out of ignorance, why doesn't a kid like Carson Wise, who is hitting 45+ yd fgs in HS command a scholly? Clearly, our program and it's philosophy of ball control and field position places high value on being able to kick field goals.
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I think they kick off a tee in high school though, right?
Supposedly Beamer is telling Wise that he can win the job next year. If that is the case, my question is really if you believe you have a starting FG kicker, isn't that worth as much as a guy you think can be a starting LB or DT?
I disagree with this statement. It's all sort of relative. I mean, I guess you could say the kicker is a super important position in the NFL too, but you don't see teams taking them with first rounders very often, and when they do they get lampooned. You can get by with a good walk-on and save the scholly spot for a potential impact player (or even a senior kicker who has proven to be consistent in high pressure scenarios). That's how I look at it, anyway. I think I'd rather have another lb in the class or something and tell any kickers "hey - there's room to kick immediately if you're good enough" than spend a schollie on a kicker you hope will turn out.
Kickoffs are from the same size kicking tee. For PATs/FGs High School kickers are allowed up to a 2" block to kick off of but many kickers make the transition to the ground before their senior year to prepare for college.
Source: Kicked in HS and tried out for the team here
From my meek position on a couch every Saturday, my guess is that the level of competition from HS to College for a kicker is quite vast, so giving out a scholarship to a kicker right out of high school is a pretty big risk. The idea is to bring in a group of kickers and have them compete against each other for the job.
That said, we do have Michael Santamaria committed for next year. Whether or not he has a scholarship or is a preferred walk-on is still up in the air.
Santamaria already accepted a greyshirt offer. I think that means (but not completely sure) he isn't eligible to play until 2015. We also have a Richmond transfer coming in next year.
I think the strategy has recently been...a blind squirrel finds a nut once and in a while.
I'm just happy we have a punter that kick bombs but also has some fineness.
Once in a while turned out to be 4 or 5 straight years of turning to a 5th year walk on and them doing exceptionally well. Cody I think was the first scholarship kicker in quite some time if ever at Tech.
Correct. Cody was the first scholarship kicker since Shayne Graham. Their careers? Not exactly similar.
We had a good run for almost a decade, with Graham, Carter Worley and Brandon Pace (though everyone has negative thoughts somewhere about each of them, I am sure). Since, there has been little consistency. Cody was supposed to steady the ship, but his character off the field and his lack of focus on the field have created some issues. Heres to hoping he straightens himself out soon and unlocks that potential for the stretch run.
Not to be "that guy" again, but it's Carter Warley and since him and Brandon Pace there have been a steady flow of consistent kickers all the way up til about a season or 2 ago (right around the time CJ came, ironically). One of my worst memories is of Carter Warley and Brandon Pace just absolutely screwing up the kick offs and FGs in that game against Cali (insight bowl).
Cody reminds me a lot of Warley, actually. He lived across from me when I was in Blacksburg and I would see that kid throw on his high school helmet and tell people to kick him in the head or run into walls like the Juggernaut at parties & then miss games with back problems.
I get why you'd wanna save that scholarship for a linebacker or good QB, but I'd go out and find the best kicker I could find and offer him everything I could legally offer if I needed a kicker. I know that impact players can really influence a game, but kickers are involved in points either going on or staying off the board literally every single time they step on the field. Each time a kicker steps on the field, you either score points, or give the other team momentum. That's pretty huge when you think about it. I wouldn't want anything other than the best out there.
I think if you find a kicker in HS that is clearly good enough to start 4 yrs you absolutely give him a scholarship. I think we've seen what the difference can be when you have a kicker who is fully dependable. If you aren't sure on the kid then you make him earn it of course. But i really hope that you can find a handful of these high quality guys across the east coast every year (think about how many high schools there are!) and go after them, hopefully landing one every couple of years. I know they are pretty unpredictable but Dook found one that could nail a 51 and 54 yarder against us...
There's a few factors:
There are ALOT of kickers....not saying that every high school kicker can make the transition to college, but in South Carolina there are about 170 high schools, yet there are 2! major universities with football programs-(USCe, Clemson).
Scholarship reductions....college coaches have to try in every little way to get the best players into a much smaller number of scholarships-85. Before 1973, a team-(looking at you 'Bama)-could have as many players as they could afford. Then it was limited to 105 football scholarships in 1973, 95 in 1978, and only 85 (63 for FCS schools) in 1992.
So, you have a lot of competition for one position-some coaches invite a bunch of kids to come in and walk-on and compete, others find 'their guy' and give him a scholarship.
It's unarguable that a college kicker is indispensible, but if you had to pick between a kicker or another 4-star QB, etc, which would you pick knowing that you have 15 kids trying out as kicker? Tough call either way.
yeah, you're right - it is a trade-off like anything else. my conclusion is that we are taking too many other key positions like QBs versus FG kickers. What is it the QB scholly to FG kicker? A 4:1 ratio? I think that if I were CFB, I'd be giving one of my 20 schollys/year for a really good kicker. We can't compete with Oregon in terms of selling our sexy offense to QBs, but we should be able to sell any FG kicker the opp to kick more FGs than the other guys!
"With our offense and you're ability to make 50+ yarders every time, you'll be the scoring-est player in NCAA history in four years!"
EXACTLY!