Ucf 11/17 8:00 abc

[coach]

I'd be more than willing to take Ucf over Nd or Michigan right now. As for the kicking situation all you have to know is Smith is 0 for 5 from 30 to 39 yds. That dog doesn't hunt. You have to be able to make most of your shots from inside 40. It didn't cost us the game last night, but surely didn't help. It did cost us at Temple.

[Carin's Dad]

But we can never know the psychological impact if he had made the XP and FG for a 10-0 lead. That miss took the air out of the ball for us.

[Bearcat Chris]

As I recall, all of the great UC PK's have been good from the beginning (Jonathan Ruffin, Jason Mamorelli, Andrew Gantz (until he got hurt)......). I agree, We probably would not have won at UCF, but we had early "BIG MO" that was squashed w/ the missed extra point and missed FG.

I hope CLF and staff are looking at JC PK's, along w/ local recruits. Look at the impact Smith has made as our great punter.

B.C.

[Gilenerm]

Something I've noticed with the place kicking... Smith is having trouble on the natural turf. He seems to do great at home or on the road at venues with field turf. But, in Temple (natural turf) it cost us the game and now at UCF it cost us early momentum. I think he needs somewhere to practice on natural turf leading up to a game on that type of surface. Pretty sure UC doesn't have a natural turf field anywhere on campus.

[TheDog]

Kicking is probably 99% psychological once you've made it to a certain level. This guy just doesn't have it right now and may never get it. I respect him for the effort and trust that Fickell will make the right decision.

[Lobot]

Something I've noticed with the place kicking... Smith is having trouble on the natural turf. He seems to do great at home or on the road at venues with field turf. But, in Temple (natural turf) it cost us the game and now at UCF it cost us early momentum. I think he needs somewhere to practice on natural turf leading up to a game on that type of surface. Pretty sure UC doesn't have a natural turf field anywhere on campus.

That's a pretty astute observation. I leave the coaching staff alone but I'm really tempted to share that with Brian Mason.

[Bearcat Chris]

Something I've noticed with the place kicking... Smith is having trouble on the natural turf. He seems to do great at home or on the road at venues with field turf. But, in Temple (natural turf) it cost us the game and now at UCF it cost us early momentum. I think he needs somewhere to practice on natural turf leading up to a game on that type of surface. Pretty sure UC doesn't have a natural turf field anywhere on campus.

He is getting his foot into it, but it seems like he has a very profound curl to his kicks. Perhaps worse on natural grass? The blocked FG really wasn't his fault, but the first one was an easy one that killed our MO.

B.C.