(09-26-2016 06:42 PM)ODUCoach Wrote: Great hearing from you, man! First, good luck in the real world. It's definitely not as much fun as college!
As for kicking, maybe here is the key question. Surely, there must be at least 5 guys on the roster that kicked XPs for their HS team. Is kicking it at the college level that much more difficult? It would seem to us message board amateurs that they basics are exactly the same. How wrong are we?
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Okay, so I am going to give a really really in-depth answer so that maybe everyone's questions are answered.
So kicking is a VERY VERY different industry when it comes to recruiting. Other positions, if you have skill, you will be recruited because you get exposure. The only way to get exposure as a kicker is through a few services (chris sailer kicking and kohl's kicking) being the major ones that get the most notoriety. Now that's all good and dandy, but through my process, and other kickers/punters I know, it seemed pretty obvious that the kickers who were highest rated were the ones who had the money to attend all the camps. These camps are around 450$ for about 2 hours of instruction and competition. I happened to get very lucky and only go to one and get ranked highly, that was during JUCO and my only way I could afford it was by working 55 hours for two weeks straight in order to have enough money for the trip, the camp, and still have enough to make my rent payments. Now the reason I say this is because many kickers who are AMAZING kickers and punters get overlooked due to not being ranked by a kicking site. This means that most of these kids have to either do a walk-on or preferred walk-on. This is the reason you hear of many kickers who were walk-ons beating out the starter.
Moving on, ODU has always had the philosophy of taking walk-ons, and a lot of them. When I came on there were three of us, last year there were 6. So ODU understands very well the ability to find a diamond in the rough and did so with Jarod Brown, and did so with Chris Kirtley (who is a fantastic kicker and it is unfortunate he is hurt). I am not completely sure as to why they didn't take as many this year, my guess being that they had a surefire baller in Chris who had proven himself last year with a stellar end to the season and they had a freshman coming in (Bailey Cate) who they were comfortable with punting and Bailey has done a bang up job. I know most of you don't understand, but how ODU schemes is perfect for the type of punter Bailey is and he is going to be FANTASTIC as he continues to develop (as he's only done it for a few years, somewhat similar to me but I only started punting at the end of the 2014 season).
Moving on to the current kickers we have on the roster. Yes, I believe each of them can make the FG's and PAT's they are called upon. They all have great legs. The question is will they, I believe that all three of them are talented but you have to look at a few factors! A) First off, Bailey is a punter first, he's done a solid job kicking but that wasn't his main job and only started doing that last season. B) Brad and Bailey are both Freshman, and believe it or not, Pressure does get to us sometimes, it's hard to explain the feelings that go through us while running out to kick, but sometimes emotions can get the best of you. C) We have a new holder, after three years of probably the best holder I have ever seen in Joe Pulisic, the team is breaking in new holders (something we haven't had to worry about since Joe was on the team), and having Jacob Schwind do it is great and gets him involved, but he is also a freshman, which can lead to nerves (however I believe Schwind has been doing a great job).
Now I will give you my own experiences as a kicker to answer the second part about college kicking. In highschool, you are allowed to use a tee to kick off (one inch or two inch) and most high school coaches will never let you kick off the ground due to the height produced from a tee as well as the grass being terrible on most high school fields. In college, kickers have to kick off the ground, so getting use to a different motion (deeper plant foot, swing lower and more through the ball) can be interesting and hard to get accustomed too. However, I believe all the kickers can do that perfectly fine. I would say the hardest part, however, of transitioning to college is getting used to not having that block as your aiming spot (both for the kicker and the holder). The kicker has to find a spot to put his eyes (usually where the holder puts his finger to mark the kicker's spot. The holder can, and it usually tends to be the reason kicks go astray, miss the spot, which can lead to the kicker mishitting the ball due to it not being where his steps lead to. This can be due to the snap or just the holder gaffing. While this is a problem, I have always said that kickers should never miss a kicker shorter than 30 yards due how close it is and how much of a bad hold must occur for you to not be able to just power the ball through the posts.
I think everyone needs to have faith in the kickers. They are all very young, and are developing. While right now we might not be where they wanna be, they will with growth and more experience.
SZ
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Honest Question:Can we recruit a backup kicker from any other team during the season?
