Kickers

[ST_Lawson]

So, I just saw online where Luke Otto is transferring to Northwestern University. Not a huge surprise...graduated in 3 years, has the opportunity to get his MS in Management Studies from the #5 ranked business school in the country (behind only Harvard, Stanford, U of Chicago, Penn, and tied with MIT). It's a HUGE opportunity for him personally, but it's going to hurt our kicking game a bit.
We'll have three players listed as P/K on the roster next year...a sophomore and two redshirt freshmen, along with sophomore transfer kicker Sam Crosa. Hopefully one or two of them can pick up the slack.

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[rocki]

Congrats to Luke, happy his dream is coming true for him!

I'm sure the coaching staff has been on the lookout for kickers/punters what with Knuffmann graduating last year and this (originally) to have been Luke's last year.

Here's hoping the guys on the new roster can step up and give us a great kicking game. Luke was really good on kickoffs, but as we all know our punting and field goal kicking left something to be desired.

[Neckfansince71]

I wish Luke the best. Guess this is just the way of the world nowadays. You win some, you lose some. I know Johnny Hill personally who took advantage of this 5th year situation after completing his degree at Texas Arlington and then transferring to Purdue to play a significant role last year in basketball. He was basically run out of Illinois State because of a coaching change. Ashley Luke did the same thing and I was not too happy with her decision. But I guess this is not going away. We lost a kicker a couple of years ago to who player at Nebraska (name?). We are getting a big lineman from Liberty for the same reasons. Guess that is a "wash!" jc

[rocki]

I wish Luke the best. Guess this is just the way of the world nowadays. You win some, you lose some. I know Johnny Hill personally who took advantage of this 5th year situation after completing his degree at Texas Arlington and then transferring to Purdue to play a significant role last year in basketball. He was basically run out of Illinois State because of a coaching change. Ashley Luke did the same thing and I was not too happy with her decision. But I guess this is not going away. We lost a kicker a couple of years ago to who player at Nebraska (name?). We are getting a big lineman from Liberty for the same reasons. Guess that is a "wash!" jc

Wasn't the kicker's name Pat Smith or something like that?

[letsgonecks]

I wish Luke the best. Guess this is just the way of the world nowadays. You win some, you lose some. I know Johnny Hill personally who took advantage of this 5th year situation after completing his degree at Texas Arlington and then transferring to Purdue to play a significant role last year in basketball. He was basically run out of Illinois State because of a coaching change. Ashley Luke did the same thing and I was not too happy with her decision. But I guess this is not going away. We lost a kicker a couple of years ago to who player at Nebraska (name?). We are getting a big lineman from Liberty for the same reasons. Guess that is a "wash!" jc

Wasn't the kicker's name Pat Smith or something like that?

It was Pat Smith and he honorable mention all big ten.

[Neckfansince71]

Yes, thats right, Pat Smith. I think he had a pretty good season kicking the ball for the Cornhuskers. He ended up Special Teams MVP and Honorable Mention Big 10, hitting on 43/45 PAT's and 13/15 field goals, with a 42 yard game winner in OT against Penn State. WIU went 4-8 that year, the first for Coach N and Nebraska went 9-4 with a win against Arkansas in the Gator Bowl where Smith had a FG and 3 PAT's. Guess you can't blame him for having his one year in the sun! jc

[rocki]

Yeah, there for a long time we got spoiled with our kickers - maybe that's why it was so hard to watch Knuffmann struggle like he did.