NCAAF, NFL
Cheers! It's football season yay! Oops, my bad again. What I meant to say is it's holiday season, Woohoo! You'll be happy to know that these two seasons are not mutually exclusive. Yes, you can have it all... God bless America. With the holiday season comes gifts. Gifts can be tough. You can strike gold with some spot-on surprises, or you can strike-out, receiving polite but awkward "thanksss...." It's much easier if you can peek at one's wish list. However, I couldn't even construct a comprehensive one of my own. An unnecessary phone upgrade for my suddenly archaic 3G iPhone (thanks for nothing AT&T network) and a Wesley Sneijder Dutch national team jersey (in the Dutch orange of course) are as far as I got. I had more fun constructing a new type of wish list. It's a "sportacular" one.
My Holiday Sports Wish List:
Coaching for kickers.
Sounds like a charity, and I say it should be treated like one. These guys need some help, so give it to them! Kickers have been crumbling under pressure ever since the inception of the field goal or the beginning of Brett Favre's career, whichever came first. I'm not talking field goal attempts in the Candlestick wind or a Foxboro blizzard, nor the understandably difficult 50+ yarders. I'm talking about the ones that are "supposed" to be automatic. For example, playoff Nate Kaeding of the San Diego Chargers or Boise State's Kyle Brotzman (too soon? too bad, my blog). In fact, the Brotzman breakdown inspired me to readdress (a.k.a. blog about) this "kicking issue" that I'm tired of ranting to my buddies about. I'm getting really annoyed with watching teams fall to more and more kicking debacles and then blaming it all on the kicker as if the coach were helpless. FALSE!!!!
I'm sure at least once you've seen an opposing coach "icing" a kicker by calling a timeout. Why do opposing coaches do this? Simple, Mental Warfare. What appears to be the next "Call of Duty" game is actually the most important aspect of an integral part of football: field goal kicking. Kickers may be an afterthought, but you can't ignore that whenever they hit the field it's because of a scoring opportunity (except kick-offs). And you can't ignore that the whole "scoreboard thing" is how you determine who wins. In fact, the only reason we consider kickers an afterthought is because we all assume, nay, expect a make-able kick to be converted. "It's not that difficult." "They do it all the time." "It's like a free-throw?" "These guys are getting paid boat loads to make these, no excuses." My counter: "Don't underestimate pressure!" Make-able kicks turn into choke artist displays because it's all in the head. Guess Chubbs from Happy Gilmore was wrong on this one. The physical demands are relatively the same each time, hence the he-should-make-it assumption, but the mental factors are not so stable. Game on the line, season on the line, and everything changes. The mental attack is how you get to these kickers. That's why in the past couple of years, it's been trendy to get that T.O. timing down to a Goldilocks "just right." Games have been won, lost, and "Sportcentered" because of coaches mentally phasing a kicker.
O.K. coaches, you've clearly demonstrated that you are aware kicking is mentally influenced. So, PLEASE, play some DEFENSE and protect your kicker! Stop letting the other coach get into your guy's head. Stop letting the crowd get into your guy's head. And stop letting the flow of the game get into your guy's head. Well, how do I do that? The same way you help your precious young quarterbacks; simplify. Just like you cut down the playbook so as not to overwhelm the QB's thinking, cut down what the kicker has to think about. Your field goal kicker should only have one worry: kicking a field goal from X many yards.
Here's my proposal. Isolate your kicker. Don't let him watch the game, nor let him be aware of the score, etc. They should be keeping warm, and listening to their headphones playing whatever jam helps them stay focused. I'm not privy to all the NFL rules and sideline iPods may not be kosher, but you get the idea. Make him a waterboy, I don't care. Just coach him, basically distract the kicker so as to limit the mental pressures. Glancing at the scoreboard should be a no-no (the prohibited kind, not the Roy Halladay type). Sure, one might be able to sense a big kick from the crowd feel. But at least he won't be entranced watching a Montana-esque drive, talking to himself, letting the pressure build, and folding before he even steps onto the pitch.
I apologize for putting you under the microscope again Brotzman, but I guarantee you would not have missed your second field goal attempt had your coach followed my rule. Brotzman would have been bummed, sensing the magnitude of missing the first one, but his mental breakdown would have ended there. He would not have been mulling over the fact that his miss with one second left in regulation cost Boise State's chance to basically wrap up their most "glorious" season ever. Come the overtime attempt, he wouldn't even have known it was OT. Lining up, he certainly wouldn't have been aware that he could be single-handedly responsible for losing the game (and season) with another miss. His performance showed that he obviously felt such pressures. Under my rules, Brotzman would have worked with "Big Kick, Big Kick," that's it. Instead, he got "National Championship Hopes Kick and Entire Season Kick." Ouch.
Forget focusing on more BCS hoopla (save us Mark Cuban) and let's transition to a Super Bowl Champion coach. Yes, I got beef with Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints. Payton committed a cardinal sin when playing the Falcons earlier this year. He allowed his young field goal kicker Hartley to kick from the right hash on first down in overtime! He chose not to center the ball? I absolutely hate this. I understand kicking it on an early down because any field goal under the regular season sudden death OT rules results in Game-Over. It makes sense to eliminate the turnover risk and kick the "automatic" field goal once you're in range. Good call, but c'mon Payton, take it a step further and coach the kicking game by...simplifying! A Drew Brees kneel to center the ball would be so easy with Hartley any risk. A chip shot slightly to the left turns into a chip shot down the middle. If you saw Tampa Bay beat the Saints last year in OT, you would know that a short field goal from the right hash is not exactly Hartley's forte.
So, next time Payton, if you got it, flaunt it and take the opportunity to center it. It's not like it's that important... Hartley's miss only cost you a loss to a division rival and depending on how their Monday night rematch goes, it may have cost the Saints the division and home field advantage in the playoffs, which the Falcons (of course) seem to be walking away with. Big swing from just kicking huh?
I admit I watch far too much football, but I'm merely a spectator and not a coach (yet!). However, I'll diagram for you my expectations via my loving equation approach:
NFL Sunday Ticket + 47" TV + purposely never having Sunday plans + Dominos/whatever delivers to my door = I expect to watch some awesome football
Awesome football = awesome playing + awesome coaching
Awesome coaching = making the correct decisions (a la Bruce Bochy 2010)
Therefore, when I see a much needed coaching change, I shall demand it. Now that my charity group for kicker coaching is off and running, I'd like to direct you to my next wish/post, a potential coaching revolution: The Four Down Offense. It's exactly what it sounds like. Expect some Peyton Manning love as well as more kicking hatred. Enjoy the Holidays and stay tuned.
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