Place Kicker Importance

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Bordergopher

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I’ve always been puzzled by the lack of emphasis/focus in recruiting directed toward place-kickers. It wasn’t long ago that place-kickers were primarily walk-ons (no scholarships). Now, it seems like a few scholarships are handed out. In the pros, a 4th-round draft pick is considered to be a crazy-high pick. What the heck is up with that? It is EXTREMELY important to have a reliable/accurate kicker and also a long kicker. Today was a painful lesson in our loss to Iowa.

Part of the blame for this should fall on coach Fleck. To me, the kicker position should be just like QB: When one graduates, you have junior or senior (or maybe a fabulous underclassman) ready to step in and pick up right where the last one left off. It is far too important a position to neglect and is worth several scholarships to make that happen.

So, what the heck is up with our lousy situation at PK? Unless there were some injuries (or transfers) I’m not aware of, this bad spot we are in falls on our coaches. It may have cost us this game or at least contributed to the loss. Am I off base on this?


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You definitely should not invest the number of scholarships needed to ensure you always have an upperclassmen kicker.
 

btowngopher said:
You definitely should not invest the number of scholarships needed to ensure you always have an upperclassmen kicker.
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Don’t we have a few scholarship kickers right now?


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Bordergopher said:
I’ve always been puzzled by the lack of emphasis/focus in recruiting directed toward place-kickers. It wasn’t long ago that place-kickers were primarily walk-ons (no scholarships). Now, it seems like a few scholarships are handed out. In the pros, a 4th-round draft pick is considered to be a crazy-high pick. What the heck is up with that? It is EXTREMELY important to have a reliable/accurate kicker and also a long kicker. Today was a painful lesson in our loss to Iowa.

Part of the blame for this should fall on coach Fleck. To me, the kicker position should be just like QB: When one graduates, you have junior or senior (or maybe a fabulous underclassman) ready to step in and pick up right where the last one left off. It is far too important a position to neglect and is worth several scholarships to make that happen.

So, what the heck is up with our lousy situation at PK? Unless there were some injuries (or transfers) I’m not aware of, this bad spot we are in falls on our coaches. It may have cost us this game or at least contributed to the loss. Am I off base on this?


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Click to expand...

We have two placekickers on scholarship.
 


Dont we also have a grad transfer?

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btowngopher said:
You definitely should not invest the number of scholarships needed to ensure you always have an upperclassmen kicker.
Click to expand...

How in the heck is it that people like you can’t see the importance of having a good kicker? Just as important as having a good position player. If it takes more scholarships, then so be it.


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Bordergopher said:
How in the heck is it that people like you can’t see the importance of having a good kicker? Just as important as having a good position player. If it takes more scholarships, then so be it.


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Take a nap. Your take is not good. We have 2 scholarship kickers and an upperclassman transfer kicker. I bet that’s more than any team in the country. Most teams can’t go 2 deep at K.


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We have been very spoiled over the last two decades with very good kickers. Out current kicker are very young, and will come around with seasoning.
 


die hard gopher said:
And a third in Tarbutt who was a two year FBS starter.

Our kicking situation isn't great but it's not due to a neglect of the position.
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Interesting take. To me, it is either neglect (not enough scholarships handed out) or bad recruiting, or poor talent evaluation. From what I’m hearing, it must be #2 or #3.


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Bordergopher said:
How in the heck is it that people like you can’t see the importance of having a good kicker? Just as important as having a good position player. If it takes more scholarships, then so be it.


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Click to expand...

Never said it's not important to have a good kicker. I said I think it's dumb to spend so many scholarships as to ensure your kicker is always a junior or senior. You can't just throw away scholarships. A kicker is something that should be pretty easy to identify in my opinion, you shouldn't need to have more than a couple scholarship kickers on the roster at a time.
 

Vandy said:
We have been very spoiled over the last two decades with very good kickers. Out current kicker are very young, and will come around with seasoning.
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I don't think Lantz has been as bad as some think. He's missed 2 extra points and is 5-8 on fg, one miss being from 50+. He also made a huge fg vs Fresno State with the game on the line.
 

Kickers are more important that correct time out usage.
 

btowngopher said:
I don't think Lantz has been as bad as some think. He's missed 2 extra points and is 5-8 on fg, one miss being from 50+. He also made a huge fg vs Fresno State with the game on the line.
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I agree, i am not worried overall about the kicking game. We have been used to VERY good kickers, but they have graduated and Lantz is and will be fine.
 

btowngopher said:
Never said it's not important to have a good kicker. I said I think it's dumb to spend so many scholarships as to ensure your kicker is always a junior or senior. You can't just throw away scholarships. A kicker is something that should be pretty easy to identify in my opinion, you shouldn't need to have more than a couple scholarship kickers on the roster at a time.
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What planet are you from? Many schools have no scholarship kickers. Many on this board have criticized giving out scholarships to kickers.

We have had a pretty good run prior to this year with Santoso then Carpenter. Both on scholarship by the way....


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WHB Brewer said:
What planet are you from? Many schools have no scholarship kickers. Many on this board have criticized giving out scholarships to kickers.

We have had a pretty good run prior to this year with Santoso then Carpenter. Both on scholarship by the way....


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Haha what is your position? You point out many schools have no scholarship kickers then boast about our prior scholarship kickers? What are you disagreeing with me on?
 

btowngopher said:
Haha what is your position? You point out many schools have no scholarship kickers then boast about our prior scholarship kickers? What are you disagreeing with me on?
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You said it was dumb to spend so many scholarships on kickers, and dining need to have juniors and Seniors. You were basically implying that a competent kicker would just appear out of nowhere




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WHB Brewer said:
You said it was dumb to spend so many scholarships on kickers, and dining need to have juniors and Seniors. You were basically implying that a competent kicker would just appear out of nowhere




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Then why did you point out how so many teams aren't spending a lot of scholarships on kickers? If you find a competent kicker you shouldn't need to offer another one until the competent one is a junior or senior in my opinion. It's dumb to spend too many scholarships at any position. It means something got messed up, either misidentified talent, injuries, etc.
 

btowngopher said:
Never said it's not important to have a good kicker. I said I think it's dumb to spend so many scholarships as to ensure your kicker is always a junior or senior. You can't just throw away scholarships. A kicker is something that should be pretty easy to identify in my opinion, you shouldn't need to have more than a couple scholarship kickers on the roster at a time.
Click to expand...

Easy to identify? Hmm, Mike Zimmer might disagree with you on that one.


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Last edited:

btowngopher said:
Then why did you point out how so many teams aren't spending a lot of scholarships on kickers? If you find a competent kicker you shouldn't need to offer another one until the competent one is a junior or senior in my opinion.
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Except when the one offered doesn’t work out.

Why I pointed out the schools who don’t have a scholarship kicker is because it can be a crapshoot. Carpenter was originally a walk-on who beat out Santoso (scholarship kicker) and got a scholarship. Ryerse look like a sure thing out of HS, but hasn’t worked out. Another guy kicked for 2 yrs at a D1 school and transferred but is now 3rd string. The key is finding a competent kicker. It isn’t easy. Just ask Mike Zimmer.






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Cincy beat South Florida tonight on a game winning FG to end the game.

The USF kicker went 1/5 on FG's.

Missed from 50,53,43,and 33.

The USF coach used his timeouts wisely.
 

Face The Facts said:
Cincy beat South Florida tonight on a game winning FG to end the game.

The USF kicker went 1/5 on FG's.

Missed from 50,53,43,and 33.

The USF coach used his timeouts wisely.
Click to expand...

But was the Cincy kicker on scholarship.?


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I thought specialists were so unimportant that they aren't even worth including when you count the number of seniors or upperclassmen on the roster.
 

Face The Facts said:
Cincy beat South Florida tonight on a game winning FG to end the game.

The USF kicker went 1/5 on FG's.

Missed from 50,53,43,and 33.

The USF coach used his timeouts wisely.
Click to expand...

Neither one was an upper classmen.
 

Bordergopher said:
How in the heck is it that people like you can’t see the importance of having a good kicker? Just as important as having a good position player. If it takes more scholarships, then so be it.


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Click to expand...

Chicago Bears fans know this.
 

WHB Brewer said:
Except when the one offered doesn’t work out.

Why I pointed out the schools who don’t have a scholarship kicker is because it can be a crapshoot. Carpenter was originally a walk-on who beat out Santoso (scholarship kicker) and got a scholarship. Ryerse look like a sure thing out of HS, but hasn’t worked out. Another guy kicked for 2 yrs at a D1 school and transferred but is now 3rd string. The key is finding a competent kicker. It isn’t easy. Just ask Mike Zimmer.






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Click to expand...

So how many scholarships are you willing to throw at it? The more you use, the less margin for error you have for recruiting other positions.
 

btowngopher said:
Neither one was an upper classmen.
Click to expand...

Just looked it up and the guy who kicked the winner was a grad transfer but not on scholarship. Yet they have 2 other kickers on scholarship. Guess you never know


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