TrojanCampaign
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Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
So my wife and I were talking about our kid playing football the other day. She is a big soccer fan and I'm obviously a big football fan. So we want to encourage our son to play soccer and football as a kicker.
I have been looking over kickers being recruited and have noticed hardly any of them rank above 3 stars. What makes someone a 4-5 star kicker? I presume accuracy and distance are big factors. Do any of you have more insight?
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09-11-2017 08:58 AM |
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BePcr07
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 08:58 AM)TrojanCampaign Wrote: So my wife and I were talking about our kid playing football the other day. She is a big soccer fan and I'm obviously a big football fan. So we want to encourage our son to play soccer and football as a kicker.
I have been looking over kickers being recruited and have noticed hardly any of them rank above 3 stars. What makes someone a 4-5 star kicker? I presume accuracy and distance are big factors. Do any of you have more insight?
I played soccer from near infancy through college. I was also a kicker in high school. There were college opportunities, but my heart was with soccer.
I don't know how someone becomes a 4 or 5 star kicker but, for recruiting and exposure purposes, I highly recommend going to camps with current and former college players, college coaches, and professional coaches. The one I attended a handful of times which helped my in my distance, accuracy, and confidence was Ray Guy's kicking camp. Here's a link: https://www.prokicker.com/. They are typically 2-day camps that last all day. Hope that helps!
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09-11-2017 09:44 AM |
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GO Coogs GO!!!
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
I few years back we signed the #1 rated kicker and he was only a 3 star.
I don't think kickers get rated above a 3.
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09-11-2017 10:05 AM |
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bullet
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
I don't think there are any coaches who were kickers so they don't value them. I know of several coaches who would force punters to walk-on. And paid for it. After a QB, a great punter would be the next player I would recruit. They can make 5-10 yards difference every possession. And Bobby Bowden (wide right vs. Miami) can tell you about how valuable placekickers can be. How many national championships did it cost him?
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09-11-2017 10:37 AM |
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TrojanCampaign
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 10:05 AM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote: I few years back we signed the #1 rated kicker and he was only a 3 star.
I don't think kickers get rated above a 3.
I'm trying to find the logic behind this. There are unrated, 1, 2, and 3 star kickers. What criteria is used to grade a kicker?
And some like this kid are rated literally 1 point from being a 4 star recruit http://247sports.com/Player/Michael-Geiger-21916 .
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09-11-2017 10:37 AM |
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TrojanCampaign
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 10:37 AM)bullet Wrote: I don't think there are any coaches who were kickers so they don't value them. I know of several coaches who would force punters to walk-on. And paid for it. After a QB, a great punter would be the next player I would recruit. They can make 5-10 yards difference every possession. And Bobby Bowden (wide right vs. Miami) can tell you about how valuable placekickers can be. How many national championships did it cost him?
A bad kicker/punter can ruin any team. I'm not sure why their position is so undervalued. How often do teams spend scholarships on having multiple RB/WR's who rarely ever see the field? But refuse to even offer a scholarship in many cases to someone who will be the person who actually wins or losses games?
I mean look at USC. If we had a bad kicker last year we would not have won the Rose Bowl.
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09-11-2017 10:40 AM |
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bullet
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 10:40 AM)TrojanCampaign Wrote: (09-11-2017 10:37 AM)bullet Wrote: I don't think there are any coaches who were kickers so they don't value them. I know of several coaches who would force punters to walk-on. And paid for it. After a QB, a great punter would be the next player I would recruit. They can make 5-10 yards difference every possession. And Bobby Bowden (wide right vs. Miami) can tell you about how valuable placekickers can be. How many national championships did it cost him?
A bad kicker/punter can ruin any team. I'm not sure why their position is so undervalued. How often do teams spend scholarships on having multiple RB/WR's who rarely ever see the field? But refuse to even offer a scholarship in many cases to someone who will be the person who actually wins or losses games?
I mean look at USC. If we had a bad kicker last year we would not have won the Rose Bowl.
John Mackovic at Texas and Mark Richt at Georgia would not sign punters. Both paid dearly.
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09-11-2017 10:48 AM |
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Wedge
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 10:37 AM)bullet Wrote: After a QB, a great punter would be the next player I would recruit. They can make 5-10 yards difference every possession.
Right, a top-notch punter is significantly more valuable than just a competent punter. On those possessions when your offense just can't move the ball, it's a huge lift to have a punt that is downed or fair-caught inside the 10 yard line.
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09-11-2017 11:08 AM |
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ColKurtz
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
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09-11-2017 11:11 AM |
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Lord Stanley
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 10:40 AM)TrojanCampaign Wrote: A bad kicker/punter can ruin any team. I'm not sure why their position is so undervalued.
It's nothing more than pride, ego and machismo on the coaching side.
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09-11-2017 11:35 AM |
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Dasville
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
UNC's punter is 28yrs old from Australia and he isn't the oldest punter in college football. When it comes to the foot, apparently, anything goes.
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09-11-2017 11:37 AM |
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arkstfan
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
Most services assign stars based on impact, to the total team, not grading within position. Additionally unless they go to a quality camp everyone is leery of placekickers because of the rules differences.
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09-11-2017 12:05 PM |
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GO Coogs GO!!!
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 11:37 AM)Dasville Wrote: UNC's punter is 28yrs old from Australia and he isn't the oldest punter in college football. When it comes to the foot, apparently, anything goes.
We have an Aussie punter too!
I think he is 28 as well, maybe they know each other..... lol
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09-11-2017 03:06 PM |
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ken d
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 03:06 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote: (09-11-2017 11:37 AM)Dasville Wrote: UNC's punter is 28yrs old from Australia and he isn't the oldest punter in college football. When it comes to the foot, apparently, anything goes.
We has an Aussie punter too!
I think he is 28 as well, maybe they know each other..... lol
After all, how many punters can there be in Australia?
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09-11-2017 03:25 PM |
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arkstfan
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 03:25 PM)ken d Wrote: (09-11-2017 03:06 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote: (09-11-2017 11:37 AM)Dasville Wrote: UNC's punter is 28yrs old from Australia and he isn't the oldest punter in college football. When it comes to the foot, apparently, anything goes.
We has an Aussie punter too!
I think he is 28 as well, maybe they know each other..... lol
After all, how many punters can there be in Australia?
At least three because Arkansas State's punter is from Australia and he's our second punter from there.
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09-11-2017 03:39 PM |
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Kaplony
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 12:05 PM)arkstfan Wrote: Most services assign stars based on impact, to the total team, not grading within position. Additionally unless they go to a quality camp everyone is leery of placekickers because of the rules differences.
Yup.
Most high school kickers us a tee on placekicks. That 2" block of rubber makes a huge difference. When I was coaching school ball our kicker said he just about had to learn to kick again after going away from the tee between his sophomore and junior years of high school to make himself more desirable to college coaches.
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09-11-2017 04:34 PM |
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ken d
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 08:58 AM)TrojanCampaign Wrote: So my wife and I were talking about our kid playing football the other day. She is a big soccer fan and I'm obviously a big football fan. So we want to encourage our son to play soccer and football as a kicker.
I have been looking over kickers being recruited and have noticed hardly any of them rank above 3 stars. What makes someone a 4-5 star kicker? I presume accuracy and distance are big factors. Do any of you have more insight?
I'm not sure "hilarious" means what you think it means.
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09-11-2017 04:48 PM |
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YNot
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
University of Utah kicker, Matt Gay, hit 4 FG's against BYU in the rivalry game on Saturday.
Gay was a UVU soccer player - active LDS and lifelong BYU fan. He tried out to be BYU's kicker earlier this year but was turned away...so he went to Utah.
BYU's punter/kicker Rhett Almond (who doesn't even attempt FG's beyond 39 yards because of ineptitude) missed his only FG attempt on Saturday - a 28-yard job.
Had BYU switched kickers with Utah on Saturday, BYU probably wins 17-13, everything else holding the same.
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09-11-2017 06:03 PM |
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BruceMcF
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
(09-11-2017 03:25 PM)ken d Wrote: (09-11-2017 03:06 PM)GO Coogs GO!!! Wrote: (09-11-2017 11:37 AM)Dasville Wrote: UNC's punter is 28yrs old from Australia and he isn't the oldest punter in college football. When it comes to the foot, apparently, anything goes.
We has an Aussie punter too!
I think he is 28 as well, maybe they know each other..... lol
After all, how many punters can there be in Australia?
Bucketloads, there're pokie machines in every pub and RSL.
While "punter" in Oz mostly means somebody who likes to make a bet, most of these Ozzie punters are Ozzie rules players ... and since half the country is mad for Ozzie rules football and Ozzie rules places a priority on taking what is basically a free punt, for accuracy & distance (after catching the ball on the fly), quite a lot of Ozzies have worked very hard to get good at punting for accuracy and distance.
(This post was last modified: 09-12-2017 05:52 AM by BruceMcF.)
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09-12-2017 05:52 AM |
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Jazzman3
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RE: Hilarious but honest question about kickers......
Good thread, learning something here!
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09-12-2017 08:28 AM |
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