Alex McPherson will miss A-Day, focused on more 'consistency' after perfect season
AUBURN — Alex McPherson will not kick during Auburn’s spring A-Day game, but he says there’s nothing to worry about long term.
McPherson is nursing a hamstring injury that dates back to the end of last season and hasn’t kicked in six weeks heading into the spring game.
“I’m trying to stay healthy, staying consistent with everything I’m doing,” McPherson said. “It’s going good. I’ve had something with my hamstring. I won’t be playing in the A-Day game, unfortunately. My health is good right now. I’m healed, I’m just taking it easy this spring.”
McPherson is coming off making all 13 field goal attempts last season, and making 19 straight dating back to the end of the 2022 season. The only field goal McPherson has missed in his career is his very first attempt.
“Not really,” McPherson said regarding if he thinks about that. “You take it one kick at a time and it comes, it happens. It’s funny because I missed my first ever field goal and I haven’t missed after that. If I didn’t miss that first one, I’d be perfect. It’s fun. Thinking back, it’s crazy to think I didn’t miss at all. In the moment, I don’t think about it.”
McPherson said he feels good kicking from 65 yards out, but leaves it up to special teams coach Tanner Burns to campaign for him during games to Hugh Freeze.
“In pregame, we’ve hit 62 before. It depends on the wind. I’m confident from 65. If you want to put me out there, I’ll go try it. I would say 65 with the wind,” McPherson said. “Coach Burns is that for me. I’m usually just down by the net. I can see where I am. Coach Burns will be in his ear and say we’ve got it from here or he’s ready from here. I don’t make the call, it’s usually Coach Burns.”
When it comes to kickoffs, McPherson recorded 33 touchbacks in 65 kickoffs last season.
“It depends on the game plan,” McPherson said of his kickoff strategy. “Sometimes, we’ll try and hang it out there. We know our coverage team is better than the return team. If we can not hit a touchback and pin them inside the 20, we’ll do that. Every now and then we’ll hit a touchback if we can.”
Despite being perfect last season, McPherson does have plans for improvement in his game.
“I would say I’m trying to improve on my kickoffs,” McPherson said. “That’s the one thing I wasn’t as happy with. And my consistency on my field goals. They all went in, but they weren’t all the same. To me, I want every ball to look the same and go through the same.
“To me, it’s more consistency on how I hit the ball. I think I have both power and accuracy at the same time, but it’s about consistency in ball flight and the same strike very time. That’s where I am trying to get to. On the professional level, that’s what you see. They hit the same ball every time, no matter the wind.”
