[Husker] Last play of the Texas game question (or two) (fwd)

[Smith, William]

I don't know if this is what the original post meant by "free kick"... but my sense of this term has always been the that a team may use a "free kick", much like a kickoff, to attempt an FG after a fair catch (including a fair catch from a kickoff.)

This option is seldom used.  I don't think I've ever seen it in all my years watching football.  But I do hear about it.  Imagine a team ahead by 3 points or less, in the final minute of the game, facing fourth down on their own five yard line.  It's certainly possible.  

Bill Smith
Towson, MD  



-----Original Message-----
From: husker-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:husker-bounces at tssi.com]On Behalf
Of Mike Nolan
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 1:48 AM
To: husker at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: [Husker] Last play of the Texas game question (or two) (fwd)


> Could Nebraska have used a 'free kick' instead of a field goal or the Hail Mary? If so, and if they made it, is a free kick worth 2 or 3 points?

Do you mean a drop kick field goal, which is worth 3 points, just like
a place-kicked one?

There hasn't been one in an NCAA game in over a decade, and I think that 
one was an extra point, as was the one that Flutie kicked in the NFL, 
according to Wikipedia.

Yeah, the record for one is around 65 yards (over 100 years ago), but I 
messed around with kicking in high school (I couldn't punt but I could hit 
field goals soccer-style from around 30 yards, though not consistently 
enough to play--I was the equipment manager) and a drop kick is not very 
easy to do, since it has to bounce off the ground before it is kicked, 
or it's just a punt.  (I think drop kicks tend to have a lower trajectory
than place kicks, too, so they're probably easier to block.)

With the current shape of a football, which is more pointed than it was 
40 years ago, and far more pointed that it was in the 30's, drop kicks 
are very difficult to control with any accuracy or range.
--
Mike Nolan

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