How important are accurate FG kickers?

Pretty important, as we saw a couple times this season. This analysis goes into the history of improving accuracy. Interesting stuff.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kickers-are-forever/

I hope Austin Siebert is really accurate.

 

He hits from 70+ on an empty practice field, for whatever that's worth.

And then flashes 'horns down'. Which is priceless.

 

I forget his last name but Patrick ? did it from 65 yds in his "audition"
tape to BS...no "horns down", though...

 

What is funny to me is to recall the controversy over 'soccer style' kickers in the early 1970's. Some oldsters were still championing use of that dumb-*** toe block thingie that allowed you to kick with the toe of your shoe. No accuracy, of course; but by Gawd, The Amurican Way To Kick!

 

Soccer style kicking controversy started in the 1960s with the Gogolak brothers and Garo Yepremian. And the special shoe all of us kicking types wore...still have mine. Two of them, in fact. For shorter kicks it really was more accurate (assuming you had laces away or directly toward you), but unless you were blessed with Russell Erxleben or Ray Guy genetics, a kick of 60 yards was just about impossible. The leg swing of soccer style was conducive to more range but you had to master the curving trajectory of the ball's flight.

 

Well, my Grandson is a kicker and think he is important. He only won 2 games last year as time ran out. 47 yards against Maryland and 55 yards against Taco Tech. He was 4 of 5 over 50 yards and set a NCAA record of 16 over 40yds. He also tied a NCAA record for games with 3 or more field goals.
As far as long ones in practice, well if the wind is blowing right, they can kick 70-75 yards. Seen a lot of strong legged kickers pizz their pants when it counted in a game. I think you were lucky to have Hunnicut.

 

Ask Marv Levy.....

 

Watch any pro game, and you know the answer.

 

CV, I'd forgotten Yepremian! What fun to watch him. I'm thinking there's a wealth of talent to be mined in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Some amazing kickers who are also big, big boys. And they hit from a long way out.

 

When my Grandson went to Florida in Dec. for the ESPN Awards and the Lou Groza, Josh made friends with Brad Craddock. Brad is an Aussie and won the Groza. The Ray Guy punter award winner was from Australia also.

 

Obviously quite important. We saw that when Hunnicutt went down the tubes this season. We also saw it when we couldn't kick a FG of more than 40 yards when we had Jimmy Stevens.

 

Heh, Yrpremian...."I keek a touchdown!" I watched him at the old Memorial
Stadium in KC kick the winning FG in the 2nd qtr OT to end the longest NFL
game in history...Eddie Podolak had about a million all purpose yards in that
game (Christmas 1971)

 

Stevens actually helped prove that accuracy is more important than leg strength. Technically, Stevens was accurate given his career data, but had a very weak leg for a D1 kicker. But I don't recall him costing us a game like Hunnicutt did against KSU. I've read coaches comments saying they would prefer a kicker that is very accurate at 45 yards than a kicker that might hit one from 55. Of course they would really like a kicker that can do both.

 

Stevens was accurate because about 90% of his attempts were from 19-29 yards. He was an enormous liability unless you got inside the 10 yard line. There were times when FGs simply weren't an option with Stevens because he didn't have the leg strength and his midget self couldn't kick it more than about a foot over the crossbar. Hunnicutt was money for us for 3+ years and to compare him to Stevens is really not fair. Once he lost his mojo, though, he was an enormous liability. Kicking is a mental game, and you can't lose that edge and expect to get it back.

 

The difference between winning the Cotton Bowl and losing it.

 

I wasn't implying in any way that Stevens was adequate. By the time he left, he could only be counted on from about 35 yards. My point is that coaches are control freaks and they want to know what they are getting. What coaches don't want is the post-KSU Hunnicutt. Strong leg, but unreliable. Had Stevens been reliable from even 42 yards, most coaches would be okay with that (but he wasn't). What happened to Hunnicutt was unfortunate as he was a great asset until he got the yips for whatever reason. In retrospect, had hit helped us beat KSU it would not have change our season that much. Baylor still kills us and we still most likely get a bowl opponent as good as Clemson.

 

We're running the air raid offense! We only need XP's.

In all seriousness, I want my kicker to be automatic even if that means automatic make from inside 40, and automatic miss from beyond 40. To me, FG's are supposed to be the safe route. At least you know what to expect, and can plan accordingly. It's kind of like choosing between having a great offense or a great defense, though. If you're trying to win a championship, you really want both.

 

And great special teams. When two teams are evenly matched, it frequently comes down to special teams.

 

You don't need health insurance if you never get sick.

As such, you don't need "kicker" insurance if...
1- You plan to go for it on fourth down
2- You always are too far away to do anything but punt on fourth down
3- You plan to go for two extra points, not one
4- Your offense is so awesome that it always scores touchdowns and nothing but touchdowns
5- Your defense is so awesome that it scores the touchdowns and thus... never leaves the field????

Wow No. 5 would be crazy but awesome

 

Here's hoping that in the coming years, reliance in winning or losing games isn't determined by a single kick. Winning a game isn't the sole responsibility of a kicker making the kick at the end of the game, nor should losing a game by a missed kick

Boomer