What is up with this kid? He was the number one kicker in America when he came to UK. He has never seen the field and I’ve heard that Stoops is looking for a punter in the portal. Is he a bust?
Jackson Smith from Boyle County
- Thread starter Pelosigalore
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More than likely a bust. He is never talked about. Stoops says Berry is the their best options so that should tell you a lot.
I bet Max Duffy loses his mind every time he sees Berry punt like a silly American.
What a disappointment….i know I had sky high confidence that he’d be our next great kicker.
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I don’t see the point in recruiting high school specialists anymore when you can just evaluate guys from smaller colleges and steal them later.
Reports were that he couldn't adjust/replicate his HS performance once he had to stop kicking off a tee which is allowed in HS, but not in college.
I thought Smitty was great for us.
It’s hard to imagine that a guy with that much talent could not figure out how to do anything at all at the college level. Why not try him out when we are getting destroyed by Georgia or Alabama? I mean could he possibly be worse than Wilson Berry?
Chance Poore was the #1 kicker in America by a source too and we see how that turned out. Agree 100% with the poster that said getitng transfer guys from smaller colleges is the way to go with kickers. We know that's one skill that will transfer from FCS/G5 to UK.
Don't these kickers kick for coaches when they make their visits?
It’s the one way Berry has any shot at the NFL, as that league currently views punters.
I watched him in warmups side by side with Berry several times this year and, unfortunately, he always matched Berry 35=yarder for 35-yarder without the ocassional 45-yarder that Berry could sometimes produce.
Well, if he's not gonna pan out then I hope he leaves. We can't tie up a scholarship on a backup punter who's never gonna play. We're already scrunched for numbers from what I've read. We need about 3 transfer OT's for depth. Nik Hall, who may never play again because of injury, and Malachi Wood, who was a long term project, are our current backups at OT. Yikes.
Which is why he should have worked on that during his senior year. My nephew didn’t use a tee his entire senior season at Trinity and lead the state in Field Goals. He did that in preparation for college and his coaches trusted him enough to allow it.
I remember your posts……. Hope he transfers to UK
He’s at Miami OH. He is the backup to Graham Nicholson who just won the Lou Groza Award for the best kicker in the country. The job is Kellan’s when Graham leaves. There was a chance Graham would enter the portal for his final year of eligibility, he actually entered his name briefly then decided to come back. They had originally brought Kellan in to compete immediately for kickoff specialist, but funny thing about competition is that Kellan’s presence all of a sudden made Graham start putting his kickoffs in the end zone. So while it’s not ideal Kellan has to be backup another year, they’ve invested a lot into getting Kellan ready at the drop of a hat. And the coaches are really high on him. He was the only kicker they did in home visits with during his recruit. Miami places a big emphasis on special teams. Even their punter had the highest net average in the country and he was the backup going into the season. Kellan did get to kick in the second half of their blowout of Delaware State and made all his XP and put all of his kickoffs in the end zone. He likes it there so far. He was able to redshirt this year. We’ll see what the future holds. He’s down in Orlando for the Cure Bowl today. Look for #38 on the sidelines if you watch.
If he is at a school with the ‘23 Groza Award winner, I would seriously tell him
to stay put.
I didn’t know the Bobcats were a strong kicker’s school!!
Contrary to what some people are apparently desperate to believe, player ratings in hs do not predict how productive an athlete will turn out to be in college. Kicker rankings are even less predictive. Placekickers kick off a tee in hs but must adjust to no tee in college. Punters have to get their kicks away quicker and produce more hang time and
directional accuracy. This comes more easily for some than for others. College is a different game with a different level of athleticism. It's a time of development. Some athletes get stronger, quicker, and more skilled, while others don't. If Jackson Smith had won the job in practice, he would be kicking in games. Maybe he will some day. Coach Boulware knows what he is doing.
I don’t expect him to be the number one kicker in college. If coach B thinks that Berry was the best option at Punter, then JS must not have it. Hopefully he proves me wrong soon.
Wilson Berry is the punter, so that's what Coach Boulware thinks. However, there are a couple of obvious caveats. For one thing, Boulware did away with the "rugby style" punting for blocking scheme reasons, so that could signal a willingness to go another route with the punter in spring practice. IDK who that would be, and it might not be Jackson Smith. UK had one of the least effective punting teams in the SEC by most metrics although they have actually done a fair job (improved from 2022) limiting punt returns. It would be better to have Tim Masthay or Glenn Pakulak back there, but I don't see anyone on UK's current roster including Berry or Smith who is close to being capable of that. We could still see another roster addition though.
Andrew Dobbs kicked at LCA, kicked without a tee, was very impressive in all kicking camps and UK didn't recruit him because of the kid at Boyle County. Meanwhile, Andrew sits in a dorm going to school at UK and I have no doubt could be the kicker at UK.
I don’t know nuthin about the Bobcats other than we play them next year. But the Redhawks have a pretty good Special Teams program. 😁
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