New Transfer Kicker on Roster

[brewskis]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmNGNFGvF74[/youtube]

The block he throws at 1:59 is a thing of beauty! :clap: :clap: :clap:

We don't need a blocker, we need a kicker. Can he do that?

That ol' video up there may give you a clue as to whether or not he can kick.

 

[AZGrizFan]

What timing. Griz kicker misses a field goal, and the Griz lose by one point at games end. Place kicker position has been badly neglected during recruiting since Carpenter. Go figure.

Brody McKnight was pretty good.

LAST good one we had....

That's funny.

2005 Dan Carpenter 14-21 (66.7%) including 2-8 from beyond 40 yards
2006 Dan Carpenter 24-30 (80%) including 7-9 from beyond 40 yards
2007 Dan Carpenter: 19-23 (82.6%) including 11-14 from beyond 40 yards
2008 Brody McKnight 9-16 (56.2%) including 2-3 from beyond 40 yards
2009 Brody McKnight: 15-25 (60%) including 3-12 from beyond 40 yards
2010 Brody McKnight: 14-18 (77.8%) including 4-7 from beyond 40 yards
2011 Brody McKnight: 21-28 (75%) including 8-13 from beyond 40 yards
2012 Chris Lider: 15-21 (71.4%); made first 9, missed 4 of last 6 attempts
2013 Ben Worst: 9-17 (52.9%) ONE more miss than McKnight's first year
2014 Danny Sullivan 11-14 (78.6%), including 3-4 from beyond 40 yards.
2015 Danny Sulliver 4-5 (80%) with a long of 28 yards this year

Translation? Sullivan was better last year than ANY of McKnight's years, career-wise he's already better than McKnight, and he's approaching Carpenter-like numbers THIS year...yet somehow NOW people think our kicking game sucks. Me thinks we're projecting Lider/Worst onto Sullivan and have some romanticized notion of how good our kicking game used to be. Also of note, as these kickers mature, they get better--and Sullivan is getting better.

Unless he's hurt, we're going to be FINE at kicker--especially with this kid coming back from Idaho.

 

[tgreseth]

What timing. Griz kicker misses a field goal, and the Griz lose by one point at games end. Place kicker position has been badly neglected during recruiting since Carpenter. Go figure.

Brody McKnight was pretty good.

LAST good one we had....

That's funny.

2005 Dan Carpenter 14-21 (66.7%) including 2-8 from beyond 40 yards
2006 Dan Carpenter 24-30 (80%) including 7-9 from beyond 40 yards
2007 Dan Carpenter: 19-23 (82.6%) including 11-14 from beyond 40 yards
2008 Brody McKnight 9-16 (56.2%) including 2-3 from beyond 40 yards
2009 Brody McKnight: 15-25 (60%) including 3-12 from beyond 40 yards
2010 Brody McKnight: 14-18 (77.8%) including 4-7 from beyond 40 yards
2011 Brody McKnight: 21-28 (75%) including 8-13 from beyond 40 yards
2012 Chris Lider: 15-21 (71.4%); made first 9, missed 4 of last 6 attempts
2013 Ben Worst: 9-17 (52.9%) ONE more miss than McKnight's first year
2014 Danny Sullivan 11-14 (78.6%), including 3-4 from beyond 40 yards.
2015 Danny Sulliver 4-5 (80%) with a long of 28 yards this year

Translation? Sullivan was better last year than ANY of McKnight's years, career-wise he's already better than McKnight, and he's approaching Carpenter-like numbers THIS year...yet somehow NOW people think our kicking game sucks. Me thinks we're projecting Lider/Worst onto Sullivan and have some romanticized notion of how good our kicking game used to be. Also of note, as these kickers mature, they get better--and Sullivan is getting better.

Unless he's hurt, we're going to be FINE at kicker--especially with this kid coming back from Idaho.

Great assessment AZGF! Thanks for doing the legwork

 

[EverettGriz]

Great post AZ. However one consideration not included in your assessment is PATs. They've been an ... Adventure the last few years and Sully has already missed one this year. I agree that Sully is good, but until we can watch a PAT attempt without crossing all ten fingers and all ten toes, I think there's going to be concern with the kicking game.

 

[brewskis]

I like getting a boatload of kickers in the roster. Some will work out and some won't, best to start with a large pool of candidates.

A good kicker = points on demand.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Great post AZ. However one consideration not included in your assessment is PATs. They've been an ... Adventure the last few years and Sully has already missed one this year. I agree that Sully is good, but until we can watch a PAT attempt without crossing all ten fingers and all ten toes, I think there's going to be concern with the kicking game.

Last year Sully was 33-34 on PAT's & Greenberg was 15-16. Collectively Montana was 50-52, good for 4th best in a 13 team conference. For comparison purposes, the WORST two PAT teams in the conference were MSU (51-55) and EWU (73-82). Interesting, EWU was perfect on FG's (13-13).

Again, as comparison:

2005: Carps 34-36
2006: Carps 41-45
2007: Carps 44-45
2008: McKnight 52-57
2009: McKnight 64-67
2010: McKnight 41-42
2011: McKnight 53-54
2012: Lider 37-41
2013: Worst 48-48 (Lider 11-14)
2014: Sully 33-34

So again, eliminating the Lider debacle, we're a collective 81-82 in PAT's prior to this year. And I'm not sure I remember Sully missing one this year. He's 5-5. Which would make us a collective 86-87 over the past two years (minus Lider's folly).

 

[mcg]

I like getting a boatload of kickers in the roster. Some will work out and some won't, best to start with a large pool of candidates.

A good kicker = points on demand.

I'm thinking if it turns out that they can't kick, they can always play wide receiver. There seems to be an unlimited demand for receivers on the Griz roster.

 

[mtgriz]

I wouldn't mind getting better height or depth, or both, on kickoffs. The hidden yardage given up on our kickoffs has been a little alarming so far.

 

[live4dagriz]

I wouldn't mind getting better height or depth, or both, on kickoffs. The hidden yardage given up on our kickoffs has been a little alarming so far.

That was my thought when I saw the bit from AJ about longer kicks. Maybe a bigger leg that would allow Sully to focus on FGs and will improve the team's kickoffs.

 

[GRIZFAN20]

I wouldn't mind getting better height or depth, or both, on kickoffs. The hidden yardage given up on our kickoffs has been a little alarming so far.

That was my thought when I saw the bit from AJ about longer kicks. Maybe a bigger leg that would allow Sully to focus on FGs and will improve the team's kickoffs.

Correct me if Im wrong, but isn't Lider handling the kickoffs this year? I do agree though, our kickoffs (and every other form of ST this year) could use some improvement. Will be interesting to see how all 3 are used this weekend.

 

[live4dagriz]

I wouldn't mind getting better height or depth, or both, on kickoffs. The hidden yardage given up on our kickoffs has been a little alarming so far.

That was my thought when I saw the bit from AJ about longer kicks. Maybe a bigger leg that would allow Sully to focus on FGs and will improve the team's kickoffs.

Correct me if Im wrong, but isn't Lider handling the kickoffs this year? I do agree though, our kickoffs (and every other form of ST this year) could use some improvement. Will be interesting to see how all 3 are used this weekend.

:roll: Yea that's right. Forgot about that.

 

[mtgriz]

I wouldn't mind getting better height or depth, or both, on kickoffs. The hidden yardage given up on our kickoffs has been a little alarming so far.

That was my thought when I saw the bit from AJ about longer kicks. Maybe a bigger leg that would allow Sully to focus on FGs and will improve the team's kickoffs.

Correct me if Im wrong, but isn't Lider handling the kickoffs this year? I do agree though, our kickoffs (and every other form of ST this year) could use some improvement. Will be interesting to see how all 3 are used this weekend.

Yes, Lider has been doing kickoffs, but his kickoffs have been returned quite consistently past the 30. I was thinking if the new guy was a candidate for longer FGs, maybe he would be able to kickoff a little higher and/or deeper than Lider.

 

[Fahque]

Lider should be restricted to punting only. Sullivan is a much better kicker, FG & place, IMO. And as AZ pointed out, McKnight was not a very good kicker in his first couple of years. Funny how our short term memories work...we bitched a lot back then too.

 

[kemajic]

The run of success we had with kickers is pretty unprecedented at any level. Look at Albama, they are probably most dominant team of the last 5 years and even they struggle to find a consistent kicking game. We've had NFL-caliber, or at least very good college level, kickers for a good chunk of the last 10-15 years. Such a critical weapon to have in your arsenal...

Priorities; priorities.

 

[AZGrizFan]

So, after all my excellent analysis of our kicking game all Sullivan does is go out there and make me look like a fucking idiot.

 

[AZDoc]

So, after all my excellent analysis of our kicking game all Sullivan does is go out there and make me look like a f***[*] idiot.

You are making it veeeeeeeeery easy for someone...but I won't mention that it's not the kickers making you look like an idiot...etc!

On a serious note, are we getting a dose of transfer kicker this week you think?

 

[ordigger]

So, after all my excellent analysis of our kicking game all Sullivan does is go out there and make me look like a f***[*] idiot.

Even Carps missed an XP today.

 

[AZGrizFan]

So, after all my excellent analysis of our kicking game all Sullivan does is go out there and make me look like a f***[*] idiot.

You are making it veeeeeeeeery easy for someone...but I won't mention that it's not the kickers making you look like an idiot...etc!

On a serious note, are we getting a dose of transfer kicker this week you think?

et tu, Brute? :?

 

[Umista]

We are getting a bus load of Mexican soccer kickers to come up for FG try-outs. This just before the Griz - cant game. If true we will be supplied with a lot of taco kickers.

 

[fanofzoo]

We are getting a bus load of Mexican soccer kickers to come up for FG try-outs. This just before the Griz - cant game. If true we will be supplied with a lot of taco kickers.

Might we phrase this a little differently, please.