Welcome Grant McKinniss!!!!
- Thread starter dorkmeister
- Start date
Would rather see us do what the Bama's and LSU's and Florida's do, and find a walk-on punter & kicker (like many of the best kickers usually are) and pick them up on an academic scholarship, instead of using valuable scholarships that could better be used on offensive and defensive linemen and linebackers (which are much more of a priority for the future and can't be filled with walk-ons).
Very important addition at a VERY important position, AND we may have filled two positions at once, even though that would be difficult. Where would you rate our present kicker and punter as contributors in their respective classes, I would bet both should be above the middle of their classes.
A scholarship is a scholarship, even an academic one counts to the allotted amount if they play a scholly sport. At least this has been said a thousand times on here.
Welcome young man, glad you're a Cat! Special Teams are 1/3 of the game and field position is a big part of the outcomes of games. This guy could be a huge weapon.
You can always be counted on to find a negative. This isn't basketball, where 13 scholarships must be used very carefully. With 85 scholarships, there is room for an impact kicker of this caliber. Contrary to what you are suggesting, Kentucky is hardly the only Big 5 school willing to invest a scholarship in a potentially dominant kicker. This is a good move by Stoops. Austin MacGinnis, our preseason all-SEC placekicker and soon to be Kentucky's all time career scoring leader, is also on scholarship.
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No true even if it has been said a 1000 times. It is possible for a player to be on academic scholarship and not count against the scholarship limits. It's also very very difficult to do so, very rare. Basically a player can not be recruited for him to not count. And the scholarship has to be awarded without regard to athletic ability, IE using the same criteria used for all other academic scholarships.
Only one I can remember in recent history was the basketball player back about eight of ten years ago. Ravi Moss maybe.
If you don't think a kicker is a valuable use of a scholarship then I don't know what to tell you.
Not saying a scholarship kicker is any better than a walk-on in every case, but I've seen way to many situations where a team is relying on the band's bass drum player or a soccer player and squanders away a close game because the guy just doesn't have the nerves for the circumstances.
I feel a kid that has successfully played the kicking role through high school has a big advantage in the college kicking game in comparison to those walk-ons, and warrants the scholarship.
You do realize that Alabama's punter has a scholarship and they just got a commit today from a kicker (who has an offer). You're basically saying that the 84th and 85th scholarship guys are more important and valuable than the starting kicker and punter. Good one. Absolutely no validity to this statement.
How many times have games come down to a last second field goal for a win? I hope those claiming we shouldn't waste scholarships on Kickers and punters realize that our Kicker last year was our leading scorer. In fact I believe he broke the school record for points in a season. Plus he nailed 3 Field goals longer than 50 yards, broke the school record with a 54 yarder. Think about that next time you think we should just find a walk-on kicker. If you are a powerhouse and whipping your opponents by 30 points every game, then maybe we can talk about looking for a walk-on kicker, but in our position we need every advantage we can get and the ability to put points on the board after stalled drives against SEC opponents can help keep us in games, and when we extend that range by having a kicker capable of 50+ yard field goals, it makes us that much more dangerous.
Did somebody use Bama's handling of placekickers as a model for us to replicate? Saban does a lot of things well, but finding competent kickers isn't one of them. It's cost him a few games at Bama too, and would've cost him a few more if he didn't have such a wide margin for error at alabama. We don't have that margin at UK, so we need to find every advantage we can. If that's a better kicker/punter, then bring them on.
Agreed, it's a game of inches.....especially for us at UK in the SEC. Kickers are a crucial position for us. We all know our defense will struggle for a couple of more years as we recruit better players. A quality kicker can HELP our defense a TON.
Because Landon Foster is a senior, it has always been a near inevitability that Stoops would take another punter in his 2016 class. Foster and MacGinnis are on scholarship. McKinniss will get Foster's scholarship. As several posters have already said, punters and placekickers are critical in gaining the tactical edge in close games. Many fans including the OP are on here all the time with their criticisms and theories about how Kentucky isn't fully committed to winning. But Stoops proves over and over that he is fully committed, and this is only the latest evidence.
Ben Roberts@NextCats 18h18 hours ago
Here's the latest video of UK's new punter commitment, Grant McKinniss. (Dude can kick it, too) ... http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1791656/highlights/221893376/v2
Here's the latest video of UK's new punter commitment, Grant McKinniss. (Dude can kick it, too) ... http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1791656/highlights/221893376/v2
A lot of the so called big boys don't give schollys to punters. I like the idea of offering the one guy who can contribute big time by flipping the field in the d's favor. Great offer .HUge pickup!!
But a lot of them do. If you are the coach of a successful Big 5 football program in a big state like Texas or Florida, it isn't usually hard to find a pretty good walk on punter from inside your state who dreams of kicking for the state school. But if you are coaching a Big 5 program with a problematic recent record in a small state like Kentucky, and you need to gain a tactical edge over more successful programs, bringing in an impact kicker from out of state is a great move even if it takes a scholarship. I agree with you that McKinniss is an important addition. With 85 scholarships, Stoops can afford to have McKinniss and MacGinnis on scholarship. They will play a lot more than some of our other scholarship players will, and they will sometimes influence or decide the outcome of our football games.
