Michigan offers a kicker!

Loftus - great name for a kicker

I'm sorry was there a problem with the kicking game this year?  Maybe that was what all the booing was about everytime a field goal attempt was made. 

If he can keep the ball in bounds and kick it in the end zone welcome aboard!

during his HS career.  The question with any HS kicker is what will he do when he doesn't have the benefit of the tee?  If someone could figure out how to predict that they could make a pretty penny.

Went to Nebraska for the second week of the season as my deceased father in law was being inducted into the Nebraska football HOF. Was it fun watching their kicker warm up.  He stopped at 57 yards, but had plenty of leg to move back (yes they went through the uprights).  I'm still shocked Pellini didn't give him a crack at a 57 yarder to tie the Big 12 championship game.

JUST KICK THE DAMN BALL!

I agree with everyone on the tee comments.  When I was in high school, my best friend's older brother was our kicker.  He was excellent - probably the best kicker to ever go through our high school.  I once witnessed him make a 62 yard field goal from the hash mark. 

He never kicked once in college (although he could have secured a scholarship to Mizzou if he worked at it). 

Not only does taking away the tee change things - but the kicking game is about 90% mental (as long as the snap and the hold are down).  It takes a special type of person to be able to kick consistently in front of both 2,000 people and 100,000 people.  Crapshoot is a good term, I believe. 

I too hope, like some commenters, that Gibbons can regain whatever form got him the #11 ranking as a recruit.  But I'm not optimistic.

When I watch Broekhuizen kick he seems to have a good leg, good form, and good height - but the accuracy is erratic.  That seems like a mental block, especially since he's nailed all of the PATs.  When Gibbons kicks it just doesn't look right.  There's no loft, no power, clunky form.  That doesn't suggest a mental block to me.

I realize that physique is impossible to judge since Jay Feely was short and stocky and a great kicker, but Gibbons doesn't look like a kicker to me.  I'm wondering if he hit the "weights" too hard when he got to college and screwed up his technique. 

Frankly, the kicker is too important to the team to hope that the current guys figure it out or that we can dig up a walk-on somewhere.  They MUST sign a kicker for next year and if the biggest issue we have is that there are two kickers on scholarship then we can live with that.  We need a kicker far more than we need a 4th string quarterback for example. 

Have we not confirmed the fact that most college programs do not have a special teams coach who is dedicated to the art of kicking, hence a kid in HS gets by on talent 9/10 times then gets to college and its the same story and never develops the correct technique and ends up working on things by himself.  

I believe OSU is such a school that has a kicking coach and look at how many quality kickers they turn out.  

That OU team has four scholarship kickers and another one offered. We are way behind in this category. Could you imagine 5 guys out of your 85 schollies being kickers? I'm all for competition and all but goodness gracious.

kick the damn ball?

Can't wait to hear the epic roar at the Big House once a decent distance FG is made next year.  Instant hero status!  Campus stud for the week.  Who wouldn't want to be that guy!

I'm pretty confident this kid will qualify.  Rivals shows he has offers from Harvard, Brown, Cornell, and Penn.  Rumor has it Cornell is also recruiting him for the Do-Re-Migos. 

and go after that junior kicker for the 2012 class. Ross Martin he was kicking 60 yards for fun, and on kickoffs through the end zone!

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/kicker-ross-martin

Someone is going to bitch about why we're offering all these damn kickers and not more slot receivers.....

 

Well, maybe not...

What would Fred Jackson say about this kid?   Anyone care to speculate?

Just down the road in Plymouth (?) who went to Notre Dame instead...

OSU's kicker was a professional soccer player, who successfully made the transition from soccer to FB. As much as I hate it, Tressel always finds some guy to fill in and do an admirable job even if not highly recruited. He made 19 of 22 this year.

The last SCHOLARSHIP kickers that we had who made an impact were Garrett Rivas ('03-'06) and Hayden Epstein ('98-'01).

For a couple of years, we pulled a rabbit out of the hat with guys like KC Lopata and Jason Olnesavage (though each had a major easy miss that contributed to a close loss).

This year resembled 2002, only that Adam Finley (the punter) finally started kicking FGs after we tried to merry-go-round.

 Position: K, S

Two birds, one stone.