State of SEC Kicking

The 2011 All SEC Team was announced just recently and after watching SEC football all season and doing some research on the stats of these kickers I believe that the most talented kickers in the SEC are actually a couple of younger kicking specialists. One thing that I believe is not valued enough by the media is a kicker's value as a kickoff specialist.

This year the frontrunner for the All SEC award would have been Georgia's kicker Blair Walsh (pictured above), but the first and second team kickers actually went to Caleb Sturgis (Florida) and Drew Alleman (LSU).

Going into his senior season I felt that Blair Walsh had a legitimate chance to get drafted, but after a shaky senior season he might be lucky to get a priority free agent spot. Caleb Sturgis really benefited from Walsh's misfortune and he took his place as the top kicker in the SEC.

Sturgis had a fantastic season and deserved the first team honors after making 21-25 field goal attempts including a long of 55 yards. He was the unanimous 1st team selection and he really had a very nice year after recovering from an injury in 2010.

The kicker that I believe got snubbed from being on the All SEC team was Zach Hocker from Arkansas. He was 18-24 on field goals but where he truly shined was his kickoffs. Arkansas was a high scoring team and Hocker hit a whopping 36 touchbacks on his kickoffs this year!

Drew Alleman (LSU) had a great season but only 2 of his 18 field goal attempts were from past 42 yards and James Hairston handled the team's kickoffs this season. Alleman helped his team all season, but was just not given the same responsibilities as Hocker from Arkansas.

A kicker to be aware of for the next few years will be Auburn's Cody Parkey. I believe that he and Hocker have legitimate chances to be NFL kickers when they graduate in a few years.

Parkey was just a freshman this season but he kicked 34 kickoffs for touchbacks with a team that didn't score as much as teams like LSU and Arkansas. His field goals can improve but the majority of his misses were from outside 40 yards except for one 32 yard miss against Samford.

The future is certainly bright in the kicking game for teams like LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas. Teams like Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi State will be looking for improved production by either improvement in their current kickers or by an influx of new talent.

It will be interesting to see next year how the State of SEC Kicking has changed in just a year!

Visit: www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com