Probably the most frustrating thing for a coaching staff to spend time on his finding the right kicker. It’s even harder in college when the talent level is so wide. That would explain why Tennessee Football went the transfer route in Chase McGrath and Charles Campbell the past two years.
Now, though, the competition is wide open with Josh Turbyville, Max Gilbert and J.T. Carver. Halfway through fall camp, there is no starter to this point. Special teams coach Mike Ekeler said all three of them, along with the long snappers in Matthew Salansky and Bennett Brady are NFL-caliber specialists.
“We’ve got three guys that could pretty much start anywhere in the country,” he said. “Max (Gilbert) has done an awesome job, (Josh Turbyville) keeps getting better, and J.T. (Carver), since the day we’ve walked in here, he just grinds and he works his tail off.”
Sorry, I’m not buying it.
There’s no gamesmanship required in naming a starting kicker. Opponents don’t strategize against that. Josh Heupel would want to get that out of the way early for two reasons: So Ekeler can work on other aspects of the game and so that kicker can develop confidence while getting more first-team reps.
Maybe, in a weird situation, teams would strategize for kickoffs, but Turbyville is already the Vols’ kickoff specialist, as he held that role last year with all three of these players in the program. The question is clearly who the place kicker will become.
At this point, if Tennessee Football has multiple options, they haven’t found one. Ekeler may have accidentally let that slip while discussing the unit, noting that he was focused on developing more consistency with that unit in practice.
“It’s like golfing,” he said. “It’s about being a consistent ball striker, and that’s what they’re working on, and I freaking love this group.”
Obviously, that is a signal that consistency is a problem with all of them. He noted that the coaches put them in pressure situations kicking every week. Have they all been coming up short in those moments? Is it leading to them still keeping the competition open?
This is a crucial part of the game. Despite how little they are used, a place kicker, analytically, can be the second most important player on the team behind a quarterback. Tennessee Football in 1998 won its first two games because of Jeff Hall. Gen. Robert Neyland’s sixth game maxim stresses the kicking game’s importance.
Despite Heupel’s high-flying offense, kicking is a huge part. Drives will stall, and they need the advantage when running the two-minute drill. After all, Heupel’s riding the wave of beating the Alabama Crimson Tide in 2022 right now, and that came off a game-winner from McGrath.
Simply put, Tennessee Football has a major issue at this position even if the Vols won’t say it. Punting, kick returning and kick coverage all seem fine on special teams along with snapping. Place kicking is clearly a question, and Ekeler raised another red flag about them being a “tight-knit” group.
“It’s like a quarterback,” he said. “There’s only one ball, only one guy can go out there, and those guys all want that job, but they truly have a great camaraderie, they truly help each other, and they pull for each other in the right way.”
That should be another warning sign. Kickers shouldn’t root for each other when they’re trying to win the job. Go back and read about how Peyton Manning constantly tried to work against Branndon Stewart. This seems like Ekeler trying to spin this unit into a positive. It doesn’t seem to be the case right now.
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I can always tell wen CC writes the op-ed piece. He goes way over his head to sell his supposition. Sometimes he even gets it right…