[NU Sports] kickers

[Michael Vance]

At 1/3/2006 05:44 PM, Jim Leonard wrote:
>All,
>
>I understand why large & fast defensive linemen might be hard to recruit to an
>academic school like Northwestern. But why is it so hard to get good kickers?
>
>Most kickers don't fall into the classic "jock" mold. This country has to be
>loaded with great kickers (place, punt, and kickoff) who have an academic mind
>and would love a free Northwestern education. Why has it been so hard for
>Northwestern to recruit these guys?

The thing is that we have recruited good kickers.  Brian Huffman, who was 
the starting kicker when our current place kicking woes began, was a total 
stud in high school.  He kicked something like five game-winners and had 
three kicks of 50+ yards in his career at Schaumburg, which is unheard of 
at the high school level.  But he somehow lost his consistency early in 
college and ended his career as a slightly better-than-average punter.

-Michael