[HarrisburgFlame]

Rocco was a great hire. You unbelievers. Hey seriously, listened to the game tonight and a couple of observations. First, glad the losing streak is over. Second, hard to tell just how we will fair in that St. Pauls just isn't very good. Third, the extra point and FG issue is going to kill us before the end of the year if we don't find somone who is remotely consistent. I'm not buying the "new turf" excuse Paul R. gave on the broadcast. Bottom line is a Division 1 kicker has to make the majority of kicks inside the 40 and nail extra points. We left 7 points out there and against a decent team that can kill you. I was happy the defense take care of business (SPC 57 total yards). Glad to see us run the football pretty well. Even though the passing stats weren't good at all - the conditions probably contributed a bit plus we really didn't have to throw the ball.

Can't wait for next week. Let's get number 2. After struggling with Concord last year in the opener - this game - though not perfect by any means - was a breath of fresh air. Also glad a bunch of the youngsters saw action.

One last thing - hats off to the crowd. You guys sounded great on the net broadcast and Jerry E commented numberous times on the improved support.

[Sly Fox]

I knew football would bring you back to the board, Hburg.

I agree that obviously tonight was Exhibit A in the turnaround of our athletic program. A big crowd despite Ernesto's wet blanket shows the enthusiasm on campus right now. Hopefully word of tonight will spread around campus and town.

[thesportscritic]

The team only had 1 day to practice on the new turf. But HarrisburgFlame there is definitely no excuse to miss close field goals. Defense was exceptional last night.

[bigsmooth]

HF, good to see you back. our kicking game blows and it will hurt us. i would love to see a soccer player come over and kick on sturdays. the turf excuse is very weak. yes st. paul's is bad, but this team has a new attitude, and it showed last night.

[nickrichard]

I agree, the turf can not be an excuse. First, we have last years performance to look at, not much change. Second, if this was a road game, you get as much time on the turf for a walk thru as we did for our game, and you are still expected to make your extra points there. Something has to happen, but I feel there are very few options.

[Schfourteenteen]

Well if we have 4 on the roster you gotta figure one of them can hopefully hit a 26 yard fg. Question is it possible to "unredshirt" a player during the season?

[ATrain]

Go find a soccer player (male or female) to be our kicker...thats all I gotta say.

[Chris Lang]

Some observations:

1. Kicking: Zac's probably done. He has very little confidence right now and wind or no wind, there's no excuse for missing extra points and 26-yard field goals. He knows this.

With the wind conditions, though, anything outside of 35 yards was a roll of the dice last night. It was swirling, and the ball was heavy, throwing the timing off the long snap off a little bit. I'm pretty sure Beasley will be the guy from here on out. Rocco's not going to keep Kolegue in just to keep him in. You can't miss extra points. Unacceptable.

2. The score. If the weather had been even decent, it would have been 50-0. That's how thorough the domination was. St. Paul's was never remotely in this thing, even when the score was just 7-0 and 10-0. There isn't much worse weather for throwing the football than playing in a swirling wind with horizontal rain all night. Brock is better than what he showed.

3. Defense. Just plain nasty.

4. Run game. Rashad could have gone for 300 last night easily. That was a pretty boring game to watch, but it was efficient.

[TDDance234]

Kicking the ball in that weather is like kicking/punting a rock.

Awfully hard to do.

[PeterParker]

Go find a soccer player (male or female) to be our kicker...thats all I gotta say.

As a former soccer player, I second this motion; however, with a few caveats. You most likely will not convince a guy who came on a scholarship or is a walk-on to the collegiate soccer team to abandon his dream of D1A soccer to be the kicker. However, there are a lot of students who come who were former select/premier/high school players who are on campus (probably in intramurals) and didn't get recruited for D1A but could have played D2 or D3 for no scholarship money, but came to LU because of another form of scholarship or better financial arrangement. These are the guys that the football team should hold an open tryout for to see which, if any, guy has a chance of being molded into a kicker. Lastly, they need to focus on finding a former goalkeeper, Reason?

Because all other players on the field are programmed to keep shots and long passes low by leaning forward over the ball, yet keepers are programmed to get loft on the ball and have some modicum of accuracy to put the ball up around midfield or further where they want it before it bounces and accomplish this by leaning slightly back (like a place kicker; watch a high level professional game and see how high and far those guys launch the ball.)

Put out an open call for all former soccer goalkeepers, and maybe former defenders, they might be able to be converted and see what the roll of the dice brings in.

[HarrisburgFlame]

Kicking the ball in that weather is like kicking/punting a rock.

Awfully hard to do.

No argument from me at all on that quote. But it doesn't change the fact - on an extra point - 19 yards away from the goal post - ball centered between the hashes - wet ball or not - a kid on scholarship needs to make that kick. Going back to last year the kicking game was awful. My point was we left 7 points on the board last night with missed FG's and an extra point. Both of the FG's were inside 40 yards - I think the first one was a 24 yard attempt or something like that. When you look at last year and then one game into this year - you have to have real concerns. weather makes it tougher - but the trend in kicking - both in good weather and bad still leads me to believe we have significant work to do here.

[BJWilliams]

My only commentary on the kicking game is that on the ones I saw, it looked like Chris Rocco couldn't get a clean handle on the ball and so he had to rush the set a bit. Youd be surprised how much having the ball not completely set when the kicker hits it will have an effect on how it turns out.

[HarrisburgFlame]

Good points BJ. I wasn't there so you are in a better position to comment than I am. You are right hold, placement and kick (along with protection) are all critical. But they are all facets to XP's and FG's. Maybe I shouldn't be so fast to lay it all on the PK. That said, we still need to improve the kicking game. So if the snaps are off, we need it fixed. If we are struggling with the placement fix it. As an ex-coach I have little or no patience with breakdowns with PK. All they do for the most part is kick during practice and work on timing. Granted its different when you go live but come on - how many D-1 teams go consecutive years with such inconsistent kicking? We should be between 65 - 85% inside the forty and if you miss two extra points all year that's too many in my book.

[PAmedic]

all right- I said I wouldn't comment on this, BUT:

SMOOTHIE and I were talking- the hold MAY have been an issue on one of the kicks, BUT that isnt the problem and everyone knows it.

I was wearing my Sambas, and at one point- told SMOOTHIE that I was gonna find a jersey at halftime and go down and offer to kick

and yeah- SPIDEY is right on here- we were saying the same thing about finding a soccer goalie. They routinely kick 50+ yds from the corner of the box/18.

ok- now I'm REALLY done- I promise. No more piling on, I'm sure these guys feel bad enough about it, and if not- Coach DOES. They don't need to read MY whining about it any more.