[NU Sports] kickers

[John Labbe]

Funny that we were criticizing Walker today for an inability to recruit 
kickers, when in tonight's game, two of the best college coaches of all 
time had their kickers combine to miss four consecutive 
possibly-game-winning field goals (and one kicker missed an extra point 
earlier in the game).

I think there's a lot of luck in getting a great kicker.  How many 
scholarships can you afford to burn on kickers?  Then what if your 
recruit doesn't work out as you hoped as is often the case with many 
players, or what if your recruit gets injured.  Is it no coincidence 
that many good kickers have been walk-ons?




On Jan 3, 2006, at 9:27 PM, Michael Vance wrote:

> 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
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