I have no idea if we have ever attempted something like this in the modern era of football, but there have got to be hundreds of dudes on campus that can kick PAT's better than what we have now. i was a long snapper in high school and would waste time punting and kicking during special teams practice and its seriously not a difficult thing to do....now, obviously, distance kicking is a different story, but we should be able to kick PAT's 99 out of 100 times. its absurd we as fans have to hold your breath on a PAT attempt. we need an open try-out to find students on campus that can get it done and we might luck out and find a couple that can kick accurately for distance as well. what we have is just sad and concerning that it seems we have regressed (i didnt think it was possible to kick worse than we did last season, but here we are) when it was an obvious weakness for us last season. we have got to do something while the season is young. why would an open try-out be a bad idea?
Has there ever been an open try-out on campus?
- Thread starter Shamoan
- Start date
It would not be a bad idea. Extra points should be automatic.
Hell, based on our current strategy, we could let 50 different guys kick all week and pick the one that does the best for the game on Thursdays, announce it Friday morning so that he can kick a couple times with the team, and put him in an SEC football game Saturday. Can't be much worse.
Hell, based on our current strategy, we could let 50 different guys kick all week and pick the one that does the best for the game on Thursdays, announce it Friday morning so that he can kick a couple times with the team, and put him in an SEC football game Saturday. Can't be much worse.
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agreed, there must be tens of people who are former high school kickers just walking around campus and throw in some soccer players and natural athletes from a 10,000 population pool of male students and you are bound to have some other options. i think mullen needs to do something. the ship is sinking fast and its alarming that nothing was done this off season...nothing as in absolutely nothing.
Texas Tech had the same problem as us their Cotton Bowl year I believe. Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree were fire, but they were missing PAT's and a guy just so happened to nail a FG during the punt pass kick during their like 4th game of the season so they added him to their roster.
I was friends with a guy at State who kicked for a JUCO and simply just wasn't interested in waking up at 5 in the morning every day and giving up his weekends for no scholarship money. There in that lies the problem. Is there a kid who can nail PAT's on MSU's campus? 100% positive there is. Sobes and Graves are probably the only 2 willing to do it though.
Mullen deserves a lot more hell than he's getting for having 2 scholarship punters and 2 bad kickers when there are like 4 former Mississippi JUCO kickers sitting in classrooms who knows where who would have done the trick for the price of a backup punter. We obviously had scholarships to give, since we made a big deal about having extras and being able to give one to a walk-on.
I was friends with a guy at State who kicked for a JUCO and simply just wasn't interested in waking up at 5 in the morning every day and giving up his weekends for no scholarship money. There in that lies the problem. Is there a kid who can nail PAT's on MSU's campus? 100% positive there is. Sobes and Graves are probably the only 2 willing to do it though.
Mullen deserves a lot more hell than he's getting for having 2 scholarship punters and 2 bad kickers when there are like 4 former Mississippi JUCO kickers sitting in classrooms who knows where who would have done the trick for the price of a backup punter. We obviously had scholarships to give, since we made a big deal about having extras and being able to give one to a walk-on.
Vic was not really "discovered" on the intramural fields. He was a walk on at State. He did play intramural ball before he walked on but the walking on was his idea, not a recruitment.
Not exactly related, but I do remember during halftime in the Georgia Dome (either SEC Champ game or Peach Bowl) a local pizza place ran a contest where a fan got to try a field goal at halftime.
If he made it everybody in the building got a free pizza.
Turns out the contestant was a JUCO kicker. It would have been good from 40.
Maybe he's still got some eligibility?
If he made it everybody in the building got a free pizza.
Turns out the contestant was a JUCO kicker. It would have been good from 40.
Maybe he's still got some eligibility?
I saw an article where Arizona was having kicking issues last year. So they went out and got the best Juco kicker in the country to either push their kicker or take over the position. The article said the former Juco missed two of three field goals against Stanford, so now they are back to the original kicker they had last year. So, you really can't predict how a kicker will do once they get to D1, although our situation seems to be worse than there's. I just wonder if a Psychologist could possibly help our kickers, concerning the mental part, to help get their confidence back? I think we used one, in the past, in our athletic program, but I can't remember what the reason was.
You are probably right. The "I don't want our current players to think I don't confidence in them" card would be played. Truth be known, there is NO way you could have confidence in them. Hell, he's trotting Westin "Sizzlin" Graves out there for God's sake.
Is there some NCAA rule that says it's too late in the season to add another to the roster? <O
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What they should do is just go old school with the extra point. Find some 300 pound lineman, give him one of those square shoes, tie a string from the front cleat to the ankle and let him straight on kick it in.
At the very least there has to be someone else on the team that kicked in high school.<O</O
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</OWhat they should do is just go old school with the extra point. Find some 300 pound lineman, give him one of those square shoes, tie a string from the front cleat to the ankle and let him straight on kick it in.
At the very least there has to be someone else on the team that kicked in high school.<O
</OI remember one year where Arkansas had to do that for a QB.
Can't remember which one it was. It may have been at the beginning of the Nutt era, but they lost 3 QBs to injury early in the season, may have lost them all in the same game. They picked up someone off the intramural fields to be their QB in the SEC.
As far as kickers are concerned, when I was in school, the guys I knew on the team always said there were like 40 walk-on kickers hoping to earn a spot at the beginning of fall camp each year. Basically anyone who kicked in high school would come out and see if they could get a spot on the team, since kicking really doesn't require any work, and you get to claim you're a football player if you make the team, which I would assume helps the skinny kicker kids get a touch more strange on the weekends.
I really don't understand how it's so hard for D-1 teams to find kickers though. We dealt with it last year, trying to make Ritter work, even though he wasn't consistent at all.
Can't remember which one it was. It may have been at the beginning of the Nutt era, but they lost 3 QBs to injury early in the season, may have lost them all in the same game. They picked up someone off the intramural fields to be their QB in the SEC.
As far as kickers are concerned, when I was in school, the guys I knew on the team always said there were like 40 walk-on kickers hoping to earn a spot at the beginning of fall camp each year. Basically anyone who kicked in high school would come out and see if they could get a spot on the team, since kicking really doesn't require any work, and you get to claim you're a football player if you make the team, which I would assume helps the skinny kicker kids get a touch more strange on the weekends.
I really don't understand how it's so hard for D-1 teams to find kickers though. We dealt with it last year, trying to make Ritter work, even though he wasn't consistent at all.
It may be something as simple as not having a knowledgeable coach in that area. I remember seeing Bell and Sobiesk's stats in high school and thinking, "finally we are bringing in two good kickers". They have Mullen, who has probably never kicked a football in his life, over them with probably a GA or something babysitting them during practice.
To me it could be a number of things. I feel like talent wise, Sobiesk has to be the best on campus. That's just me though. I know we can't bring in an additional coach, so that's out of the question. Maybe make them go to camps during the summer?
To me it could be a number of things. I feel like talent wise, Sobiesk has to be the best on campus. That's just me though. I know we can't bring in an additional coach, so that's out of the question. Maybe make them go to camps during the summer?
I talked to one of our former punter's uncles one time at a tailgate and he said Mullen makes the kickers and punters workout and come stay the entire length of practice kicking and punting, so by Saturday their legs are noodles. Every week.
I don't know how true that is. He might have been sour grapes about his nephew sucking at punting. But I do know that the training routine of kickers and punters is 100% inclined running. Nothing else.
I don't know how true that is. He might have been sour grapes about his nephew sucking at punting. But I do know that the training routine of kickers and punters is 100% inclined running. Nothing else.
Sobiesk's stats in HS were great, and he apparently kicked off the ground
instead of the block tee most HS kickers use. I really think his biggest issue is confidence, and it doesn't help at all that he is in this stupid kicker competition with Westin Graves. Sobiesk should be the kicker, period. Just knowing he is going to be the kicker all week will allow him to mentally prepare and get his mind right instead of wondering if he'll get to kick this extra point or this field goal. Let him be the kicker for three or four games and if he sucks, then reevaluate. This rotating kickers out every kick is just stupid and has to mess with their confidence.
instead of the block tee most HS kickers use. I really think his biggest issue is confidence, and it doesn't help at all that he is in this stupid kicker competition with Westin Graves. Sobiesk should be the kicker, period. Just knowing he is going to be the kicker all week will allow him to mentally prepare and get his mind right instead of wondering if he'll get to kick this extra point or this field goal. Let him be the kicker for three or four games and if he sucks, then reevaluate. This rotating kickers out every kick is just stupid and has to mess with their confidence.
That's a valid point, and no school is going to hire a kicking coach for a full-time assistant. Maybe there is a way to hire one to some sort of administrative position, so he doesn't have a coach title, but it's definitely a specialty. I always compared it to golf. The mechanics and the specialized nature of learning those are similar, and more importantly, if you try to tinker too much, you can shatter your confidence, and shattered confidence can lead to the shanks. Also like golf, it can help if you stick with one kicking coach and not change.
I believe we had one kicker, Josh Shene, during the Orgeron era that was really good, but he was one of those self-taught kickers who did it all by feel. He was similar to a David Duval in that regard. Most kickers though require coaching to really hone their technique, and they need consistency in coaching. For that reason, if they went to a kicking coach during high school, it's probably best if you can find a way for them to stay in contact with that specific coach.
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Disagree. If we're going to miss them either way, I'd rather see Bell miss them flashily with 65 yards of leg on them...
kickers 1A and 1B cant kick worth a ****. i think the problem is totally mechanical. through bad coaching or whatever, its a mental problem causing the 'yips and its is a MAJOR problem. you know its bad when kickers are having trouble hitting the PAT's. we absolutely will lose a game or two if it is not corrected. if mullen doesnt see that in a way that demands thinking outside the box (as what we have done to correct it in the off season clearly is not working), we have more serious problems than just a mental kicker.