Nebraska Football: Special teams health is not where it needs to be
Nebraska Football is exploring other options at kicker for the time being.
Nebraska Football may have a bit of a kicking problem. That’s not something that is ideal to hear. Kicking is extremely important. Especially when today’s brand of football is so offensive-minded, the kicker is an extremely important position. Nevertheless, Nebraska might be without their starting kicker come game time on Saturday.
Barret Pickering was not present at last week’s game because of a hip and leg injury. On Thursday, he was not dressed for practice and as a result the team has begun to sort through their options. It’s not ideal, but whatever works for the team will be okay with me. Dylan Jorgensen did a decent job of filling in for Nebraska, but he certainly is not the permanent option, at least that’s not the plan anyway.
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Pickering is coming off a very good season in which he showed he could be Nebraska Football’s kicker for the future. Especially with the way the offemse struggled a bit last week, I could see him being needed for long-range field goals in addition to extra points. Of course, hopefully whoever kicks on Saturday will be able to kick the ball effectively. Especially in the high altitude of Colorado, balls will definitely be of the travel a little farther than normal.
In talking to the media on Thursday, head coach Scott Frost said that the team tried out several options on Thursday. Hopefully, whoever they put in will be ready to go for the game. Looking at the bright side of this, it’s good that Nebraska Football at least has options. Some teams don’t even have that. It will be interesting to see what the end result of this is on Saturday.
"“We had some of those kicks today to see who else could do it,” Frost said of identifying other options. “(Punter) Isaac Armstrong can kick and does a good job and (walk-on safety) Lane McCallum transferred in from Air Force and kicked at Air Force, so both of those guys got some reps today.”"
Regardless of just what this means for the football field, I hope Pickering gets better soon. Nebraska will definitely be able to use his talents in the upcoming season. Especially given the fact that college football is a battle for field position nowadays, the kicker is more crucial than ever.