Barrett Pickering has left the Program
- Thread starter Buckman01213
- Start date
Looking like the kicking **** show will return next year. Have to admit I am for the first time beginning to question Frost.
Not necessarily. Let’s see what Contreraz can do. All we need is one guy who can put it in the end zone and is a good kicker.
yep.. seems to be 130 or so of those already out there playing D1 football
what's one more?
Our best bet seems to be Chase Contreraz, 2nd team JUCO All-American. 13-16 on FG attempts, 40-42 on extra points. Longest made FG was 47 yards. No word on how often he kicked touchbacks.
But after him, it looks mighty grim. Crawford might be the best of the rest, and he was rated as the #55 kicker in this year's class.
But after him, it looks mighty grim. Crawford might be the best of the rest, and he was rated as the #55 kicker in this year's class.
I hope Chase is working on his kiss-blowing skills. They could come in handy when he comes back to Iowa in November.
Anyone that can get injured on a golf course has no business playing football. For me, this conjures the Jackass videos of them jumping golf carts. But good luck to him.
The question was asked about Spielman in this thread. I know, doesn’t fit the title of this thread, but nikki’s response was regarding JD.
That sure would've been impressive if he had graduated in only two and a half years though. I'm sure I could have graduated in much less time if I didn't have to spend half my time walking to and from class back in the olden times.
As I pointed out above, what is different about this situation than when we graduate a starting kicker and have to start someone new with no experience the next year? Heck, we faced that situation just two years ago when Drew Brown had graduated. We had no kickers with any experience, and Barret Pickering came in and did fine. Just TWO YEARS AGO we faced the EXACT SAME SITUATION, and some people are treating this like it's some rare, horrible thing, Use your head and think about that before you spout off ridiculous nonsense like this.
We're bringing in multiple walk on kickers and punters who all look like they could compete for the job. The one walk on had I think a 75%+ touchback rate on kick offs and also punts. I think Waldoch sees the handwriting on the wall and football takes a TON of time.
Would have the ability for a grad transfer in the summer. Kicker should be no problem adapting, not a whole lot to learn.
I dont get too excited when I see high school touchbacks, they get a smaller field to work with.
I dont get too excited when I see high school touchbacks, they get a smaller field to work with.
I'm failing to see how any of the kicking stuff would make you "question Frost"; almost none of the situation can be put on him.
When Frost was hired after the 2017 season ended, Drew Brown was a senior, just finishing up having been the starting kicker for 4 years. As has already been pointed out, almost no team carries an experienced backup kicker, so regardless, in 2018 there was going to be someone new kicking, who didn't have much, if any, experience at the college level. Barret Pickering was already committed at that point, and had been for a while; so the kicker for the next few years appeared to already be one thing that was sorted out.
In 2018, things were just fine on the kicker front. Pickering had a little bit of a bad start, but did pretty well, and ended the season having been pretty good. With a capable kicker, who just finished his freshman year, and for all indications would be kicking for another three years, there was zero reason to be using a scholarship on a kicker. Dylan Jorgenson was brought in as a preferred walk-on, and that seemed more than enough.
Then 2019 happened. The kicking situation in 2019 can't really be blamed on anyone, least of all Scott Frost. Not many teams lose their capable starting kicker from the previous year due to injury. There were plenty of issues from a kicking viewpoint last year, and not really any blame for those issues to lay on anyone. Teams don't simply carry quality, experienced backup kickers. Plus, you even had the preferred walk-on kicker brought on "just in case" get injured.
From my perspective, Scott Frost has done quite a bit to try and make sure something like that doesn't happen again. Chase Contreraz has already been mentioned a few times; he certainly looks pretty capable. There's also Tyler Crawford, the walk-on from Oklahoma. Some have discounted him because of his middling high school stats, though it's been pointed out you can't take much from high school stats for kickers. You could, however, take this little blurb from the Kohl's Kicking Camp rankings:
Huh? Limits were 105 until 1978 when they went to 95 and then in 1992 they went to the current 85. It's called managing the roster and developing players to be ready. Are you saying Tom didn't recruit kids from out of state as he was "forced" to do?
Who said Contreraz was the "top kicker"? He was 2nd team CCAA and a walk on. I didn't see the world beating down his door to give him scholarships.
What does that mean "all look like hey could compete for the job?" On paper I assume? Have you watched them kick? How many received scholarship offers? It looks more like a sign of desperation, get a bunch of walk ons and hope someone emerges. If that is a strategy, I am not impressed. And here we go again, being presented with a glaring weakness on the team and we dismiss it with the comments of we will find someone. Anyone wonder whey we win 4 or 5 games a year?
I'll repost this for folks.
Don’t get the sky is falling thing. Contreraz hit 83% of his FGs with a long of 47 yds and was was 44/46 on XPs. JUCO All Am. I don’t know the details of why Pickering is departing, but stat wise, Contreraz is an even trade.
And now for some comparisons
Drew Brown 178/180(!!) on XPs, 78% on FGs.
Maher 102/103(!!) on XPs, 78% on FGs.
Henery 193/194(!!!) on XPs, 89.5% on FGs
I don't think anyone was "beating down the door" to give Maher or Henery scholarships either, but they were GOAT status as kickers at NU. The Contreraz kid probably won't match what the above three guys did. Very, very few college kickers would. Alex was a damn magician kicking the FB while at NU. But given what he did at Iowa Western, I feel pretty good about improvement from last year.
When you have losing seasons 4 of the past 5 years, and have gone more than 2 decades without a conference championship, the outlook options tend to range from "drink the koolaid" to "the sky is falling". As mentioned frequently on this board, many are tired of drinking the koolaid the past 5-6 offseasons, so I don't think its surprising people are concerned over the Pickering/kicker situation, even though the kicker position is likely most easily successfully filled by a walk-on. We are a fan base that is long overdue to be surprised in a good-way.
Pickering is apparently staying at NU. So either his injury has affected his kicking prospects for the foreseeable future, or he didn't have the "want" anymore. In either case, he wasn't going to be the solution going forward. Until we see a kid actually kick in a game, things are up in the air. Everyone gets that. Am I supposed to be down in the mouth about a kid like Chase Contreraz, who has actual results at the JUCO level that look promising? Kicking is kicking. It's not like the XP distances get longer in D1, or he has to face P5 levels of wind.
"Look like they could compete for the job" means that they've demonstrated the ability at their previous location to appear that they are good enough to kick in college. You don't know how a kid is going to respond to kicking in front of 90,000 fans and that doesn't matter if you're a Riley scholarship kicker or a Frost walk on. Some of out best kickers and punters over the years have been walk ons. IMO, you bring in multiple likely looking guys who have demonstrated some proficiency and then let them compete for the job.
Thanks for clarifying. For some reason I thought we had the +100 schollys during our run in the 90s.
I got that impression (Frost was not happy) from one of his early comments on TV. While speaking of Pickering, Frost said something along the lines of 'a kicker has only one job, to be ready for kicking'. The way it was said, I had the impression that the injury was the kicker's fault and Frost wasn't happy.
It's hard to imagine what kind of season/career ending injury you could get on a golf course, unless it's related to a golf cart accident.
Supposedly he had a hip flexor injury. Those can be really bad for a soccer style kicker and could be career ending.
Exactly, Somebody who runs down our kicking prospects because they are walk-ons either has a shocking lack of knowledge about our successful walk-on kickers or just wants to complain non-stop. Said person has shown they do complain non-stop and never can find the slightest thing to praise or be positive about, but it also wouldn't surprise me if said person is so stupid as to not know about our successful walk-on kickers too.
Exactly, Somebody who runs down our kicking prospects because they are walk-ons either has a shocking lack of knowledge about our successful walk-on kickers or just wants to complain non-stop. Said person has shown they do complain non-stop and never can find the slightest thing to praise or be positive about, but it also wouldn't surprise me if said person is so stupid as to not know about our successful walk-on kickers too.
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Geez, overblow things much? Show me where I “run down” the prospects. I am well aware of the past walk on kickers and their success. So tell me what has to do with the current situation? We had a handful of walk on kickers last year and that didn’t seem to work or does make me negative? I originally posed two points, IF we knew we were going to be losing a scholarship kicker, did we try to fill that need? The other point was we seem to come up with a hole somewhere each year without having people ready to step in.
Thanks for calling me stupid, it really elevates the discussion and hopefully makes you feel better.
Geez, overblow things much? Show me where I “run down” the prospects. I am well aware of the past walk on kickers and their success. So tell me what has to do with the current situation? We had a handful of walk on kickers last year and that didn’t seem to work or does make me negative? I originally posed two points, IF we knew we were going to be losing a scholarship kicker, did we try to fill that need? The other point was we seem to come up with a hole somewhere each year without having people ready to step in.
Thanks for calling me stupid, it really elevates the discussion and hopefully makes you feel better.[/QUOTE]
I think the bigger question is do the coaches think we need to offer a scholarship for a kicker? We’ve gone both ways in the past. If the coaches think we can make do with walk ons, so be it.
And at the start of the season we didn’t have a handful of walk on kickers last year. Once Pickering got hurt, our punter (who hadn’t kicked since high school 4 years earlier) became our kicker. We had tryouts. We asked someone from club soccer to come in.
To say we had a handful of walk ons last year isn’t correct. We may have ended the season that way, but we certainly didn’t have that from the start. We converted a punter and begged the rest. I think that is a big difference.