Is anyone else worried about

Doc1001

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our field goal kicking for next year? Probably three or four games may be determined by the kicker so we better have a good one in place. Are we ignoring that position?
 

I've been worried about field goal kicking since Nystrom graduated. Can't be any worse than last year.
 

It seems as though the position has been ignored the last 3-4 years...
 

i think they should hold an open try out to all students. at a school of our size you never know what you might come across.
 





I can't imagine Gopher football without feeling fear every time our kicker lines up for a FG or PAT, it's been that long since we've had a serviceable kicker.
 

We were pretty solid on XP's last year weren't we. I thought we were decent last year.

And yes I'm concerned.
 



We were pretty solid on XP's last year weren't we. I thought we were decent last year.

And yes I'm concerned.

Uh no. There was that key miss at Illinois that almost came back to haunt us.

I've generally been worried since Chip graduated. :(
 

Let's use perspective and not try to compare against the ever elusive perfection.

Penn state and Mich state were they only teams with perfect XP's in the B10
OSU and Wiscy each had one miss.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mich, and Minn each had two misses.
Purdue with three
Northwestern with four.

Let's not try to paint our kicking game as poor last year. It wasn't the best ever but it was far from being a weakness.
 

Let's use perspective and not try to compare against the ever elusive perfection.

Penn state and Mich state were they only teams with perfect XP's in the B10
OSU and Wiscy each had one miss.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mich, and Minn each had two misses.
Purdue with three
Northwestern with four.

Let's not try to paint our kicking game as poor last year. It wasn't the best ever but it was far from being a weakness.

My recollection is that we did not try many field goals last year. Early in the season we were deadly in the red zone. When we tried an FG I felt like it was, at best, a coin toss regardless of distance. We lost the NW game on a field goal from XP distance.
 

I guess I don't know what you're saying. If you're saying we sucked, I would strongly disagree. If you're saying there are better kickers out there, yes I agree. If you're saying you just didn't feel confident when we had to kick, i guess that's not debatable, it's just how you feel.

Regardless the original point of the post is if we're concerned about next year, and I am. Because it could be worse.
 



I guess I don't know what you're saying. If you're saying we sucked, I would strongly disagree. If you're saying there are better kickers out there, yes I agree. If you're saying you just didn't feel confident when we had to kick, i guess that's not debatable, it's just how you feel.

Regardless the original point of the post is if we're concerned about next year, and I am. Because it could be worse.

I guess I am saying that our placekicking was mediocre, at best, last year. It will be interesting to see how it works out this year. The coaching staff didn't seem to be trying real hard to bring in a place kicker in this class. Hopefully that's a good sign.
 


The FG missed against Northwestern was essentially a PAT...and that pretty much cost us the game, and you could argue that it led to the collapse of the team. Obviously it's not the kickers fault we couldn't rebound after the Northwestern loss, but that chip shot FG miss was the turning point of the season.
 

Let's use perspective and not try to compare against the ever elusive perfection.

Penn state and Mich state were they only teams with perfect XP's in the B10
OSU and Wiscy each had one miss.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mich, and Minn each had two misses.
Purdue with three
Northwestern with four.

Let's not try to paint our kicking game as poor last year. It wasn't the best ever but it was far from being a weakness.

Missing a 20 yard field goal which would have likely made us 8-1 on the year qualifies as a significant weakness.
 

I guess it all boils down to the position being served will cost a Scholarship if he is to get a good one.

I have to agree it is a position usually overlooked, but somehow ends up costing a bundle everytime it is!
 

You guys really need to judge based on the other teams and how we compare. We didn't suck. We could do better. We could do worse. Mediocre is a fair enough description. Although I'd say a little better than that when considering kick offs as a component.
 

The question was "Is anyone else worried...", not where do we compare.

I don't think I'm alone in saying that I am fearful every time we take a FG. Maybe that is mostly do to the past, but so be it. I have little confidence when it comes down to it.
 

This is a significant concern

Anybody who says this isn't a major concern for the Gophers, and that it hasn't been for the last 4+ years, either isn't paying attention or doesn't know a lot about the game of football.

First off, I could care less how good the kicking game is for our opponents. That's their problem and it doesn't have any bearing on the quality of ours.

Secondly, the placekicking game is FAR more than just makes and misses.

For the last 4 or more years, the placekicking situation has affected the playcalling on a large number of drives every time the Gophers cross midfield. In short, your inability to convert on those scoring opportunities has a big impact on what you do on second and third down when you get inside of what most would consider "field goal range." You can be far more aggressive on offense, and therefore less predictable, if you know you've got 3 points locked up already.

When the barefooter, Rich Karlis, was negotiating a new contract with the Vikings a while back, he said two things I've never forgotten and both were dead on the money (I'll modify it to fit the Gophers situation).

1) There are NOT 11 good kickers in the Big Ten

2) A coach doesn't know how important a kicker is until he DOESN'T have one.

The Gophers have lost FAR more games in the last several years than a few memorable ones that were lost because of a missed chipshot FG or XP.
 




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