King, Wells and Hansen gone

Two points:
a) If a kicker is solid in game time, don't focus so hard on how many he shanks when goofing around in practice.
b) If a kicker is average one year, and terrible the next; put your special teams coach on watch. The special teams coach may not be the source of the problem; but he ain't the solution either and part of his job is being the solution.

If kicking game doesn't improve this year with continued improvement going into next year, it may be time to re-evaluate the staff; but it is way too early to call now. King was never a great kicker and even though Wells had a good year the source of his downward trend is unknown.
 
southendzoneBEE said:
So Wells missed one XP and we sat him half the season. Point is, the guy who went perfect last s(2 seasons) got 1 FG attempt in lieu of a guy who went 3/7.
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Once again you just see it how you want. If I have a guy hitting shanks and missing badly in practice and he goes out and misses an XP in a game, yes I would pull him. If the other guy struggled also, I would keep going back and forth. We likely would have done that but that's when King went on a roll. You guys keep harping on his 2018 season too much. That has absolutely no bearing on what was going on with him last year. And he wasn't just missing here and there or when he was playing around at practice. It was bad misses and absolute shanks that you shouldn't ever even see at the D1 level even as a walk on. That's like betting all your money on Tiger to win this years Masters when he's 15 strokes back on Sunday just because he won last year. It doesn't work that way.
 
aeromech said:
a) If a kicker is solid in game time, don't focus so hard on how many he shanks when goofing around in practice.
b) If a kicker is average one year, and terrible the next; put your special teams coach on watch. The special teams coach may not be the source of the problem; but he ain't the solution either and part of his job is being the solution.
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From the sounds of it, it wasn't just when "goofing around in practice." There's not much goofing around at a CGC practice anyway if you haven't noticed.

And for the second part, the special teams coach has nothing to do with the actual kicking. We have a kicking coach that works specifically with the kickers and I believe it's the same one we've had for a good while now.
 
GoGATech said:
I think people forget how the season played out...

Preseason reports were that both kickers were so-so and each would have decent days and bad days.
Game 1 - Clemson Wells was the starter. 2/2 XP
Game 2 - USF King was the starter. 2/2 XP, 0/1 FG on a 51 yard attempt.
Game 3 - Citadel Wells back as the starter. Missed the 1st XP badly, brought King in. King goes 1/1 XP, 1/2 FG. Made the FG to take it to overtime, but missed a 47 yarder (after Johnson took a sack) in OT.
Game 4 - Temple unfortunately we don't know who would've been kicking.
Game 5 - UNC King starts. 2/2 XP
Game 6 - Duke King starts. 2/2 XP, 1/1 FG
Game 7 - Miami King starts. 4/4 XP
Game 8 - Pitt King starts. 1/1 XP, 1/2 FG. Missed a 34 yarder.
Game 9 - Virginia Wells starts. 4/4 XP. 0/1 FG. Missed a 30 yarder.
Game 10 - Virginia tech again no kicks.
Game 11 - NC State King starts. 4/4 XP
Game 12 - UGAg King starts. 1/1 XP, 0/1 FG. Missed bad on a 27 yarder before half. May have swapped to Wells agian after that but who knows.

Point is, if Wells was obviously struggling in practice also, there was really no time to bring him in other than when we did. He started the season for us. King went next. He missed a FG and we went back to Wells next game. He misses an XP and back to King. Then King rolls off 4 games going 9/9 XP and 2/3 FG. So after that one miss, we went back to Wells and he goes 4/4 XP and misses a short one. Back to King, 5/5 XP against NC State and UGAg, but then the missed FG. May have brought Wells in after that again but who knows. We basically did swap them every time one started doing bad. The only time we didn't use him for a while, King was on a roll and Wells wasn't practicing good.
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It’s almost like he rode the hot hand
 
GoGATech said:
From the sounds of it, it wasn't just when "goofing around in practice." There's not much goofing around at a CGC practice anyway if you haven't noticed.

And for the second part, the special teams coach has nothing to do with the actual kicking. We have a kicking coach that works specifically with the kickers and I believe it's the same one we've had for a good while now.
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Who is the kicking coach, I can't find them on ramblinwreck.com.
 
aeromech said:
Who is the kicking coach, I can't find them on ramblinwreck.com.
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I was looking for that and I can't seem to find it but it's not a person listed in the staff directory. We have an external coach that does the actual "kicking mechanics" coaching and all that.
 
southendzoneBEE said:
You'll never convince me that Wells didn't deserve more than one game action field goal.

Never.
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Don't need to. It's not your job to evaluate him, and it's obvious why. We had a ridiculously small sample size with both guys, but you are ööööting on the coach who made a decision based on a huge sample size of thousands of kicks in practice.
 
I trust the coach and the process. Wish these guys the best in their future endeavors.
 
aeromech said:
Two points:
a) If a kicker is solid in game time, don't focus so hard on how many he shanks when goofing around in practice.
b) If a kicker is average one year, and terrible the next; put your special teams coach on watch. The special teams coach may not be the source of the problem; but he ain't the solution either and part of his job is being the solution.

If kicking game doesn't improve this year with continued improvement going into next year, it may be time to re-evaluate the staff; but it is way too early to call now. King was never a great kicker and even though Wells had a good year the source of his downward trend is unknown.
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So you think players goof around in practice?
 
aeromech said:
I said kickers, not players. I don't think what happens in practice always directly translates to game time.
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But they goof it when they line up their kicks, and they do it even when they are mired in a slump?

And if they are not players why did two have scholarships?
 
Techbert said:
But they goof it when they line up their kicks, and they do it even when they are mired in a slump?

And if they are not players why did two have scholarships?
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I don't think Wells ever had a scholarship. King did.
 
Techbert said:
But they goof it when they line up their kicks, and they do it even when they are mired in a slump?

And if they are not players why did two have scholarships?
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Don't know, maybe the same reasons they don't have a designated position coach listed on the ramblinwreck roster.
 
I'm always happy when I see a Tech player go on and get themselves a job. It's like this janky, messed up college system is actually working. Good luck to the kids.
 
southendzoneBEE said:
So Wells missed one XP and we sat him half the season. Point is, the guy who went perfect last s(2 seasons) got 1 FG attempt in lieu of a guy who went 3/7.
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Every report I saw on the kickers last year on numerous Tech sites was that Wells developed a serious case of the yips and couldn’t shake it. If a kid can’t make solid kicks in practice why put him on the field? I’m sure that would help his confidence.
 
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