Southeast Missouri State punter Vucic may have added duties

~ The squad's punter over the past three seasons may also take care of the kicking during his senior season

Joe Vucic has established himself as one of the Ohio Valley Conference's top punters.

It remains to be seen if Vucic will need to set his sights on becoming one of the OVC's best kickers.

Vucic enters his senior season at Southeast Missouri State not quite sure whether to expect an increased workload.

The graduation of Drew Geldbach, the Redhawks' three-year kicker, means there is a void at that important position in 2013.

Vucic is ready to step in if needed, but right now he's not sure if he will be.

"I just want to do whatever is best for the team," Vucic said. "Now that Drew is gone, I'm trying to work on my kicking as well. I just want to see the best guy for the job do the kicking."

Vucic has certainly been the best guy for the Redhawks' punting job since he stepped on to the Southeast campus.

The native of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, has been the Redhawks' punter for all 34 games of his Southeast career after transferring from Kent State, where he redshirted in 2009. He enters this year seventh in career punting yards at Southeast.

"Joe has done a real good job. He's seasoned," Southeast coach Tony Samuel said.

Vucic, after averaging 37.2 yards per punt during his redshirt freshman season in 2010, led the OVC and ranked 23rd nationally with a 41.1-yard average as a sophomore in 2011. Last year he was third in the OVC and 20th nationally with a 41.9-yard average, which ranks seventh on Southeast's all-time single-season list.

Vucic, a 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, has been named to the College Football Performance Awards watch list for the organization's 2013 FCS Punter Award.

"I think I've improved every year, and I want to keep improving," said Vucic, whose career punting average of 40.0 yards is fourth in program history. "I want to improve my average and my directional punting to help out the defense as much as I can."

Even though Vucic has primarily been a punter at Southeast, he said he was strictly a kicker before his senior year of high school.

"I didn't really start punting a ball until my senior year," he said.

Vucic then walked on at Kent State, where he said he began to focus on punting. He left the university after one year and headed to Southeast.

"A scholarship and playing time," Vucic said about his reasons for departing Kent State. "I didn't want to sit on the bench. I wanted to prosper at a certain school. ... I'm happy with my decision."

Vucic, a marketing and communications major, said he would like to try his hand at punting professionally when he's finished at Southeast.

In the meantime, he continues to pull double duty during practice, working on his kicking in case the need arises.

"I want to be ready," Vucic said.

Samuel said there has not been a decision on who will do the kicking chores for the Redhawks.

Redshirt freshman Ryan McCrum, who practiced with the squad in 2012, and true freshman Alex Knight are other candidates, along with Vucic.

"He [McCrum] has a strong leg. He came on last year," Samuel said. "They're all working hard. We'll see how it plays out."

Southeast also will have a new long-snapper to replace All-American Brandon Gabbard, the Redhawks' four-year regular at that spot.

Junior college transfer Wade Wright, a sophomore, is expected to replace Gabbard.

"Wade looks pretty good," Samuel said.