Making Good
January 03, 2005 03:20 PM | General
January 3, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University freshman kicker Andy Good wants to be the least talked about player on the Mountaineer football team next year. His goal is to have fans not even think twice when he jogs out onto the field to try an extra point or a field goal.
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| Andy Good made two field goals in West Virginia's 30-18 loss to Florida State in the 2005 Toyota Gator Bowl.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“I want to get the fans and everybody so confident with me that they’re able to not even look – they know it is good. That’s what I want and that’s what I’m going to try and strive for,” he said.
Kicking has been a popular topic of conversation this fall after a blocked field goal directly led to a loss at Virginia Tech and also impacted the Pitt game at season’s end. Regular WVU place kicker Brad Cooper struggled with his consistency throughout the year, and even had trouble with his placement on kickoffs which often resulted in bad field position.
Cooper’s struggles became so pronounced that West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez announced there would be open competition for the kicking job for the Gator Bowl and subsequently revealed that Cooper would handle extra points and kickoffs while Good would be used for field goals.
Then Cooper missed his first extra point try of the Gator Bowl and that left Good to try West Virginia’s second PAT, which he also missed.
“I don’t know what to say about the missed extra point,” Good said. “As long I’ve got them all out of the way and that’s all I can basically say about it. It felt good coming off my foot and I looked up and it was wide.”
Good’s miss left Rodriguez unconvinced any of his kickers could put the ball through the uprights, forcing him to gamble and a fake a 27-yard field goal attempt that holder George Shehl failed to make.
Eventually, with Florida State’s defense nearly immovable in the red zone, Rodriguez once again had to run out his kicker and try to get some points and salvage a drive. He chose Good once again to try a 44-yard in the third quarter.
“As soon as I kicked it I was like, ‘Oh man there it goes. There’s another one,’” Good said. “Then I felt the wind blowing and I didn’t think there was enough wind to push it and I started walking off the field and my teammates said it was good and I looked back up, smiled, and thought somebody upstairs likes me.”
Good says the Person upstairs was smiling on his second one, too.
“I was trying to play with the wind because the wind kept mixing back and forth,” he said. “I figured I’d line up a little bit differently and I barely snuck it in.”
In addition to giving his team six important points, Good got an extra boost from Cooper, who was the first person on the field to congratulate him after his make.
“He’s one of my good, good friends,” Good said. “We spend every day together. Having that friendship and having the support means the world to me.”
Now, Good must build on his performance in the Gator Bowl and make the coaching staff more confident that he won’t be a liability next fall. “If I have the coaches on my side saying you can do it it’s a mental booster,” he said.
Good plans on going to some camps this summer to work on his technique and plans on putting in extra work in the weight room to get his leg stronger.
“I’m going to do drills and go through everything I’ve ever been taught to get focused and get mentally prepared,” Good said.
The Youngstown, Ohio, native goes into the spring as the team’s No. 1 place kicker, but he knows that can change at any time.
“Any day can change,” he said. “It’s my job to lose right now and I’m just going to keep plugging away and tell myself that I’ve got to do better than everyone else.”
Good says kickers can improve their leg strength through better flexibility.
“If you look at Coop and see how he skies the ball, he can get his leg up above his hip because his leg is so flexible,” Good said. “If I can start stretching and doing a little bit heavier squats I should be able to increase it.”
The biggest hurdle for any kicker is going from the kicking block in high school to kicking off the ground in college. Good admits it took him an entire redshirt year to become comfortable without the block.
“It’s a big thing,” he admitted. “In high school I was so used to getting a lot of height on it and I came here and had some troubles with it last year. Now I’m doing a lot better. I’m doing a lot more drills for height which kind of inhibits your distance. So during the off-season I’m just going to work on height and get that done and then start working on leg strength.
“When I combine those two hopefully by spring time I’ll be good.”
Andy is also encouraged by the fact that regular holder George Shehl is back for another season.
“That’s a real big help,” Good admitted. “He is by far the best holder in the country. There is no one else that works as hard at that position. He’s is so precise at everything he does. I honestly don’t think he has missed a snap yet.”
Now, Good is hoping for the same.
