Shane Beamer assures Kai Kroeger's job is 'not up for grabs'
It hasn’t been a great year for Kai Kroeger. But despite his struggles, Shane Beamer made it clear where his punter stands moving forward.
“Not up for grabs, he’s our punter,” Beamer said. “He’s proven what kind of punter he is. Has he performed as well as he would like? Maybe not. But we also have put a lot on his plate as well, whether it be rugbying and kicking to the left, rugbying and kicking to the right, bombing punts.”
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Kroeger has punted 36 times with an average of 44 yards per punt. Compare that to last year, he averaged 46.8 yards per kick. Down the stretch in 2022, he was averaging more than 50 yards per punt.
But this year has been a bit different. Against Texas A&M on Saturday, Kroeger averaged 40.4 yards per punt.
“Yesterday, the whole plan was to try and kick it high with hang time, maybe sacrifice a little bit of distance,” Beamer said.
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And part of the idea with Kroeger’s kicks was to keep the ball out of the Aggies’ lethal punt returner, Ainias Smith. He had returned seven punts for 263 yards and a touchdown before Saturday.
“You watched (Texas A&M’s) returner, there’s been some teams that have bombed punts away that have looked cool for the fans to see and flying through the air for 60 yards,” Beamer said. “But then the problem is, now that guy’s got a chance to catch the ball and get moving and make people miss. And he makes people look silly when he does against some of the better teams in the SEC.
So we wanted to punt the ball 40, 45 yards max yesterday with hang time and force fair catches. And we did not allow that returner to get going.”
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As a result, Smith didn’t have any big returns. So it worked out in that way. But the Gamecocks still lost 30-17.
But overall, Beamer thought Kroeger did his job. He did admit he could be a little better, though.
“Would we have wanted some of his punts to look a little bit prettier in the air and things like that? Sure but I thought he did his job yesterday. Can he be better? Absolutely. he’ll be the first to tell you he hasn’t done as well as he would like. But I’ve got total confidence in him and what he’ll be able to do these next four games too,” Beamer said.
