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special teams.. wtf

C

carbonpoke

Well-known member
im frustrated... why cant we find a good kicker and punter and keep them on roster. I think stewart Williams is good, but he was our second choice.

and why did we recruit an aussie? there is to much risk there. and with McCoy, he panned out, but he was from florida... again... too much risk.

we should be finding some local kids for these positions. like aaron elling. there are plenty of good soccer kids in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana. there has to be a kid that can kick that feels close to home.

the last 2 years we sucked beyond 40 yards on field goals. are punts are average. but we have 0 continuity. get a couple of kids that want to be in Laramie and coach them. we need kids that understand wind, not sunshine boys that have never put a foot to a frozen pigskin.
 
Totally agree. I don't have any confidence in the special teams. And that Aussie was a douchebag lol.
 
Kicking and punting seem to be issues for everyone nowadays.
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Good Point. If the top tier non-AQ school (Boise) can't recruit kickers why would we be able to? I actually think Stuart will be decent this year at field goals. I am worried about punting.
 
marcuswyo said:
Kicking and punting seem to be issues for everyone nowadays.
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Good Point. If the top tier non-AQ school (Boise) can't recruit kickers why would we be able to? I actually think Stuart will be decent this year at field goals. I am worried about punting.
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Haha Boise St. is two missed kicks from going to, and probably winning another 2 BCS Bowls and having 2 more undefeated seasons! Lol.
 
carbonpoke said:
im frustrated... why cant we find a good kicker and punter and keep them on roster. I think stewart Williams is good, but he was our second choice.

and why did we recruit an aussie? there is to much risk there. and with McCoy, he panned out, but he was from florida... again... too much risk.

we should be finding some local kids for these positions. like aaron elling. there are plenty of good soccer kids in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana. there has to be a kid that can kick that feels close to home.

the last 2 years we sucked beyond 40 yards on field goals. are punts are average. but we have 0 continuity. get a couple of kids that want to be in Laramie and coach them. we need kids that understand wind, not sunshine boys that have never put a foot to a frozen pigskin.
Click to expand...
Comparing kicking a football to the style of kicking a soccer ball is completely different. Anytime I work with a soccer player wanting to convert I know I have my work cut out for me. I would much rather work with a sprinter or an athlete who has developed his quick twitch muscles who have not been taught the "wrong way" to kick a ball. In soccer you generally want to keep the ball low and use a sweeping kick style that generally hooks or slices the ball. When kicking a football you DO NOT want that. When recruiting kickers to teach I'm looking for a guy who runs a quick 200 meter. Don't get me wrong, soccer players can have quick legs to but I have to un-teach quite a bit.

Evaluating Kickers is just as hard or harder than quarterbacks. It's easy to go out and watch a kid in practice in non pressure situations consistently put it through the uprights. It's not easy to know how a high school kid is going to handle the pressures of D1 football. They may look like a beast in practice but cannot put it together in games. Kickers cannot be evaluated like other positions because even a 50% completion rate is very good for a qb. The standards for kickers are around 90%.

I do agree that we should be at least be able to find a kid who can put kickoffs in the endzone now that the kickoff yard line is back to the 35. At 7220 it shouldn't be all that hard. It could be a case where they don't want to use a scholly on just a kickoff specialist.
 
TBH Kids that want to make a career out of kicking should come to Wyoming it's just in their benefit to be here but I also think that is why people don't come here they don't want to be looked at like they can't kick w/o being at altitude.
 
I have to weigh in on this topic because I feel like it is greatly misunderstood by most people.

It is true that a football will travel further at higher altitude given that all other variables are held constant. However, the amount of extra yardage one can expect may surprise some of you. There are actually several well done studies looking at exactly this question. In general, most studies compare sea level to 6500 ft elevation, as this is the elevation that most scientists use to denote "high elevation". On average, the studies found that a kicked football will travel about 3% further at high elevation. In other words, about 2 extra yards on a kickoff, and even less than that on a field goal attempt. I think this is probably less of an advantage than many of you expected.

Secondly, the temperature of the air also plays a role in the density of the air, and thus, the distance a ball will travel. Cooler temperatures = denser air = ball doesn't travel as far. Given that Laramie is cooler than the majority of other cities at any given time, this would actually be a factor against kickers in Laramie.

Basically, the altitude isn't as big of a deal as we might think when it comes to kicking a football. Now, the psychological effect it can have on other teams...that's a whole different story.
 
TheRealUW said:
I have to weigh in on this topic because I feel like it is greatly misunderstood by most people.

It is true that a football will travel further at higher altitude given that all other variables are held constant. However, the amount of extra yardage one can expect may surprise some of you. There are actually several well done studies looking at exactly this question. In general, most studies compare sea level to 6500 ft elevation, as this is the elevation that most scientists use to denote "high elevation". On average, the studies found that a kicked football will travel about 3% further at high elevation. In other words, about 2 extra yards on a kickoff, and even less than that on a field goal attempt. I think this is probably less of an advantage than many of you expected.

Secondly, the temperature of the air also plays a role in the density of the air, and thus, the distance a ball will travel. Cooler temperatures = denser air = ball doesn't travel as far. Given that Laramie is cooler than the majority of other cities at any given time, this would actually be a factor against kickers in Laramie.

Basically, the altitude isn't as big of a deal as we might think when it comes to kicking a football. Now, the psychological effect it can have on other teams...that's a whole different story.
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The temperature (not to mention humidity) is something people often don't remember/know about.
Some interesting reading on the topic:
http://www.advancednflstats.com/2012/01/temperature-and-field-goals.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
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