Should we abandon the kicking game entirely?

S

Salsa Red

Three-Star Recruit
I think the staff needs to seriously consider abandoning the kicking game all together. We're not making many field goals, including extra point attempts. We should also line up for onside kicks every time. We don't have to go onside every time but can kick it deep at times where most teams just fair catch it because they don't have any blockers.

Our kicking game is a major liability right now, there are likely many high schools with better kicking game than we have currently. It's odd because we had such a solid kicking game recently, I think Riley really hurt our depth by not getting many walk on kickers.

 
Or, we could really hunker down on getting our group of kickers to practice better and hopefully end up with a halfway competent one.  If we insist on going for it on every 4th down or punting it we will not win enough games to go bowling.

 
Redux said:
Or, we could really hunker down on getting our group of kickers to practice better and hopefully end up with a halfway competent one.  If we insist on going for it on every 4th down or punting it we will not win enough games to go bowling.
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The punting game is good but kickoff and field goals are the worst I've seen with any team, Statistically we're probably better off going for 2 and lining up for onside kicks.

 
It's the worst I've seen it, no question.  But we absolutely can't abandon FG attempts.  Practice only gets you so far, we need live bodies kicking in game to help them overcome nerves.  We will definitely be in a situation where 3 is the difference between a loss and a win.

 
Salsa Red said:
The punting game is good but kickoff and field goals are the worst I've seen with any team, Statistically we're probably better off going for 2 and lining up for onside kicks.
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It will be interesting to see if Frost will try for 2 on a PAT, especially if NU is able to score first against Ohio State.  I think the blocked PAT against Illinois should have been flagged because the rusher pushed through the long-snapper, and they are supposed to be off-limits now.

Regarding the kickoffs, they need to get that figured out, because kicking it low and deep isn't working.  That creates huge opportunities for returns.  I wouldn't recommend all-time onside kicks at this level because it would give the opposing offense short fields all the time.  Even if NU would get a stop, NU's offense would be pinned deep in their own territory.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
It will be interesting to see if Frost will try for 2 on a PAT, especially if NU is able to score first against Ohio State.  I think the blocked PAT against Illinois should have been flagged because the rusher pushed through the long-snapper, and they are supposed to be off-limits now.

Regarding the kickoffs, they need to get that figured out, because kicking it low and deep isn't working.  That creates huge opportunities for returns.  I wouldn't recommend all-time onside kicks at this level because it would give the opposing offense short fields all the time.  Even if NU would get a stop, NU's offense would be pinned deep in their own territory.
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Yeah Oregon used to always go for two at least on the first touchdown, and in an upset bid any momentum helps. Wouldn't be shocked to see it. 

I'd be asking the kick off specialists to pop it up high - I don't even care if it lands at the 25, at least we'd have time to cover it. I think some of our kickoff coverage issues are because guys are screaming down the field out of control trying to get there, there is no hang time for them to work with. 

 
Husker in WI said:
Yeah Oregon used to always go for two at least on the first touchdown, and in an upset bid any momentum helps. Wouldn't be shocked to see it. 

I'd be asking the kick off specialists to pop it up high - I don't even care if it lands at the 25, at least we'd have time to cover it. I think some of our kickoff coverage issues are because guys are screaming down the field out of control trying to get there, there is no hang time for them to work with. 
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I agree with popping it up higher.  Maybe the soccer player will be able to do some things with the kickoffs which Pryzstap can't.  I'm just guessing with that though.

The thing with kicking it deep and low, like you said it gives no time for players to get downfield.  That also leads to have players getting out of lanes because they are trying to avoid blockers and get down the field quicker.

 
Husker in WI said:
Yeah Oregon used to always go for two at least on the first touchdown, and in an upset bid any momentum helps. Wouldn't be shocked to see it. 

I'd be asking the kick off specialists to pop it up high - I don't even care if it lands at the 25, at least we'd have time to cover it. I think some of our kickoff coverage issues are because guys are screaming down the field out of control trying to get there, there is no hang time for them to work with. 
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Yup, the hang time is what I noticed for sure on Saturday. The ball barely left the TV screen on kickoffs so the coverage team had zero time to get down field and disengage from blocks. That's a recipe for disaster on kickoff.

Wasn't last year the game we tried the onside kick and Lightbourn totally blew it? Wouldn't be surprised to see Frost try some 2 point conversions or onside kicks if the situation matches.

 
I'm thinking they can get creative with kickoffs and extra point conversions. On kickoffs we can line up onside and kick it high downfield where the returner has to fair catch it at the 25 or 30. The other team would have to cover for the onside so there would be no blockers for the returner, it would limit issues with the return.

Going for 2 sucks because it's about the easiest field goal you can make but we're still having issues with it.

I feel bad for Pickering, he has only 1 job but is unable to do it. Soft tissue injuries (non ligament) usually take no more than 6 weeks to heal, it's truly an unprecedented injury if it wasn't a season ending injury. Frost has had some bad luck, hopefully it turns around this weekend and we go on to run the table!

 
I'm on board with going for 2 on all PATs. (Didn't Oregon do that for a whole season awhile back?) But we need to get kickoffs into the endzone and need to be able to make some FGs. Hard no for onside kick attempts.

 
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JJ Husker said:
Yes, now that you mention it, it sure did. But our pathetic kicking is likely to bite us in the a$$ as well so....
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Given the situation in which we find ourselves, yes I guess it would be better to fail at a 2pt conversion vs failing the PAT.

 
Branno said:
Given the situation in which we find ourselves, yes I guess it would be better to fail at a 2pt conversion vs failing the PAT.
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And we only have to convert at 50% to break even. Think I saw somewhere the odds of that are not terrible. Might’ve been when Oregon was doing it consistently...

 
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