looks like K Hawthorne to be a Gopher!

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TCF=UnitedWeStand

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I sure hope he's good (surely he can't be worse than what we dealt with for 90% of last year; Illinois and Iowa the exceptions).

Off-season needs:
Kicker - check
Punter - check (the walkon)
DBacks - getting there
Receivers - getting there, but need more
A pass rush - ?
Big-time RB - Please, Bishop!
 

The addition are nice. Let's hope we have few subtractions if any.
 

Wedley Estime could commit anytime it looks like. He recently listed the Gophers on the top of his list according to Rivals. The kid has a motor that does not quit, that could help with the pass rush.
 


Who is the walk-on punter? Haven't seen anything about this recently.
 


Walk-on punter is from Green Bay

ESPN bio

Kohl's (the national kicking camp folks, not the retail chain) has him as the 16th ranked punter they've seen out of this class.

The same folks FWIW had Hawthorne as their 30th ranked kicker noting that he was "new to football" when presumably he was a junior or going into his senior year of highschool.

Also of some interest:
Kip Smith, the kid who was holier-than-Goldy, was third in their ranking last year as he spurned us for the moral sanctity of the halls of UCLA.

Dan Orseske, our current punter, was their top punter of '09; "Best Punting Prospect in the Nation, shows great potential to develop", being their note. Boy did he not really live up to that billing... But who did Brewster have as a coach? I seem to remember he had next to no experience, but it is too late tonite to go digging for that info. Let's just hope between the potential Orseske had or Mortell has shown coming out of high school combined with the overall coaching experience Kill staff brings that our punting flourishes, as I doubt we will be scoring every possession amongst the "Legends" of the B1G Ten.
 

I am not giving up on Orseske yet, i've seen a couple of his punts that would have been impressive at any level. Granted he looked atrocious last season, I will be anxious to see what he will do when he has a little competition and different coaching.

That is, if we even use our punter next season.
 

TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
I sure hope he's good (surely he can't be worse than what we dealt with for 90% of last year; Illinois and Iowa the exceptions).

Off-season needs:
Kicker - check
Punter - check (the walkon)
DBacks - getting there
Receivers - getting there, but need more
A pass rush - ?
Big-time RB - Please, Bishop!
Click to expand...

Bob_Loblaw said:
I am not giving up on Orseske yet, i've seen a couple of his punts that would have been impressive at any level. Granted he looked atrocious last season, I will be anxious to see what he will do when he has a little competition and different coaching.

That is, if we even use our punter next season.
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OK, let's get this straight. Worse than last year? Atrocious?

Ellestad was 24 of 34 on FG (70.6%), and missed one XP his entire career (botched snap). He was 11-17 last year, which is not great, but average (70% is NCAA ave). What did we have before that? 5-6 missed XP per year and about a 60% FG rate. Ellestad was an improvement. We forget we have not had an outstanding kicker since Lohmiller.

Orseske had a crappy year, but he was coming off mono and Schwerman would have been a downgrade. We forget that Orseske averaged almost 45 yards a kick before the mono. Three blocked kicks and a snap over the head don't help either. Competition and a new coach will help as well.

Slow down a little guys. Breathe.
 

highwayman said:
OK, let's get this straight. Worse than last year? Atrocious?

Ellestad was 24 of 34 on FG (70.6%), and missed one XP his entire career (botched snap). He was 11-17 last year, which is not great, but average (70% is NCAA ave). What did we have before that? 5-6 missed XP per year and about a 60% FG rate. Ellestad was an improvement. We forget we have not had an outstanding kicker since Lohmiller.

Orseske had a crappy year, but he was coming off mono and Schwerman woulf have been a downgrade. We forget that Orseske averaged almost 45 yards a kick before the mono. Three blocked kicks and a sna over the head don't help either. Competition and a new coach will help as well.

Slow down a little guys. Breathe.
Click to expand...


Mono or no mono, the guy sucked last year. I understand mono affects every athlete but can't believe it can be the main reason for averaging only 36 yards/punt in his first full season of punting.
 



highwayman said:
OK, let's get this straight. Worse than last year? Atrocious?

Ellestad was 24 of 34 on FG (70.6%), and missed one XP his entire career (botched snap). He was 11-17 last year, which is not great, but average (70% is NCAA ave). What did we have before that? 5-6 missed XP per year and about a 60% FG rate. Ellestad was an improvement. We forget we have not had an outstanding kicker since Lohmiller.

Orseske had a crappy year, but he was coming off mono and Schwerman would have been a downgrade. We forget that Orseske averaged almost 45 yards a kick before the mono. Three blocked kicks and a snap over the head don't help either. Competition and a new coach will help as well.

Slow down a little guys. Breathe.
Click to expand...

I was referring to last year, during which Ellestad was 11 of 17 and a terrible 5-11 from 30+ yards. For a college kicker at any level, that is terrible. And Orseske was terrible as well.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I am not giving up on Orseske yet, i've seen a couple of his punts that would have been impressive at any level. Granted he looked atrocious last season, I will be anxious to see what he will do when he has a little competition and different coaching.

That is, if we even use our punter next season.
Click to expand...

Same here. When Orseske wasn't doing that side-step quasi-rugby thing, he hit the ball fairly well.
 

I've gotta agree with 50PoundHead and highwayman - Orseske looked really good in 2009 before he was hurt and most of the crappy punting that drove us crazy in 2010 was that stupid rugby punts where he's trying to get backspin on the punt. If he had mono, that explains more of the dropoff from 2009 to 2010. Orseske should be an excellent punter if he is healthy and if he can improve on those short field punts.
 

Golden Elephant said:
I've gotta agree with 50PoundHead and highwayman - Orseske looked really good in 2009 before he was hurt and most of the crappy punting that drove us crazy in 2010 was that stupid rugby punts where he's trying to get backspin on the punt. If he had mono, that explains more of the dropoff from 2009 to 2010. Orseske should be an excellent punter if he is healthy and if he can improve on those short field punts.
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Orseske will be fine. He was freshman, for cryin' out loud. By all accounts, he has the leg and punting isn't nearly as much of a head game as placekicking. I think the change of scenery (coaching staff) will make a world of difference. Not saying anything about last year's coaching staff or the coaching that HE got in particular, but sometimes just a change can make a world of difference.
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Orseske will be fine. He was freshman, for cryin' out loud. By all accounts, he has the leg and punting isn't nearly as much of a head game as placekicking. I think the change of scenery (coaching staff) will make a world of difference. Not saying anything about last year's coaching staff or the coaching that HE got in particular, but sometimes just a change can make a world of difference.
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I can't imagine Orseske not figuring out what went wrong last year. The kid looked awesome in his first two games before going down with mono.
 

I'm not giving up on Orseske either. I'm just glad we will have some insurance, just in case.
 

Orseske - Tremendous talent. Couldn't be more pleased with his progress

Best punter in America
 

Count me as another who still think Orseske has a chance to turn it around. Seriously, he was a stud in 2009 before mono and I don't see why he can't get back to that if properly coached.
 

highwayman said:
Ellestad was 24 of 34 on FG (70.6%), and missed one XP his entire career (botched snap). He was 11-17 last year, which is not great, but average (70% is NCAA ave). What did we have before that? 5-6 missed XP per year and about a 60% FG rate. Ellestad was an improvement. We forget we have not had an outstanding kicker since Lohmiller.
Click to expand...

As TCF notes, he was atrocious from anything resembling range. A college kicker should be pretty automatic inside of 40 and decent in the 40-50 range. Once he got past 30 yards Ellestad couldn't get it done.
 

Orseske will be just fine. The drops on the long punts are fine but the PLUMB DROP is a challenge for any punter. I've never seen a plumb-drop until Brew showed up. Punting is like a golf swing. Don't screw with it if its working.
 

highwayman said:
OK, let's get this straight. Worse than last year? Atrocious?

Ellestad was 24 of 34 on FG (70.6%), and missed one XP his entire career (botched snap). He was 11-17 last year, which is not great, but average (70% is NCAA ave). What did we have before that? 5-6 missed XP per year and about a 60% FG rate. Ellestad was an improvement. We forget we have not had an outstanding kicker since Lohmiller.

Orseske had a crappy year, but he was coming off mono and Schwerman would have been a downgrade. We forget that Orseske averaged almost 45 yards a kick before the mono. Three blocked kicks and a snap over the head don't help either. Competition and a new coach will help as well.

Slow down a little guys. Breathe.
Click to expand...


If you read my whole post I really wasn't trying to bash Orseske. The point of my post was that I thought he actually looked like he had talent (at times) and that I hoped and wouldn't be shocked if he has success. I think I pointed out the same thing that you did, the competition and a new coach could certainly turn things around for Orseske (who is a talented kid).

As far as me calling him atrocious, well, he was. He was terribly inconsistant and struggled all year. I'm sure if you asked Dan Orseske if he thought he punted "atrocious" last year, he'd say yes.
 

GoAUpher said:
Count me as another who still think Orseske has a chance to turn it around. Seriously, he was a stud in 2009 before mono and I don't see why he can't get back to that if properly coached.
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I don't know if I have ever heard a punter referred to as a stud before. ;)
 

Schnauzer said:
I don't know if I have ever heard a punter referred to as a stud before. ;)
Click to expand...

Todd Sauerbrun. Of course, he was on horse tranquilizers at the time, so the stud farm was pretty excited to have him there.
 

Schnauzer said:
I don't know if I have ever heard a punter referred to as a stud before. ;)
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Ha ha...what can I say? I wasn't used to watching a frosh punter boom 60 yarders like it was nothing. :) I really hope the new staff can get him back to where he was because he was pretty impressive.
 

GoAUpher said:
Ha ha...what can I say? I wasn't used to watching a frosh punter boom 60 yarders like it was nothing. :) I really hope the new staff can get him back to where he was because he was pretty impressive.
Click to expand...

I'll ditto this. I remember watching him kick at the spring game, and the only thing I could say was "holy sh*t". Then the regular season came around, and I was still saying that, but for a different reason altogether.
 

I think early on there were some really bad punts that stick in people's minds and of course the two blocks, but overall I think he did ok. He put 15 punts out of 49 inside the opponents 20. I think a combination of circumstances and coaching affected his play. Maybe a little competition in camp and the new coaches can get him back on track. He a good number of punts around 50 yards long.
 

I've posted here before that the coaching style over the last 4 years was to scream at our kickers and threaten to take their scholarships away on every bad kick. I'm not making that up. The head guy was the worst.

Kickers are a funny breed. They are not only the most sensitive guys, but usually the most competative. No one was as hard on Ellestad and Orseske as Ellestad and Orseske. We went through three long snappers and Ellestad had three different holders. Coaching wrecked these guys, coaching can salvage Orseske. Competetion is good, especially for kickers, and it helps to have a back-up. Ask Blake Hauden.
 

so who's our kicking coach and does he know anything or have experience at kicking?
 

idagopher said:
so who's our kicking coach and does he know anything or have experience at kicking?
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http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArt...DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=205070611&Q_SEASON=2011

Doesn't look like it. The only quote on his page about actual kicking/punting is "Special teams were strong at SIU under Sawvel, as well. The Salukis ranked No. 1 in the Gateway Conference and No. 7 in the nation in net punting, . . . ". Net punting, though, no reference to actual kicking/punting.
 

A personal observation that has bothered me and my dad , a former gopher punter (not the stupid one who embarrassed the gophers during the coaching search who's name is escaping me right now), is that during spring practice of 2009 Orseske was dropping the ball during his punts at an angle and he was booming them. Then, this year we noticed he was dropping the ball at a vertical angle and kicking the bottom of the ball, and couldn't punt for sh*t. I wonder if this was his idea, or forced upon him by the previous staff. Hopefully he can go back to his old self under the new staff, I do not know if I can take another year of punting like this past year.
 


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