[NU Sports] End of season thoughts (fwd)

[Jeff Beamsley]

Michael Vance wrote: <snip>

>  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.
>
You left out the biggest factor.  That's the coach. 

I don't know what the story is specifically with Huffman, but I do know 
that success in college has as much to do with coaching as anything else.

Kids can get by on talent in HS.  HS coaches love their talented players 
because those are the ones that often are the difference between winning 
and losing.  Talented HS kids can even overcome bad coaching through 
sheer athletic ability.  That's not the case in college.  In college 
everyone is talented, it is very hard work, and the coach doesn't always 
love you.

I agree that kicking should be least affected by these factors, but 
obviously from the small sample of our recent kickers, something is 
broken.  If you assume that we are recruiting kids who were HS standouts 
(e.g. Huffman), our coaching staff needs to do a better job of helping 
these kids make the transition from HS to college.

Jeff