Why is the kicking game so bad?
- Thread starter YardCat
- Start date
Hiring a special teams coach would be a start
We just always seem to have an area or 2 that prevents us from taking the next step.
This yr its the PK and OL.
This yr its the PK and OL.
Not good when the crowd cheers just as loud for Ruffalo's first PAT as the touchdown.
Are there other major programs that don't have a ST coach? I seriously don't know.
We’re paying Marrow so much that Stoops can’t afford a solid ST coach I read on Twitter!
Ruffalo was hitting like 95% on XPs for his career and we missed two, and he was at about 80% on FGs and he missed one of those. What are the odds of that happening? He had been pretty solid since the last Ole Miss game.
That’s that nonsense that happened when the long snapper only gets it back there clean 50% of the time. It makes everything a semi hesitant step which throws things off
Cade DeGraw, the long and short snapper, has been bad, real bad this year. The special teams coach is Louie Matsokis, a quality control coach. Our schemes are good, but DeGraw has been awful. The Perry kid will hopefully handle all of the snapping now. He has been more consistent than DeGraw
The UK Fans in my section went crazy when he finally made one. After halftime Ruff banged one off the goal post then missed one right. They then ran up and kicked an extra point and Ruff and Chance slapped hands like they were ready. I just shook my head.
We’ve had the same ST’s guy for quite a few years now. While his title is analyst, he’s on the sideline with a headset, coaching them, etc.
There are more teams in the SEC that don’t have a dedicated ST coach. Here are the SEC schools that don’t have one;
Kentucky
Alabama
Auburn
Texas A&M
Missouri
Vandy
Georgia
Tennessee
Florida
The strange thing is our return game is what has struggled in previous years…we have studs out there this year. We bring back the same kicker, punter, long snapper and holder from last year…all who are good…and we struggle. Such a mental game for that group.
It is worth looking into why the struggle. It doesn't appear to be anything physical. Just mental lapses. Bad snap at UF, couple of botched extra points. A random really short kick here and there. I'm not really sure what's going on there.
This is what we need to start doing, we’ve had too many whiffs on kickers/punters that we give scholarships too. Heck, we have Poore and Berry on scholarship and they barely contribute. Poore has been here for 4 years.
Many of them have a ST analyst that does a majority of the ST coaching or they have a split responsibility amongst an assistant coach (UK had both). One that was interesting is Kirby Smart had a full-time ST guy in prior years, but he moved on and he did not replace that position but rather hire for a different position.
Agreed. ST at a minimum can help you win the field position game and not leave points on the field. It's such an underrated part of FB.
It deserves it's own coordinator, the ability to use the best players, and ample practice time. To do otherwise is half assing 1/3 of the opportunity.
I’m honestly not sure how much less Louie does as an analyst than someone would as a coordinator. He has been coaching college ST since 2000 prior to joining Stoops in 2016.
I’ll also note that sone of our biggest wins have come because of ST too. Block against Florida last year. Austin’s FG’s to beat UL, Mississippi State. Bowden’s return for a touchdown vs Mizzou. Bowden’s return against Penn State, etc.
Fan’s often question why we don’t have a full-time person, but ST has also been very good to us over the years.
Field goal percentage[edit]
| Career | Single season |
Kentucky Wildcats football statistical leaders - Wikipedia
I would say at best, it's a push. Doubtful it will change though. Stoops is tunning the show, so if he's good the way things are, they will stay that way. Hope this doesn't bite then again.
If Stoops hasn’t changed things at this point, he’s not going to. He’s about as stubborn as they come. If he can’t find a kicker that can make an extra point or a 20 yard field goal, that’s on him, there are a ton of them out there. I like a lot about Stoops, but he has some blind spots that are huge and he’s slow to change
My reply to this has always been. When you play a conservative style like Stoops does, you can't afford ANY mistakes on special teams play, and in reality you could use the help from a great special teams. If the special teams had been solid and add in Brown's returns we win that game easy.
Bring back Dean Hood. Why does Ruffalo stand so deep when he kicks? Most kickers are 2-3 steps. He is about 5 steps behind the holder.
This is why he gets a lot of kicks blocked, he stands so far back he gives the defense that extra half second which equals block or close to a block.
Special team is being neglected at all levels of football these days. I watched my nephews youth league game and there is no kicking period. My sons middle school team saw an opponent kick a field goal the other day and everyone was shocked. The refs told me later that they’d been calling middle school games for years and that’s the first field goal they had seen attempted. You see poor ST play in college and even in the NFL. It’s simply not valued anymore.
Yep and I was at the game and didn’t see the camera shot of his field goal miss down there until later and I’m telling you I think that was good. That ball was hit well and drawing from right to left and I swear looked like it went right over the upright. I think it only looked like it missed left because it was hooking and from the camera angle far away you could see space between the ball and the upright but that was after it had already crossed over the top.
But if your looking straight up under the upright like the ref was it had to cross right over top and not outside and if so that’s supposed to count by rule.
I’m surprised there wasn’t more discussion about that at the time. You could see Ruffalo surprised it didn’t count.
You still here? You know we probably won’t win the natty right? Better to move along. Roll tide amirite?
Interesting that arguably one of our more high profile kickers and eventual Pro, Doug Pelphry, is not on that list.Field goal percentage[edit]
Career
Single season
Kentucky Wildcats football statistical leaders - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
We have the same one we’ve had for a few years. Max Duffy thinks he’s a really good coach. But hell, what would he know?
