Improving kicking game is a focus of Southeast football camp

Southeast Missouri State special teams coordinator Matt Martin watched a lot of video and reviewed all the stats on the Redhawks special teams last year that first-year coach Tom Matukewicz considered "pretty embarrassing for a Division I football program" before he put last season aside and worked to fix the issues.

"I tried not to let that be a focus point," said Martin, who also is the running backs coach. "Then I knew coming in, 'What do we have to get better at?' You know, we've got to get better at net punt average. That goes on the punter and that goes on the kick team. You've got to run down and cover. If you kick a 50-yard punt but they return it 40 yards, you're not flipping the field.

"Coach Tuke always preaches, that's the only team we can put out there and guarantee 40 yards. We've got to have a good punt, we've got to have good coverage. That's kind of one thing we focused on hard, put our punt scheme in and get that improved, and then just making field goals."

Matukewicz has voiced concern about the progress of special teams over the first couple weeks of fall camp after missed field goals and blocked punt attempts but said after Tuesday's practice at the Rosengarten Athletic Complex that it had improved and was no longer embarrassing.

He believes the biggest area of improvement for special teams is field goals and PAT.

The Redhawks were last in the Ohio Valley Conference in both categories last season, completing only five of 13 field goal attempts and 25 of 34 PATs.

Sophomore kicker Ryan McCrum -- one of three in the mix for the starting job -- believes the biggest reason behind the kickers' struggles last season was their attitude.

"Last year we were like, 'Well, oh damn, we make a field goal, we're still going to be down by so many. We miss it, oh well,'" McCrum said. "Now we're going to be in every game this year, so we definitely need to make our PATs and field goals throughout the season."

McCrum said more organized practices have helped kickers improve.

"We have a sheet, we have a layout now for working on our field goals, working on our kickoffs, so those are in place. Wherever they want us to be placed we're getting to there and [kicking] field goals. They have a workout where we're going left hash to right hash every day and we're just working at getting it through the uprights every day."

"Last year we pretty much just hung around and didn't really practice as much as we should," McCrum said.

Sophomore Alex Knight, who will solely handle punting duties this season, noted that special teams are more energetic.

"Special teams is actually working hard and wanting to be better," Knight said. "Like last year I feel like everybody was like, 'Oh, whatever, we lost. Like it's not a big deal.' This year [the attitude[']s] like, 'We're not going to lose.'"

Knight punted 46 times, averaging 36.7 yards last season while making 3 of 7 field goal attempts and 17 of 23 PATs.

"I feel like our punter's done a good job, Alex, and we've just got to shore up," Matukewicz said. "Like today we were pooch punting and we're about 50-50 on pooch punt. And that may only happen three times this year, but those three times could turn to points and it's everything, so we've got to be able to execute those situations."

McCrum, Florida State junior transfer Clay Pickler and freshman CJ Stafford are competing for the starting kicker job. Pickler is the older brother of freshman quarterback Griffin Pickler.

"McCrum you can tell has been around the program -- he's a little less fragile mentally," Matukewicz said. "He's improved himself tremendously from last year. And that's a guy that pays to go to school here, so he's hungry to earn that scholarship and be our starting kicker. Clay Pickler is a guy that has a lot of talent. He wasn't here this summer, so he's still trying to figure out who the crazy guy that keeps yelling at him is. CJ's a freshman, and I feel like he's got to really just focus. He lets distractions really affect his game. All three have the talent to kick here but you know, it's not just out here [at practice]. There's real life situations and pressure and all those things that you've got to be able to perform under."

The three kickers got an opportunity to perform under an abundance of pressure from their teammates during Tuesday's "team finisher," which is the final activity of each practice.

Matukewicz instructed the offensive and defensive players to line up on each side of the kicker and distract them by spraying water and yelling at them -- using PG-13 language only -- while they tried to kick a field goal.

McCrum and Pickler each made their first attempt before both missed on their second and longer attempt.

"The biggest focus, and I always tell them I'm not going to be the best coach for you as far as the technical side of things, but I'm going to put you in the best position to make a play," Martin said. "I'm always preaching to those guys to be consistent in everything you do, whether it be their warm up kicks to pressure situations like we had here at the end of practice. Be consistent with your steps, with your plant leg, your follow through and all that stuff. Make sure you're doing the same thing every time because that's going to give you the best opportunity to be successful."

Matukewicz has stressed the importance of special teams, and although it's gotten better, there's still room for improvement.

"The quickest way to improve is to improve your special teams," Matukewicz said, "because your field position switches and now your offense starts better, your defense starts better and it just kind of propels the program."