Erudite?
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
Won a couple of games is a bit of a stretch. It was not like he was hitting a 60 yarder at the horn. Luke and the offense got him into some comfortable distances and he did his job.
Yes but how many walk off field goals did he have last year? That is not easy for a college kicker. That’s exactly why he got paid a ton. The thing that hurts his nfl future is leg strength
The roster doesn’t say GIES on it.
The donation was for the stadium.
He made a great kick to beat USC. The bowl game was a chip shot.
Go back and look at the last 2 years. He played a big role in a lot of wins. With our style of play having a clutch kicker is huge. With bb we haven’t blown out many teams
Yep. Some of the better teams in the country have been done in by lack of a consistent FG kicker. It’s why Texas A&M paid so much. That said, I trust our staff to continue to fill that position with a kicker they can trust.
TAMU has taken 3 players from us: Olano, McCollum, and top 100 recruit Victor Singleton when he was committed here.
If it continues in that manner, won't be long until they're atop our SEC hate list (not that they could care less).
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I remember Cal's team two years ago -- Mendoza's final year there.
Fairly certain their kicker cost them 3 or 4 games, with missed "chip shots" just like that.
With as many close games we play, a guy as dependable as Olano is a treasure. It just sucks to lose that over cash.
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and 69 others
“Timeout South Carolina”
I agree Olano did a great job for us
I wish we could have him this year and maybe even one more next year
But I’m not worried at all about our FG kicking game going forward .
maybe I should be ?
He did what was best for him . Chasing a huge payday can’t be held against him
I think worry is reasonable. None of the kickers on our roster, have previously held FG kicking job elsewhere full time.
There's just lots of unknown there. Right in line with the defense.
We play a ton of close games so a good field kicker is a must. We replaced Olano with the former backup who barely got any chances when he was last with us. Last year for Washington he attempted 0 FG.
FG kicking is much easier to practice than other positions, so real game experience with 22 on the field matters less.
Less concerned about actual game reps, rather why hasn't he been given the opportunity?
A
Yeah because kicking field goals in practice is the same as doing it when the games on the line with a full stadium. Everyone looks good when theirs no pressure.
Yeah because kicking field goals in practice is the same as doing it when the games on the line with a full stadium. Everyone looks good when theirs no pressure.
you are really referring to the mental aspect of FG kicking . I’m sure there are some things coaches can do to help prepare a guy for that , much like free throw shooting , but a guy has to totally rely on muscle memory to be good at it all game/season long . that comes thru repetition with the snapper & holder , with occasional 11 on 11 work.
I really wish Olano stayed - but I just have faith in the next man up . In general , our program has had mostly pretty good fg kickers over the years & just don’t anticipate that changing
Do you think Ohio states kicker was shanking field goals in practice like that? When the bright lights are on it’s a lot harder. What can a coach do to get a player ready to make a game winning field goal on national tv. Not to mention the 70,000 screaming fans in the stadium.
When kicking on air everyone is looking good. This is p4 football we are talking about not freshman football.
I’m just saying practicing kicking is relatively simple compared to drills and scrimmage for QB, WR, DB, and even linemen, whose performance is intertwined with that of many other players, particularly the opposing team. Crowd noise and emotional pressure compete with muscle memory for the kicker but his job is otherwise very one-dimensional.
This is why soccer players can much more readily become kickers than other positions. We need a “leg sniper” with good range who’s calm under pressure. This requires a lot of time at the range and the right emotional disposition.
If it was that easy to find a good kicker why would Texas A&M spend a ton of money to get Olano. Kicking a field goal with pressure and an opposing team trying to block it is a lot different than kicking on air in practice. It’s also not easy to sit on the side line for a couple hours then go in a game to nail a game winning field goal
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Good kickers are pretty easy to find. Great ones like Orlando are much less common. Programs like A&M spend a ton of money to get the very best at every position. It sounds like Brett has picked up another very good kicker, but unlikely as great as Olano.
I’m not saying kicking easy, only that it’s relatively simple, as in not nearly as complex as playing other positions in football, basketball, baseball, or soccer.
It’s an imperfect analogy, but a FG kicker is analogous to a sniper. He needs to invest in a lot of range time and must have steady nerves. He can practice his “shooting” specialty w/o interacting much w/ the rest of the team except his “spotter”. That doesn’t mean some aren’t better at longer distances and under more pressure, only that it’s a uniquely narrow, deep specialty.
We won a lot of games by very small margins. Having a kicker like Olano is a very big part of that success. Last year Alabama’s kicker only made 69.6%. If it was that easy to find a good kicker how is bama using that kid
Not doubting you but it certainly feels like the Ohio States, Michigans, Bamas, A&Ms, Texas Tech, and many more are buying big time rosters in both football and basketball and massively outspending us in total combined roster NIL...
Yes they absolutely are, but it's not coming from the Athletic Department budget. It's coming from third boosters, directly to players. And those boosters are also donating money for other costs too, like what the Gies donation is going towards. It's not like OSU is not paying AD staff and is letting their infrastructure crumble just to pay players.
Think of it like this. There's two buckets of money. One is the Athletic Department budget. The other is the all the money boosters and donors are willing to spend.
The AD bucket, up until now, could not go to paying players at all. Now it's capped at $20 million combined for ALL sports. And that's what we call revenue sharing. The rest has to go to capital improvments and repairs, bills, staff salaries, scholarships, travel budgets, etc.
A portion of the donor/booster bucket includes donations directly to the Athletic Department. Once those funds go to the Athletic Department, they become part of that bucket and all the same restrictions apply. The other portion of this bucket is NIL funds. Until revenue share this was the only source of player compensation. Even after revenue share it is a significant source of player compensation. This money goes directly from the donors/boosters and other third parties directly to the players. While many (all?) programs have helped facilitate and direct these NIL funds, programs are not able to actually write the checks or distribute the funds, and certainly can't do so out of the AD bucket. The stuff that programs have been doing have been a bit of a grey area as it is. It's not entirely clear where the line is as far as how much a program can do to connect players with NIL funding. But the funds not coming from the program directly is a clear bright line rule.
So the Gies donation is now all money that's in the AD bucket. Even if Gies now changed his mind and said "I want that money to be used to fund the most expensive football roster in the country" he can't actually do that. But it does help because those stadium improvements also need to happen, and this means that other boosters can keep their money in the NIL friendly bucket rather than donate to the AD bucket to be used for necessary capital improvements.
That those other programs spend more doesn't make this untrue. They just more money in their buckets. Those programs you listed all bring in more revenue (AD bucket) and bring in more booster support. That means they have more left over for NIL while still doing all the other things and Athletic Department has to do.