Finding placekickers
Also, this is not a call to bench Allen or Trice. They obviously earned their time in practice and probably just had some bad luck.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:03 PM ^
We've had decent kickers lately. I think Nordin will be good, just injured currently.
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October 2nd, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^
Follow up question: why not have every player on the team try out for a spot of "emergency kicker"? I recall a few years ago when the Lions had Suh kick a field goal (badly) because they had no other kickers available. Most military units have each person learn the jobs of a few other members of the team in case they need to take over, which is done for many positions in football also (linemen can move, WRs and CBs, and many others). Why not identify players that could plausibly take on some kicking responsibilities in a pinch? These are highly gifted and trained athletes - some should be able to do it decently.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:24 PM ^
Our kicker was injured the day before our first game of the season. Tryouts resulted in our long snapper missing the game as well. He had a bruised tailbone from two particularly low kicks. We lost 15-12 after missing both extra points and two short field goals and having a punt snap sail over the punter's head for a safety.
I can't advise this course of action.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:30 PM ^
Interesting comment, but that sounds more like (an unfortunate) exception and not the rule. First, you would need to see which players could reliably... get it up (get your minds out of the gutter)... before putting them in a situation where they could nail a lineman (again, gutters).
October 3rd, 2016 at 7:26 AM ^
would not make this error. My high school coach in 1987 (I sound like Uncle Rico) panicked. He planned an easy Thursday (a few conditioning drills, offensive and defensive walkthroughs, and full speed special teams drills). When the kicker was injured with 30 minutes left in the last practice before the game, he tried to create a realistic game situation for practice. It failed miserably!
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:49 PM ^
HALOL
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October 3rd, 2016 at 9:33 AM ^
Tryouts resulted in our long snapper missing the game as well. He had a bruised tailbone from two particularly low kicks.
This is an absolutely hilarious concept.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:25 PM ^
lol that's enough
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:25 PM ^
I think that Jon Runyan Jr. actually did some placekicking in high school.
October 3rd, 2016 at 1:08 AM ^
Reporter to coach after random devastating loss: "Coach, how could your WR run the wrong route/CBs give up a hail mary/RB miss the blocking protection, isn't that something you work on in practice?"
Dumbass coach: "No, we didn't have time for that this week, we were busy having every single person practice placekicking."
There's only so much time to practice EVERYTHING that is actually likely to arise in a football game.
October 3rd, 2016 at 6:33 AM ^
Not necessary to do this during every practice - I was thinking more along the lines of having a team-wide kicking competition during fall camp. Best looking non-regular kicker to win that becomes the "emergency kicker" that takes over when the scholarship and walk-on kickers are not available for whatever reason. The anointed "emergency kicker" can then do some extra kicking practice during the season just to keep the rust off without impacting much else.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:04 PM ^
kickers are weird man, they have the self confidence of a lion and a mouse.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:04 PM ^
in general, it's not. there are what? over 100 college kickers? allen is being asked to do too much, he was great last year when that's all he needed to focus on.
October 2nd, 2016 at 11:19 PM ^
We haven't had a real kicker issue since, what, freshman Brendan Gibbons? And the only reason we're in a bind now is the last scholarship kicker, Andrew David, didn't pan out and the next one, Nordin, is hurt. It's far less common of an issue than OP makes it out to be.
October 2nd, 2016 at 11:46 PM ^
Not a common problem for power programs, or even most FBS programs, but I have seen many FCS schools all but eliminate the option of going for field goals due to lack of serviceable place kickers for 20+ yard attempts.
October 3rd, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
It is not like every Power 5 school has a stud kicker or even a good one for that matter. I remember not too long ago Alabama had an issue with its kicker. I think you are under estimating what it takes to be a kicker. It is far more important to be accurate than to have great leg strength. If it were just leg strength, by your metric, every RB on the roster should be a serviceable backup kicker. I mean, look at the kicking stats just for this year, most of the kickers having great years aren't from a powerhouse program.
October 3rd, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^
Could you clarify what you mean by this? Lots of people have said it's too much to do all three kicking phases - why? You kickoff a small handful of times, you punt a small handful of times, and you kick field goals and EPs a small handful of times. What's so taxing about that? Why does adding 2-3 kicks per game suddenly become so onerous? How much focus does one need when you're only in the game 10% of the time?
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:06 PM ^
Pretty simple: it's not like you can just have 12 walk on kickers and hope one of them works out. You don't get an infinite number of walk on slots. You usually want to have a scholarship K/P and then 2-3 walk on specialists.
And let's not pretend it was a position of need coming into the year. Kenny was solid a year ago which is why he got a fifth year.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:08 PM ^
Does Hayden Epstein have any kids? It seems like they'd be coming of age soon if he got started right after college.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:17 PM ^
he was the Todd Jones of kickers.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:23 PM ^
Remy Hamilton should
October 3rd, 2016 at 7:56 AM ^
We want a Gramatica!
October 3rd, 2016 at 8:40 AM ^
Brandon Kornblue needs to come through with another ace referral. One without Brendan Gibbons' flaws plz.
October 3rd, 2016 at 9:40 AM ^
I mean, the Lou Groza award is nice and all, but the Gramaticas introduced the entire concept of "man, that kicker is a douchebag" to football.
October 3rd, 2016 at 10:49 AM ^
I want him to make field goals!
October 3rd, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^
just sayin'
October 3rd, 2016 at 10:15 AM ^
It may not go through the uprights but it'll have the distance (lol). 60? Yup. 70? Likely. It may land in the band section or be right down the middle but a FG was technicaly possible from any distance.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:10 PM ^
I would like to get a struggling kicker on the left hash to give him a better angle and build some confidence.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:12 PM ^
I kicked in HS... made a 54 yarder and still have 4 years of eligibility left. Someone tell Harbaugh I'm available.
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October 2nd, 2016 at 11:30 PM ^
Not if you went to college you don't.
October 2nd, 2016 at 11:36 PM ^
He migh, if he didn't compete in football in college. Just have 'em enroll in a grad. program.
October 3rd, 2016 at 12:55 AM ^
The clock starts ticking the moment you step foot in the classroom. Doesn't matter if you play sports in college or not. you have five-calendar years in which to play four seasons of competition.
October 3rd, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^
I will cease my leg days since I now know this can't work... thanks for nuthin'
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:12 PM ^
Be honest fellow MGoBlog brethren -- did you know who Ryan Tice was prior to yesterday? Despite spending like 1 or more hours a day on MGoBlog, I had no idea who he was.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:24 PM ^
yes because he kicked a PAT earlier this year.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:24 PM ^
This was a weird moment for me. I didn't know that I knew until my buddy I was at the game with asked "who the hell is Tice?" And I just go "Ryan Tice, walk on" instinctively. No clue how I acquired that knowledge.
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October 3rd, 2016 at 2:30 AM ^
I believe Harbaugh made one or two mentions of Tice during an interview during fall camp. That's when I first heard his name.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:27 PM ^
I thought Allen was great last year..... this handling double duty as punter, is a big mistake... hard to believe they cannot find another punter, but Allen should exclusively kick FG and maybe kickoffs...not punt, at all, as good as he is...
October 2nd, 2016 at 10:03 PM ^
and I thought he punted well. Not sure what is up with the place kicking, if it is mental or fatigue.
October 2nd, 2016 at 10:17 PM ^
I thought he punted very well. It seemed like all his punts were 50+ and they were all covered well. A bad punt or a line drive punt could have given Wisconsin the edge they needed.
We can blame him up and down for missing those 2 field goals. The 1st one was really bad. The 2nd one just hung up and caught the wind. I felt horrible for him.
October 2nd, 2016 at 10:49 PM ^
I think a placekicking motion is something like your swing in baseball/golf - you have to get it automatic, so you're not thinking about it. But when you also have to punt, then you're using a different motion, so when you go back to PK maybe it throws you off. That's my guess anyway.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:49 PM ^
Harbauch mentioned him several times when the subject of kickers came up earlier. As I recall, he got his first name wrong because JH played (or coached) with Tice's uncle. So he got more air time than normal because JH scrwed his name up several times!
His kick had plenty of leg. Just pulled it a bit. We'll work on field goals in the next several games and someone will get their confidence level up where it needs to be.
PS - Since we're going to score touchdown 100% of the time in the red zone, JH will have someone false start 3-5 times so that the extra points are a suitable distance.
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:56 PM ^
Bet.
October 2nd, 2016 at 10:07 PM ^
Yes. I talked to his grandpa at a Wendy's last fall and mentioned that I recognized his name. He lit up and told me about how he used to coach a middle school football team that Jim Harbaugh was part of. Yup, cool story bro.
October 3rd, 2016 at 9:46 AM ^
Yes, I did. What's my reward?
October 3rd, 2016 at 11:16 AM ^
Uh, more MGoPoints? You aren't up to six digits yet...
October 3rd, 2016 at 11:43 AM ^
All those other bastards got artificially promoted! I gotta do work for mine...
October 2nd, 2016 at 9:14 PM ^
"(cyclists, wrestlers, martial arts, etc.)."
I'll just put this here. Are you freaking kidding me?
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October 2nd, 2016 at 9:21 PM ^
Yeah sure, or even hikers, break dancers, leg models, guy who jumped up and down at a concert with a girl on his shoulders the whole time, etc.
October 2nd, 2016 at 11:45 PM ^
Don't forget: the guy at the gym who doesn't skip leg day.