50 yard field goals, Nick Feely
Last name seems familiar!
The original caption said "@nfeely drills a couple of 50 yard field goals in his first high school practice today for #2 ranked Armwood.
Also:
Armwood
The No. 2 team in the nation is seemingly loaded at every position so why not kicker.
Nick Feely, from the first family of kickers in Tampa, will kick for the Hawks this season. Sidelined with an injury that threatened to prematurely end his football career, Feely is back and as strong as ever.
Participating at a University of Michigan camp earlier this offseason, Feely won everything, said his father, Tom, who trains several of the top kickers in the area.
"He's had a good summer," Tom Feely said.
It's been a two-year process to get Nick Feely back onto the field. He suffered severe breaks in his right leg and foot in a freak accident. Feely's older brothers, including Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely, excelled at Jesuit.
At Monday's practice, Feely quickly endeared himself to his new teammates by nailing a pair of 50-yard field goals. Then he showed off his punting strengths. Even running back Matt Jones, sidelined with a knee injury, was impressed.
"This is a good fit for him," Tom Feely said. "He's real excited."
August 10th, 2011 at 11:00 PM ^
What year is he?
August 10th, 2011 at 11:05 PM ^
he is a junior this year.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
(class of '13)
I doubt we would take another scholarship kicker in Wile's sophomore year
August 10th, 2011 at 11:33 PM ^
If he is the real deal, and Michigan has a shot ... hell yeah we would. Figuring Wile would be a junior when Feely steps on campus ... then he redshirts. This makes him a redshirt freshman during Wile's Sr. year ... Starting as a sophomore ..... why wouldn't we do that?
August 10th, 2011 at 11:54 PM ^
Because we already have Matt Wile on scholarship, and would have to use two scholarships on place kickers for 2013 and 2014, which is unnecessary. They might tell him he can be a preferred walk on, and earn a scholarship down the road, but teams don't usually have two scholarship PKs unless its an overlap of just one year. More than likely, they will just grab a great kicker in the 2015 class. Great kickers come and go.
August 11th, 2011 at 12:23 AM ^
Did you forget which team you are rooting for??? There were middle school teams with more accurate kicking last year. We should have had 4 kickers on scholarship last year ... then we wouldn't have had to pull kids from Chem class to try them out.
August 11th, 2011 at 12:33 AM ^
You don't remedy a situation by throwing a ton of shit at the wall and hoping something sticks. Our abysmal kicking last year was precisely the reason we bucked the trend and took a scholarship kicker in the 2011 class, thus giving us two kickers for 2011 and 2012. There's no reason to rush to go grab another one. Again, they might tell him he can be a preferred walk on and earn a scholarship, but i highly doubt they would offer him.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:11 AM ^
Hagerup's junior year, if he makes it that far. Then he could come in as punter and pick up place kicking duties when wile graduates. This would give us good kickers learning from good kickers. This would be awesome and would hopefully prevent position melt-downs like last year.
It would still be a year soon, preferentially, but if he's that good and we had a good shot at him, it would be most excellent a get.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:10 PM ^
Jay graduated in '98 - apparently the genes are weakening.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:11 PM ^
Michigan briefly recruited his older brother (Tyler? I think) a couple years back. He ended up at an Ivy League school, iirc.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:16 PM ^
Eh, not a huge fan of three scholarship kickers though... Hope he gets some good offers though.
August 10th, 2011 at 11:16 PM ^
Yeah but was it off a tee?
August 10th, 2011 at 11:28 PM ^
While 50 is a solid distance, kicking field goals in practice isn't all that tough. Especially if it was off a tee. As Hoke says, there is a difference between kicking on State St and kicking on Main St.
August 11th, 2011 at 12:27 AM ^
a 50 yard field goal is essentially a field goalfrom the 33 yard line... i highly doubt you can put one through the uprights consistently from there.
August 11th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
While I doubt he could, I do know a kicker that could consistantly hit that when practicing but couldn't do anything even close to that in a game(back when I was in HS). Not really sure what the difference was, but it was a huge difference.
August 11th, 2011 at 12:53 AM ^
I used to watch a kid in the Chicago area, he'd kick field goals from the 50 yard line during half time. He never had to kick from that far away during the game--his team was pretty good--but he sure enough kicked it straight through from the 40. Just high school, but it was in front of a packed house. Iirc he got a full ride to Iowa or some such, very respectable.
That combination of bionic leg and ice-water for blood is so rare I think it's worth the scholarship for most teams, most of the time.
August 11th, 2011 at 1:04 AM ^
Oh that is very true. There are some people who can, and I by no means am saying that Feely can't kick a 50 yarder with ease in a game(I'm actually sure that he can). It is just hard for me to get excited about hearing someone kicking 50 yarders in practice. When I see it in a game and without a tee is when I will get impressed.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:15 AM ^
He kicks the ball the same way...long and straight. He'd be busting them from the 50 yd line at half time. I swear the ball hit the middle of the track from there. He signed on with Notre Dame, so we'll see him at the Big House this year.
Go Blue!!!
August 11th, 2011 at 5:28 AM ^
HIGH SCHOOL AND PERSONAL DATA: Set Michigan state high school record with 19 made field goals as a senior in 2010, including six of nine from 50 yards or more ... averaged 43.2 yards per punt and 60 of 63 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks in 2010 while handling kicking and punting duties for Plymouth High School in Canton, Mich.
I wish Michigan would have signed him.
August 11th, 2011 at 2:57 AM ^
True, I've never made from 50. However, after making a 40 yarder in the Big House during my tour on the third field goal I'd ever attempted I got inspired, built a make shift holding device out of pvc, and started practicing. After a few practice sessions of kicking the ball over the fence onto the tennis courts at Palmer and at my local high school on an actual field with yard markers over Thanksgiving I found that the farthest I could consistently hit was from just over 40. I was crap from further, but I wasn't using a tee. I've never had the opportunity to use a legit field goal tee so I don't know what difference that would make.
Now that my cool story bro is over, the point I was trying to make was that if I can hit from 40 off the ground then any kid who is regarded as a good kicker and is potentially going to get a full ride to somewhere should be able to make from 50 in practice off a tee.
August 11th, 2011 at 8:55 AM ^
I was a HS kicker and could boot them from 50, 55 in practice without probelm but when game time came it was another story. Everything speeds up which results in less time/accuracy.
I did make a 42 yarder in a game, but it barely cleared. So I totally agree game time is a different story. It's Main Street.
The wife was an all-state soccer player as a Junior (then blew out her knee) so I've joked that I will make my 3 boys kickers Zendejas style so I can retire early.
Point being I am not impressed with or even a 60 yard practice field goal and would frankly expect almost every highschool team to have someone who could make them occaisionally in practice whether off a tee or off the ground. My 6 year olds can make extra points pretty easily. I'm not getting too excited.
August 11th, 2011 at 3:18 AM ^
I'd give the kid a chance. Also, it seems that hagerup can't stay out of trouble, so we may have room for another punter.
August 11th, 2011 at 7:01 AM ^
And then we had to get Wile. Its pointless to say whether well offer this guy or not until we see how everything plays out this year. I personally would rather have two scholarship kickers that both can possibly contribute rather than extend the offer to a depth guy at a different positition that will likely be a practice player.
August 11th, 2011 at 7:14 AM ^
Their coach is great at building a program. He gets well over ten players placed on scholly pretty much each year. Some end up at very small schools, but he is very good at networking and there are tons of athletes there. Armwood is one of the five HS teams I mention from down here that could possibly beat a GLIAC team straight up. They have more size than some small college teams, and a lot of athleticism.
Their big rivalry game, in which the schools hate each other almost as much as Michigan/Ohio, is Tony Posada's Plant High. It would be pretty cool to see bitter rivals team up in Ann Arbor.
August 11th, 2011 at 10:30 AM ^
Michigan has had solid field goal and unpredictable kickers and horrible kickers, also known as our current kickers. The one thing we have been is inconsistent. Feely would have to be a bonafide superstar to land a Michigan offer, but if he is Hoke will do it. Having a guy being a redshirt freshman when Wile is in his final season is not a bad idea (and we are assuming Wile is what we hope he is). Don't undervalue the points impact of a kicker who is a cut above the rest. Based on how we're doing in the kicking department, it wouldn't bother me to see a great kicker on the field and another waiting in the wings.