Gage Hurych is a solid addition as a high school kicker from West Linn, but the Sailer 5-star rating is a little deceptive. Rivals, 247 and On3 don't rate kickers and punters, and Sailer's ratings tend to be inflated. Matt Wogan was a 5-star kicker, Sailer's number two kicker in the country. Alejandro Maldonado was a Kohl's Kicking School All-American, the winner of the Las Vegas Regional.
Kickers are like the old football joke about quarterbacks and teabags: you don't know what you're getting until you put them in hot water. It's different kicking in high school in front of 500 people. In college you add 50,000 fans and national television, and your coach makes five million dollars a year. It's exponentially greater pressure.
Hurych is a good athlete, an all-league lacrosse player with a 40-inch vertical. He's 6-2, 180 and can dunk a basketball. In his sophomore year he nailed a 23-yard field goal to win a game in overtime over Lakeridge. The kick advanced the Lions into the quarterfinals of the state 6A playoffs.
The major recruiting services generally don't rate specialists, so adding Hurych won't help the Ducks in the national rankings. Still, one of the best in-state kickers Oregon ever had was Josh Bidwell from Bend. He turned out to be an all-timer and a future NFL punter.
In 2014 Aidan Schneider walked on from Grant High School, worked his way into the starting job as a freshman and became the most accurate field goal kicker in school history, connecting on 85% for his career. He made 11 of 12 as a freshman in the year the Ducks went to the national championship.
No comments:
Post a Comment