[NU Sports] Kicking

[Jonathan Hodges]

The problem with kickers is that they're often at the end of the recruiting
priority list and are relatively often walk-ons (NU's Stefan Demos is a
notable exception).  It's also hard to objectively look at high school stats
with kickoffs from a different spot and field goals attempted less often
(and from closer distances).

It would be nice to have a kickoff guy who could put it through the end zone
every time, BUT remember that the college kickoff spot is now the same as in
the NFL.  And even in the NFL there are few kickers who can get touchbacks
routinely, and that's with just 32 teams.  In college, there are 120 FBS
teams and 125 FCS teams (since all Div. I follows the same rules and kick
off from the 30 now), making a total of 245 teams vying for kickers who can
accomplish the same task.

Along the same lines, even in the NFL it's hard to find a kicker who can
nail every FG - look at Super Bowl Champ Steelers' kicker Reed who missed a
few versus the Bears earlier this year which ended up essentially costing
them the game.  Extrapolate the numbers and you'll see it's very difficult
to always find a reliable kicker, especially when they graduate in 4 years
if and when a team does find one.

Finally, the "rugby style" punt.  Note that college rules now don't provide
for a roughing the kicker penalty once the punter moves outside of the
5-yard tackle box to either side of the snapper, so teams are doing that
less often.  I think the real reason behind NU's use of that punting style
is for the coverage team.  Since Fitz has taken over as head coach, there
has been only one punt return for TD (that wasn't from a blocked punt), and
that was Maclin's return in the Alamo Bowl last year (which came on a
traditional style punt that was kicked right to him).  Otherwise, NU has
done a great job of getting to the returner and limiting returns (in '07 NU
was 8th nationally allowing only 4.9 yards per punt return and this year NU
is 21st allowing just 4.4 yards per punt return; the numbers in '06 and '08
were a bit higher thanks to blocked punt returns and Maclin's return but
were still under 10 yards per punt).

It seems to be a calculated gamble given the leg of the kicker and the speed
of the gunners: Fitz would rather take a guaranteed 30-35 yard swing rather
than aiming for 5-10 more yards but gambling a potential big runback.  And
given how NU had been burned by returns under Walker, I can't blame him too
much (remember Fitz was on the sideline most of that time and likely
remembers some of those moments).  The rugby style kick is just a reliable
way of getting that good coverage (and maybe generating a muff like against
Purdue this year or Michigan last year).

Jonathan

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM, <bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I would give a scholarship to a kid who could kick off into the end zone 95
> percent of the time. I couldn't care less if he did anything else. The
> advantage to us would be huge.
>
> Brad Wilson
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
>
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