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When I started my On A Specialists Path Blog almost four months ago I did so to try and help kicking specialists on their path as an NFL, College, or High School specialist.I have been to all levels of football as a kicker on the field of play and now I continue to learn even more coaching punters and kickers. One of the things I have learned over the years is that sometimes in life you can have certain expectations and you can discover that the facts are very different than what you expected.
Last week's On A Specialists Path Blog was about using the proper footballs. I suggested that the University of Tennessee was using a football that was putting them at a competitive disadvantage.
Over the past week I have had over 3,000 people read my blog about using the proper footballs. On Monday afternoon I was also asked by Dave Hooker and Terry Fair to join them on their radio show on 100.3 WNOX in Knoxville.
During that interview I explained in detail why I thought that the University of Tennessee was using inferior equipment. Dave Hooker was intrigued during the interview while Terry Fair was still a little bit skeptical and so Terry challenged me to demonstrate the difference in the footballs this past Friday when I was in Knoxville.
I spoke with Dave later in the week to iron out the details and I was told that Terry had organized for us to go over to the University of Tennessee Indoor Facility to test out the balls. I hadn't kicked in an organized workout in about a year so I had to go in my basement and start to search for my kicking shoes!
I made the trip on Friday morning to the University of Tennessee to test out the difference between a Wilson GST football and a Nike Aero Elite football. As I got to the facility I met up with Terry Fair (pictured below) and a few other staff members from WNOX. As I was getting ready to warm up we were approached by a senior official at the university and told that we needed permission to be on the field.
Tennessee has changed their policy toward former letterman now as their are more guidelines as to who can use the facility. There was obviously some sort of mix up but I figured that with Terry being a former NFL star and with me being the 2nd all time leading scorer in school history we would could get a little courtesy.
Over the past week I have had over 3,000 people read my blog about using the proper footballs. On Monday afternoon I was also asked by Dave Hooker and Terry Fair to join them on their radio show on 100.3 WNOX in Knoxville.During that interview I explained in detail why I thought that the University of Tennessee was using inferior equipment. Dave Hooker was intrigued during the interview while Terry Fair was still a little bit skeptical and so Terry challenged me to demonstrate the difference in the footballs this past Friday when I was in Knoxville.
I spoke with Dave later in the week to iron out the details and I was told that Terry had organized for us to go over to the University of Tennessee Indoor Facility to test out the balls. I hadn't kicked in an organized workout in about a year so I had to go in my basement and start to search for my kicking shoes!
I made the trip on Friday morning to the University of Tennessee to test out the difference between a Wilson GST football and a Nike Aero Elite football. As I got to the facility I met up with Terry Fair (pictured below) and a few other staff members from WNOX. As I was getting ready to warm up we were approached by a senior official at the university and told that we needed permission to be on the field.
Tennessee has changed their policy toward former letterman now as their are more guidelines as to who can use the facility. There was obviously some sort of mix up but I figured that with Terry being a former NFL star and with me being the 2nd all time leading scorer in school history we would could get a little courtesy.We were finally told it was ok for us to use the field and so I continued to get warmed up to test out these two footballs. I was about twenty minutes into my warmup and just about to really test out the balls when that same university official told me I had to quit kicking.
It was certainly interesting timing as I had just unwrapped the brand new Nike and Wilson footballs...
Well as my former kicking coach, Coach Zauner, likes to say I had to "improvise and adjust" and that's exactly what I did. We went over to a local high school and proceeded to test out the footballs. The workout can be seen on the web as I just posted it to my YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXoITAcU2H0
I started the workout by kicking 50 yard field goals and worked my way back to 60 yards. As I was kicking both the Nike and Wilson footballs I made it a point to really concentrate when I kicked the Wilson footballs so that no one thought I was favoring the Nike ball.
The reason I titled this blog "Discovering Fact" is because my goal is to help kicking specialists discover what are the real facts. During the workout I learned as much about myself as I did about the footballs.
I learned that there is just a slight difference in the sweet spot of both the Nike and the Wilson footballs with the Nike having a larger surface to kick. A good example is how golfers will favor some golf balls compared to others because the sweet spot is a little bigger.
I firmly believe that if both teams had switched footballs last year in the Tennessee vs Alabama game than the outcome would have been different.
Daniel Lincoln missed a field goal at the end of the half that came up a yard short with a brand new Wilson GST football, which I believe he would have made with a Nike football. In that same game Leigh Tiffin was able to miss the sweet spot on two longer field goals, but was still able to make the kicks because of how much bigger the surface area is on the Nike football.
What I will take away from this experience is that I know I still have the talent to compete for an NFL roster spot. Every kicking specialists' path is different and I will always have a passion for coaching kicking specialists, but it certainly has me intrigued to see what I could do if I actually kicked more than once a year!
The main point that should be taken from this exercise is that there should be one standardized football in College Football. I still can't understand why there isn't one football and if the NCAA wants to talk about fair play then they certainly should use one football for both teams.
What I will take away from this experience is that I know I still have the talent to compete for an NFL roster spot. Every kicking specialists' path is different and I will always have a passion for coaching kicking specialists, but it certainly has me intrigued to see what I could do if I actually kicked more than once a year!Follow me on http://www.twitter.com/
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