Quick Update from football
Had a chance to watch Coach Jink's video from Friday about the scrimmage they had. There were a couple of interesting takeaways.
The first and most newsworthy is that the team has a scholarship available and is out looking for a K, mostly likely coming as a graduate transfer. (just to be clear, coach just said we were hoping to resolve the K position and I have inferred he is talking graduate transfer. I guess it could be JUCO too.)
For the record, I'm for it. Special teams are important and PK is probably the most important part of it. Yes, he says we are working on the return game, including both returner positions...for PR we need somebody who will catch the ball...anyway, the PK isn't a prelude to points, he represents points. We were OK last year, but some additional range would be huge.
The second part of the scrimmage was that James Morgan is playing really well, based on the comments. Not that he'd talk about him playing poorly, but he did provide a lot of discussion that would suggest he's on board. It is enough that if he gets another week like that out of Morgan he will allow the backups to work with some #1 reps to help see who the backup will be.
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What was also interesting was that Jinks said Morgan was having off season workouts with other players. This is what Matty J did as well. Didn't hear about anything like that last year from any QB.
What was wrong with kicker from this past year? going to be red shirt junior hit a 44 and 49 was blocked no other chances from long range
The reason he didn't have any other chances from long range is that they don't have confidence he can make them. Remember, they watch him kick all day. We were able to try only 12 FGs and went for it on 4th down 44 times, the second most in the country. The next highest in the MAC was 23. We would benefit from a more reliable kicker with longer range.
if you go early to the games you see him warm up and hit from 50plus before games snap to kick ..the kid has a huge leg
9-12 with one block..thats a pretty good percentage if you ask me i just don't think they give him enough chances .
2 attempts over 40 yards does not indicate he does not have the leg. Maybe poor decisions on the coaches part to not give the kid a chance.
Neither does watching warm ups. I'm going to rely on the people who see him kicking everyday. They have no reason not to give him a chance.
We can agree to disagree if he had 5-7 opportunities and missed most of them then I would not have confidence as a coach.
I agree with orange; you can't count on pregame warm-up. Even in the pros you hear announcers talk about kicking, and in p5 games, that so and so kicker was kicking 70 yd field goals during warm-ups to watch them miss a 45 harder. It's easier when you don't have someone trying to block it, no stress on the center to get it back or the holder to put it down correctly and the list goes on. Not to mention many times they're kicking from a holder. Yes they may have the leg but that's not all that goes into kicking. Practice should make perfect for all but if that were the case then we would be seeing more 70 yd FGs even in the pros.
Correct. Also, you have no rush on when to kick and you don't have to kick it over the line, which is why longer FGs are often blocked...because the kicker doesn't have the leg to kick it high AND far. I just say that you need to keep in mind that the coaches see the kickers kick in practice every day. The game kicking is just a small sample. Sure, they could be wrong, but I doubt it. There are situations where they would have loved a FG last year and turned it down.
So our last two First Team All-Americans were in what position?
Last I checked they weren't walk-ons either.
Brad Maynard from Ball State? The man was an artist. And not a walk-on.
You get what you pay for. Sometimes you get lucky. But the price for bad-luck on an iffy team can be the difference between winning or lose several games.
Nobody here is heaping derision on kids for not being NFL grade as walk-ons. Rather what a few here including myself would say is that we can and need to do better at the position. For the right player, that grand-in-aid can be the difference and what they can do, however seemingly unsexy can have monumental impact.
Roll Along.
I just don't think any of us have enough information. There was 2 games Miami and buffalo he was 2-2 field goals...he had 2 misses early in the season ..I can understand if he was missing consistently but he had a fine season..I truly don't think he was given enough chances ...we will see but I put my money on the same kid starting and proving people wrong
If my memory recall is correct, 2010 we lost to Buffalo by 2 pts. We had the ball will just a few seconds left in the game, the ball on the left hash, around the 28 yd line. We set up for a field goal and missed. That year we tried multiple kickers with no luck. That student went on the next year to be awesome. The following year he was inconsistent due to reasons of poor coaching. I agree there needs to be consistency but nothing hurts with competition. if the coaches work both technically and physically with mental we should have a kicker if they have the talent. Last year in post game interview Jinks was asked why they didn't try a field goal. His response was he looked at his special teams coach and was told it was out of his range. That was about a 40 yarder and yes windy. No I'm not expecting initial pro players but we do need someone who can make field goals. heck, I watched a MT Union game on TV to see their kicker nail 45 yd goals. I wondered why we didn't offer him an opportunity. They are out there and just like any other position, if who we have isn't getting it done nor anyone behind then go get one, they are out there.
The kid did hit a 44 yrd fg last year. So 45 should be in his range. Give him the opportunity if he fails then bring in the next guy.
Our kicker now recently posted on his instagram a 57 yard field goal or so and it was in practice snap to kick with full rush and everything ...great height and distance...he obviously has the range I think the coaches are afraid to try ..if he fails again and again from long distance bring in the next kid ..I don't think anyone can said he doesn't have the range until he proves he can't make them in a game ..sometimes people just need a chance to prove themselves
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