[NU Sports] End of season thoughts (fwd)

[Roy S. Lamberton]

A good kicking coach, even during camp once in a while, is a good thing to have.

During David's junior year at Greensboro, I don't think they hit one FG. The
coach there went out and hired a local guy who was a Div I kicking coach [and
who worked at the kicking camp at Elon every year] who came in and had their top
kicker making 90% of the FGs - it's a mind set, foot placement and timing.

We sent our local HS kicker, one of Andrew's buddies, down to his camp before
his Junior year - he came back hitting 40-45 yarders, and made a 47 yarder in a
game. His PATs we gaining altitude when they went thru the uprights.

BTW - some of the parents used to shag balls for him when he practiced, all by
himself with a ball holder.

I wonder if Huff's problems go back to his Soph year when the Cats brought in
the transfer kicker from Florida. He was turned into a rather good punter, then
had to come back as placekicker his final 2 years. I always wonder that had he
made that first FG at TCU, if he had continued the season as NU's top gun.

I also wonder about the horny toad wagon with the yellow flashing lights in the
end zone, off the the right behind the goal posts. I know you're not supposed to
look at those things as a kicker, but having a set of police car lights in your
field of vision has to be distracting.

Go Cats

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
==========================================
Upset with Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies during George Washington's first
term, the man considered the founder of the Democratic Party, Thomas Jefferson,
started a newspaper to spread lies and rumors in an attempt to stop Hamilton. 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Michael Vance
> Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 12:59 AM
> To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] End of season thoughts (fwd)
> 
> 
> Unfortunately, that's exactly what Walker did with Huffman.  
> The kid was 
> money in high school.  Without him, Schaumburg doesn't win 
> the state title 
> his senior year, no question.  Yet he never performed up to 
> expectations in 
> college.  And that's the one aspect of the game that doesn't 
> change much 
> from one level to the next.  Whether you're in HS, college, 
> or pro, you've 
> got the same step-off, the same cadence, you're kicking from the same 
> distance, and the ball's the same size.  The only difference 
> is the size 
> and speed of the guys trying to block it, but that's the line's 
> problem.  So what happens to some kickers?  It has to be 
> either mental or 
> it's that they get a little screwed up when they fully grow 
> up from boys to 
> men and their bodies don't act the same way.  I don't know 
> what else it 
> could be.
> 
> -Michael
> 
> At 1/10/2005 07:22 PM, Mark S. Ament wrote:
> >There is no question that good kickers are not easy to come 
> by and the 
> >fact that most schools do not put them on scholarships 
> straight out of 
> >high school should give RW a recruiting advantage when he 
> goes out to 
> >fill a very desperate need.  Surely even he recognizes the 
> glaring need 
> >of an improved kicking game for 2005, considering the 
> endless tinkering 
> >he did with special teams last season.  Let's hope he uses a 
> >scholarship to recruit a good kicker  and then continue to 
> recruit one 
> >or two walk-on kickers so that there is competition for such 
> an obvious 
> >need.
> >
> >Mark
> >Mark S. Ament
> >prplehaze at insightbb.com
> >
> >
> >The plain and simple fact is that really GOOD kickers are a 
> rather rare 
> >commodity, and not that many coaches place a high value on 
> recruiting 
> >them anyhow.  I wonder how many 1-A schools have starting 
> kickers who 
> >were offered scholarships straight out of high school?  I'd be 
> >surprised if it was more than half of them.
> >
> >
> >
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> 
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