There is an interesting thread in progress on the Rivals board discussing Aric Goodman's 2009 season.
In his defense, it has been brought up that he had a partially torn groin muscle last year and needed injections in order to kick (report not verified). Further, that if you consider this and that his average miss was like 47 yards out, it wasn't such a bad year (stats say 46.1 average miss, so pretty close to true on the numbers). Also, that he genuinely bleeds black & gold, works his butt off, and is absolutely broken up about every missed field goal. Finally, that he's having hip surgery but is committed to making it back for fall camp to help this team.
Personally, I always assume that our guys try hard and I believe that this board especially, but other boards too, do a great job of critiquing results without every engaging in personal attacks on the players themselves. I can't remember a single instance of someone saying he thinks Goodman's struggles were due to lack of effort. So that defense rings hollow for me.
Anyway (and I posted this on Rivals), I went back and looked at Aric's kicks from last year. He was very good on kicks of less than 40 yards.
20-29 yards: 2/2 (makes from 20 & 22)
30-39 yards: 5/6 (makes from 30, 32, 37, 37 & 39 / miss from 37)
40-49 yards: 2/7 (makes from 45 & 48 / misses from 40, 42, 45, 47 & 49)
50-59 yards: 1/3 (make from 54 / misses from 52 & 57)
Honestly, the point about a lot of the misses being long field goal attempts is valid.
You can live with the 1/3 from 50+. Those kicks are a coin flip at best.
The 7/8 (87.5%) from 0-39 is great. CU opponents were only 11/14 (78.6%) from that range.
It's that 2/7 (28.6%) in the 40-49 range that killed us. CU opponents were off the charts from that distance at 5/6 (83.3%).
Maybe I've been a little unfair to Goodman. At the same time, he only delivered at a 30% clip if the ball wasn't being snapped from inside the 23 yard line. We need to be able to count on our placekicker being better than that.
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Thoughts?
In his defense, it has been brought up that he had a partially torn groin muscle last year and needed injections in order to kick (report not verified). Further, that if you consider this and that his average miss was like 47 yards out, it wasn't such a bad year (stats say 46.1 average miss, so pretty close to true on the numbers). Also, that he genuinely bleeds black & gold, works his butt off, and is absolutely broken up about every missed field goal. Finally, that he's having hip surgery but is committed to making it back for fall camp to help this team.
Personally, I always assume that our guys try hard and I believe that this board especially, but other boards too, do a great job of critiquing results without every engaging in personal attacks on the players themselves. I can't remember a single instance of someone saying he thinks Goodman's struggles were due to lack of effort. So that defense rings hollow for me.
Anyway (and I posted this on Rivals), I went back and looked at Aric's kicks from last year. He was very good on kicks of less than 40 yards.
20-29 yards: 2/2 (makes from 20 & 22)
30-39 yards: 5/6 (makes from 30, 32, 37, 37 & 39 / miss from 37)
40-49 yards: 2/7 (makes from 45 & 48 / misses from 40, 42, 45, 47 & 49)
50-59 yards: 1/3 (make from 54 / misses from 52 & 57)
Honestly, the point about a lot of the misses being long field goal attempts is valid.
You can live with the 1/3 from 50+. Those kicks are a coin flip at best.
The 7/8 (87.5%) from 0-39 is great. CU opponents were only 11/14 (78.6%) from that range.
It's that 2/7 (28.6%) in the 40-49 range that killed us. CU opponents were off the charts from that distance at 5/6 (83.3%).
Maybe I've been a little unfair to Goodman. At the same time, he only delivered at a 30% clip if the ball wasn't being snapped from inside the 23 yard line. We need to be able to count on our placekicker being better than that.
*************
Thoughts?