Pyramid Hill light show preparation
.jpg)
Lakota West vs. Anderson
Sculpture donated in Hamilton
Home > Blogs > RedHawk rumblings | Miami University sports news > Archives > 2008 > September > 30 > Entry
Dominant kicking game showing few results
By Pete Conrad
How good has Miami place-kicker Nathan Parseghian been this season?
He has converted 7-of-8 field goal attempts. That’s an 87.5 percent success rate which, if continued for the duration of the year, would blow away the single-season team record of 80 percent set by the great Gary Gussman, who made 20-of-25 attempts in 1987.
And remember, place-kicking has been both pitiful and painful over the previous few seasons, though Parseghian gave a glimpse of things to come when he kicked a team-record tying five field goals in the 38-29 loss at Ohio University last Novermeber 24.
Jake Richardson is on a record-setting pace, too. The Miami punter leads the nation by a wide margin with a 51.1-yard average. The school record is 45.0 by Gary Layton in 1994.
So why are the RedHawks 1-3 and looking so unspectacular on both sides of the ball.
With Parseghian it’s obvious. The RedHawks are struggling in the red zone, having to settle for field goal attempts instead of touchdowns. Not a good trend.
Miami’s defense, meanwhile, is showing few positive results for Richardson’s rocket-launching kicks which have dropped opponents deep in their own territory. Despite that big advantage, with the exception of the Michigan game this is a defense which hasn’t lived up to its potential, and coach Shane Montgomery knows it. But he remains hopeful that Jake’s big toe will start to pay dividends.
“That can be a big factor for us,” he said. “Not only is Jake Richardson punting well, but other than one punt return against Vanderbilt we’re covering well. We’ve got to take advantage of that on defense. We’ve turned the ball over a few times, but we really haven’t set up our defense on a short field. We’ve got to keep using Jake as a weapon there.
“Nathan has bene kicking the ball as well as he’s ever kicked,” Montgomery added. “If we can stay sound in those two areas, that can overcome some deficiencies in other areas.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment |
Comments