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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2869214, member: 289"] THE KICKING GAME Then: “Sterling Hofrichter is the big name here: he’s been our punter for two years and has been an excellent one, (unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of years in recent times when our punter was probably MVP and he was close to it). He’s an averaged sized guy (5-9, 183)) with a well-above average leg. He also has multiple techniques. He can boom the ball in the conventional fashion, place it in tight circumstances or roll out and kick it rugby style to avoid a rush. When he does that he often kicks a low line-drive away from the returners which can roll a long ways, (he averaged 43.2 yards per punt). He also did some kicking off and kicked 2 of 3 field goals when Cole Murphy was hurt. Now he’s going to take over all three duties, something we haven’t tried in years. Hofrichter is the type who could make it work. In case he doesn’t, we have three other kickers. Nolan Cooney is also practicing kick-offs and may take over that job to ease Hofrichter’s burden. He was “rated the top prospect at the Ray Guy Prokicker.com 2014 regional combine in Boston.” Andre Syzmt (pronounced “Schmitt”) was “rated four stars by Kohl’s Kicking Midwest Winter Showcase”. Corey Schmigl ”averaged 37.1 yards per punt, made 5-of-7 field goals, and hit 17-of-18 PATs in his final scholastic season”. Cooney also does the holding for the place-kicks. I don’t know why we don’t have a back-up quarterback do that so he can make a play out of bad snap. (On kick returns) Sean Riley is the primary guy. He’s the slippery type and has squirted through the opposition for the occasional big return, (he has 66 and 64 yard kick-off returns), but he’s never scored a touchdown for Syracuse. He doesn’t have great flat-out speed and he’s so small, (5-8 158) that, while he can break ankles, he has a hard time breaking tackles. It would be nice to have a threat to go all the way, as was his predecessor, Brisly Estime.” Now: Hofrichter had another strong season punting the ball. He punted for an average of 42.9 yards and again show he was versatile in how and where he punted the ball. Only 22 of 67 punts were returned for an average of 9.9 yards. He also kicked off 101 times and only 22 of them were returned for an average of 18.3 yards per return. But he didn’t do the placekicking. Andre Szymt became the surprise player of the entire country, kicking 30 0f 34 field goals, including 3 of 3 from over 50 yards and 61 of 61 extra points to lead the country in scoring with 151 points, (11.6) per game and win the Lou Groza award as the nation’s best kicker. Did that really happen? Meanwhile Sean Riley finished second in the country in punt returns with 17.5 yards per return, including his first ever kick return for the a touchdown. He didn’t take a kickoff all the way but averaged 19.4 yards per return. Brisly Estime would be proud. And they are all coming back. Then: “Overall, the roster looks pretty good to me, except for the total lack of experience at the linebacker position. We seem to be a bigger, stronger, faster, more talented team that is more capable of competing in the Atlantic Division of the ACC – and do it for 12 games. But the teams we will be playing have plenty of 3 star recruits and also some 4 and 5 star recruits mixed in. They have their own exciting clips of high school highlights and gaudy stats. They have no reason to fear us. But that may to our advantage.” Now: They will fear us now. [/QUOTE]

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