Kickoffs and Punting
- Thread starter URWilk110
- Start date
Funny that Rocco could never find kickers while at UR but has some very good ones at Delaware.
Kicking is not the problem. We are dwarfed by the other team’s linemen who summarily run us over. The small quicker linemen may work in the Big South but not in the CAA.
Spiders are fortunate to have Grif; no one I would rather count on to split the uprights in the last minute than him.
bump
Most of Trau's 45 field goals have been short range, mainly because we have failed to score touchdowns in the red zone. Unlike larger schools, we can't afford a long range and a short range kicker. Recruiting needs to get better in this area.
Most of Trau's 45 field goals have been short range, mainly because we have failed to score touchdowns in the red zone. Unlike larger schools, we can't afford a long range and a short range kicker. Recruiting needs to get better in this area.
It’s called SATs and/or ACTs,or lack thereof.One of the reasons he changed colors.
Griffin Trau, who passed Tim Hightower last week for #2 on UR's all-time scoring list missed just the 10th field goal of his Richmond career yesterday. To put this in perspective, the only player in 137 years of Spider football history (Andrew Howard) to score more points than our current kicker missed 29 field goals in his excellent career. Even with Saturday's miss, Trau will eventually finish his collegiate football career as one of the more accurate kickers in all of Division 1 college football history (perhaps the single most accurate kicker in FCS/1AA history at over 80%). While so many are eager to diminish this kid's abilities and accomplishments over the last 5 years, the numbers speak for themselves. But wait, you say, his kickoffs are terrible and his four misses this year are an embarrassment. High school kickers can do better, you say, over and over again. Well, maybe that is so considering that high school kickers tee the ball up on the 40 yard line and all they need to do is kick the ball 60 yards down the middle of the field to record an automatic touchback (cannot return the ball in HS once it reaches the goal line). The only guys in college who are permitted to kick the ball down the middle of the field from the 35 yard line are those who can put the ball at least 5 yards deep in the end zone every time (that is 70 yards in the air and the difference between baseball players who hit in the #8 hole and guys who compete in the Home Run Derby). All the other kickers who can't ramp it up to 70+ are instructed by coaches to aim for a specific corner with a specific trajectory (while praying that the sideways ball won't go out of bounds). Since the middle of the field is not an option provided for kickoff guys who earn their scoring stripes by kicking the ball straight (fyi, it's a lot farther to a corner of the field than a direct line to the end zone), then the kicker who is trained to hit the ball straight must now become the football equivalent of a knuckleball pitcher or "junk-baller." At the Division 1 level, most teams have kickoff guys AND placement guys (UVA had 6 or 7 kickers). If a team has a guy who can do both at a high level (kick regular touchbacks AND hit FGs with 75+% accuracy, that guy has a chance to make a 53 man roster and kick on Sundays...). Generally speaking, guys who hit the ball really far off the tee can't put the ball between the pipes with regularity. Conversely, many highly accurate guys are not particularly long off the tee. If distance off the tee were all that mattered in golf, John Daly might be the all-time money winner on the PGA Tour! So, just as kicking off in HS is not close to the same deal as it is at the next level, kicking FGs and PATs is also dramatically different as HS placekickers are permitted to kick off a 2 inch tee and aim at goal posts that are about 2 yards wider apart... While the grass is always greener on the other side of the street, think twice the next time you are drooling over a HS kicker you see hit one from 40+ yards or kick touchbacks after every score, or the college guy that bangs it out of the end zone, but who can't win the placekicking job on his team due to inconsistency. UR has gotten a great deal of mileage out of a walk-on who is the only Spider kicker in history to ever make 1st Team All-America (Walter Camp, AP, among others). For all you "fans" who can't wait for this 2X CAA 1st Team All-Conference, 4X CAA All-Academic bum who paid his own way at UR for three years to go away, take heart -- you only have to suffer in your misery for another few weeks! If that's not enough of a consolation for you, might I suggest pooling your funds to "take out a contract" on him during the bye week... While I am certain that there are many more of our boys who might be on your "hit list," I thought I might put a bug in your ear about this higher profile senior target. Other terrible (younger) players should get the message soon enough and either leave the program or face the grim consequences of being judged to play poorly while wearing a Spider uniform by several FOOTBALL EXPERTS on this board!!!
P.S. – Justin Tucker, the best and most accurate kicker in the NFL, missed a PAT that cost the Ravens an opportunity to extend their game today (after hitting 222 straight). Cut him, right guys?????
Well said old line -- the boards are to allow people to express their opinion, but many times we are irrational
Similar threads
