Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Kicking game

The NMSU kicking game has been wildly inconsistent the last couple of years. The question now is, will that change?

The key for this whole thing to work will be Kyle Hughes, who was academically ineligible last season. Hughes was connecting well the other day in practice. He was knocking balls inside the 5-yard line on kickoffs. Last year, the team gave the opposition the ball on the 35 or 40, it seemed, on every possession. Little squib dump kicks that went nowhere. My Lord, what a painful experience that was last season. Watching that kicking game wallow in mediocrity.

Well, Hughes could make a difference. I spoke with NMSU golfer Travis Reid who is actually trying out for the NMSU football team as a kicker as well. I asked Reid about Hughes and his exact words were, "that guy's awesome." In other words, Hughes can boot the ball with accuracy as well as deep. There are still questions as to whether he will be the full-time kickoff man but I don't think there will be a question as far as field goals are concerned. Hopefully, he will have his head screwed on straight and booting balls come September.

As for the defense, people want to know about how things are coming along. Again, I've been to two practices. One, the defense looked a little behind the learning curve, but what do you expect? This team is trying to learn a new system and a drastically different one at that. The other practice I went to, Dunn was running them ragid. The best way to find out how the defense is doing? Go to the scrimmage on Saturday and see for yourself. Or check back in here afterwords and I can fill you in. Whatever works best for you, the readers

TF

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was dissapointed w/ Hughes academic status last year. He could have given us at least two more wins!
He better be taking care of business in the classroom!!

I'm not surprised that the defense is behind the learning curve.
It's new and they have been running it for a week.
Improvement on a weekly basis is the name of the game.

I'll be at this weeks scrimage and also at the spring game. I expect to see defensive improvement in between!

El Hombre

Anonymous said...

Teddy,
I heard that the State has given NMSU $$ to build the new Locker rooms and coaches offices and will be ready for the 2009 season.

An A-Club member showed me the flyer and it looks really nice!
The proposed building will be behind the Jumbotron and across the Team meeting rooms that were build last year.

Anyway you can check around NMSU and see if we can view it online or can you do a write up with a little more details?

The wins will come but, we can't deny NMSU's vision and dedication to change it's ugly past and into a bowl team!

Anonymous said...

What about the kid they brought in this past recruiting class? Is he competing for the job or is it pretty much Hughes job to lose?

Teddy said...

I believe the newcomer in the recruiting class — Jordan Davenport — will be in the running for kickoffs. It appears as if Hughes will be field goals. Nothing has been confirmed at this point but I hear this is the direction they will go in.

Teddy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Well here we go again! A golfer trying out for Mumme's kicking position? A D1 program? What happened to all the other kickers? I'm sorry but Mummies is just lost at the kicking game. I'd bet money we have the same problems in the kicking game we've had the last 3 seasons under Mumme's ineptitude.