What was it with McCarney and kickers?

**CycloneNC2015** · 08-13-2010, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by thatguy

Those were earlier, it seemed in his later years he went away from this.

If i recall Tony Yelk was there in his later years. BTW Tony Yelk didnt deserve to be on scholly, that guy was horrible. Just because you give a kicker a scholly doesnt mean he was deserving of one. Dmac should have invested a little more into the development of his kickers. The way they kicked I wonder if the kickers ever had any coaching?

**CyCloned** · 08-13-2010, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by isufbcurt

Carl Gomez, Jamie Kohl, and Tony Yelk all were scholarship kickers

Gomez was a punter that was converted to a kicker, so I don't think that counts.

Scholarship or non-scholarship the ISU kicking game for the last 15 years has either been pretty good or pretty bad. It never seems to be just okay. I know that there have been several kickers on the team that looked promising when recruited and then never did a thing.

**VeloClone** · 08-13-2010, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by isufbcurt

The second poster said that Mac did not have a scholarship kicker for most (that means over 50%) of his time at ISU. I am disputing that. Also, towards the end of his time at ISU he had a couple scholarship kickers that never panned out and were beat out by walk-ons.

No I didn't. I said he was adverse to offering scholarships to kickers. That is, he was tightfisted with the kicking scholarships. How many kickers received scholarships right out of high school? How many did he offer at one time?

I think you read way too much into my post. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

**CycoCyclone** · 08-13-2010, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by thatguy

i know this is true, but do i even want to imagine what would have happened if they would have offered Nate Kaeding or the kid that ended up at Miami (both out of Ankeny I believe)

QFT

I've always wondered, "what if"

**ISUChippewa** · 08-13-2010, 10:41 AM

i had a couple players tell me that Dan Mac would rather have a 4th string TE that will never play on scholly than a kicker. When asked why, they would just shrug their shoulders and say, "no idea"
You could tell they weren't real happy about it either.

That's astonishing to me, it really is, and I would say that attitude is symptomatic of DMac's biggest problem as a coach; his stubbornness and failure to learn from his mistakes. After Shaggy botched what was basically a glorified PAT against Missouri he should have gone out and gotten a kicker ASAP.

**bringmagicback** · 08-13-2010, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by CycloneNC2015

If i recall Tony Yelk was there in his later years. BTW Tony Yelk didnt deserve to be on scholly, that guy was horrible. Just because you give a kicker a scholly doesnt mean he was deserving of one. Dmac should have invested a little more into the development of his kickers. The way they kicked I wonder if the kickers ever had any coaching?

Tony Yelk was not horrible.

**cyhiphopp** · 08-13-2010, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by bringmagicback

Tony Yelk was not horrible.

Tony Yelk was a decent punter, but an average at best kicker with little consistency. He also didn't get punts off fast enough and had more than his share blocked.

So, Gomez was a punter turned kicker who got a scholly. Yelk did double duty and was a better punter thana kicker and he got a schollie.

How many guys did DMac give schollies to out of high school? That might be the big difference.

As conservative as DMAc was it seems odd. He often seemed to go conservative and set up the game tying/winning kick instead of going to the end zone only to have a big kick missed. Three short runs and a missed 24 yrd missed FG...
I would think a conservative coach would do everything he could to recruit some talent at kicker.

**isufbcurt** · 08-13-2010, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by cyhiphopp

Tony Yelk was a decent punter, but an average at best kicker with little consistency. He also didn't get punts off fast enough and had more than his share blocked.

So, Gomez was a punter turned kicker who got a scholly. Yelk did double duty and was a better punter thana kicker and he got a schollie.

How many guys did DMac give schollies to out of high school? That might be the big difference.

As conservative as DMAc was it seems odd. He often seemed to go conservative and set up the game tying/winning kick instead of going to the end zone only to have a big kick missed. Three short runs and a missed 24 yrd missed FG...
I would think a conservative coach would do everything he could to recruit some talent at kicker.

Both Yelk and Gomez had scholly's out of High School

**lakeliving** · 08-13-2010, 11:25 AM

Tony Yelk was outstanding on KO's, one of the better ones ISU has ever had. An important aspect of the field position battle.

**pulse** · 08-13-2010, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by cardinal&gold

Most of the games that were lost on missed FGs could have been avoided by a variety of other means. Usually, poor coaching decisions/play calling in the clutch set us up for failure.

This. Kicking was not the issue, it was everything else you listed.

**weR138** · 08-13-2010, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by pulse

This. Kicking was not the issue, it was everything else you listed.

Bingo. '04 Mizzou and '05 KU should never have been that close in the first place. It wasn't Brett Culbertson's fault that ISU absolutely couldn't win in OT. Don't you remember knowing it was over as soon as we went to OT, I do. That was the icing on the **** cake.

**cyfan964** · 08-13-2010, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by cyhiphopp

Tony Yelk was a decent punter, but an average at best kicker with little consistency. He also didn't get punts off fast enough and had more than his share blocked.

So, Gomez was a punter turned kicker who got a scholly. Yelk did double duty and was a better punter thana kicker and he got a schollie.

How many guys did DMac give schollies to out of high school? That might be the big difference.

As conservative as DMAc was it seems odd. He often seemed to go conservative and set up the game tying/winning kick instead of going to the end zone only to have a big kick missed. Three short runs and a missed 24 yrd missed FG...
I would think a conservative coach would do everything he could to recruit some talent at kicker.

Tony Yelk played with a bum leg (maybe hip?) most of his career at Iowa State and still did an above average job. He could have been one of our best kickers ever had he stayed healthy.

**ca4cy** · 08-13-2010, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by mizouse87

I can say with almost certainty that McCarney never recruited a kicker for scholarship.

I know his name has been brought up a couple of times in this thread, but I could have sworn that Mac was the first to offer Kaeding a scholly. I seem to recall that Iowa was hoping to get him as a walk-on but Mac forced their hands into giving him a ride. Once the offer was on the table from Iowa, ISU had no chance at getting him.

Now this is quite a few years ago and I could be wrong, but that's how I remembered it. This doesn't change the fact that ISU's kicking was woeful for a several of Mac's years, nor does it change the fact that his conservative coaching late in games made kicking a much bigger factor than it ever should have been.

**cyclone13** · 08-13-2010, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by pulse

This. Kicking was not the issue, it was everything else you listed.

I can see it from 2 ways:

1. Offense had a huge load on their sholders because they knew that if they didn't score a TD, they might get zero points. Compared to Iowa at Kaeding's era: offense knew that once they got to the end zone, they'd get at least 3 points. Mentally, it helped a lot.

2. Kicker was put in the bad position due to the poor game management, etc.

**CyCloned** · 08-13-2010, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by lakeliving

Tony Yelk was outstanding on KO's, one of the better ones ISU has ever had. An important aspect of the field position battle.

Tony was actually not horrible, he just missed some very critical FGs so that is what is remembered. Horrible was what went on before Shaggy took over the kicking duties. I can't remember the names of the kickers, but I do remember extra points were far from automatic and the kickoffs almost never made it to the 20.