Special Teams

[zip8]

Word from Rasor is that the top two kickers went 1-6 on fg's in today's scrimmage. How long will it be before they give the walk-on the opportunity to kick? Or will they just go straight to the soccer team before giving him a chance? Something has to be done and with three kickers there is no reason you can't find one good enough to make all PAT's and most FG's.What about the punting situation? Brookhart was quoted on Rasor as saying that Hildreth would have to flat-out beat Stec to get the postion. In my mind you put the better player on the field; last year doesn't factor into the decision this year.

[Zipmeister]

I am getting uneasy with the consistent reports that the Zips don't have a kicker who can make field gols in practice. Things aren't likely to get better in real games unless they are practicing with 8 foot wide goal posts and 20 foot high crossbars. Supposedly the kickers have the talent. Maybe its time to bring in a sports shrink.

[zff]

Where is the walk-on. If he can make kicks give him a shot. I know it sucks to have 2 kicker on scholarship sitting the pines but they need a solid kicker.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Domonkos might be useful as a kick off guy, but that's about it. If I see him trot on to the field to duck-hook a 40 yarder this season I'll scream. Igor has been underwhelming thusfar, but at least his kicks sail end-over-end and don't rotate sideways.Either way, we need a kicker that makes 75-80% of his kicks. Not 33%.

[Buckzip]

Igor was highly rated coming in. What the hell happened?

[ZachTheZip]

Igor was highly rated coming in. What the hell happened?

I think it's all in his head. Kicking is highly mental, more so than any other position on the team. Missing a year, beating up a fellow student, having a competition where your competitors aren't good but you just can't seem to do better than them even when you should blow them away, can all have an effect on a person's psyche. He needs to see the team shrink.

[Zipgrad01]

I have watched the Campbell kid kick at McKinley and he was very good. He was drilling 45-50 yarder's in warm ups with ease in 35-40 degree high school playoff weather. I don't care if JD has to bring a guy out of the stands for tryouts, kicking should be almost automatic from 45 yards and in at the D1 level. This is just a joke.

[zip8]

Can anyone who may have attended practice tell me if they've seen the punters or kickers and how they looked? I know there was a report of a scrimmage by Captain K and he said Domonkos looked terrible, but I haven't heard of how the special teams crew looks in practice.

[UADavid]

kicking should be almost automatic from 45 yards

I feel your pain but 45 yard field goals are not almost automatic even for the pros. I would say a better distance with good confidence would be 35 yards out.

[uafan]

Reply to zip8...I saw the last scrimmage over the weekend. The kickers were underwhelming. HS and college are very different when the kids don't get to use the block anymore. Mental? Yes, I think so. On the punting side, Stec was inconsistent, looked like he was trying too hard. Hildreth looked comfortable, dropping most of his punts inside the 20. I would rather have a smaller average than someone booming them into the end zone.