM ^
Kornblue had another kicking camp at Michigan. Hopefully we can find some guys to walk on for us.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:05 PM ^
I was enjoying Canadian University football prior to the M game today on my cable and the kickers here were (accounting for the field size difference) kicking off better.
That's just wrong.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:06 PM ^
That was costly and he did it twice. They have had open tryouts but obviously no one better showed up. Wondering if maybe they kick well in practice and this only happens in games. We just need someone who can kickoff straight and make a mid-range field goal.
October 16th, 2010 at 7:23 PM ^
I'm pretty sure if they had someone better, they'd have been kicking today. And someone needs to touch the damn ball after it's blocked...WTF!
October 16th, 2010 at 7:57 PM ^
Those two kickoffs out of bounds really killed any momentum that we had on d.
October 16th, 2010 at 8:13 PM ^
anyone thought about getting gibsons back to the starting kicker job? I am not sure he's a better place kicker, but he's clearly a better kick off kicker, If you look back the Ucon game, he can constantly kick to the end zone without any problem. I have been wondering why RR don't split the jobs for the kicker.
Our punter is going to be very good, it's probably going to better than Mesko in teh future. When i see him pratice before the game, he can easily punt for 60, even 70 yard. Give him some time, he will be very solid.
October 16th, 2010 at 8:52 PM ^
but there was genuine penetration on the FG block. Which doesn't make it any more sucessful. The FG team is still, what, 2-8?
On the missed FG last week, the snap was horrible, leading to a "misplaced" spot. (The holder #30 did a great job just to get any kind of spot down.) I'm no kicking expert, but I'm guessing that if the spot that you expect to kick from changes by ~4 inches, it makes for a rather difficult attempt from 42 yards out.
So I'm not sure about the FG kicker job, but I certainly think a switch is warrented on kickoffs.
October 17th, 2010 at 1:06 AM ^
If you look back the Ucon game, he can constantly kick to the end zone without any problem.
He can? I remember some kickoffs in that game that were so short, I thought we were squibbing it on purpose.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^
Can we find some 27-year-old former MLS player to take over kicking duties like OSU?
BTW, I thought if you gave up your amateur status you were no longer able to play NCAA sports. Someone care to explain?
October 16th, 2010 at 11:14 PM ^
Illinois had a kicker (peter christofilakos) a few years back who declared early for the draft and went undrafted. He bounced around the arena league for a couple years and ended up playing college soccer for a year or two because he hadn't exhausted his NCAA eligibility.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:06 PM ^
For a dedicated special teams coach.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:59 PM ^
Don't forget the team sitting on the field while Iowa ran back the blocked kick...