Aussie punter enrolling early

SeabeeGator

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Coach was too busy for sports. Had to help pa with the cotton harvest. Times were tough because the neighbors just got one of those fancy “gins” everyone at the general store was talkin’ ‘bout.
 

AlexDaGator

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Too late. Ive already been convinced he has no chance of catching a snap or dropping the ball to his foot.

Nice try though.

Slow down.

I never said that.

Corch posted a video of Garo Ypremian, a soccer guy with zero football skills beyond being able to kick a stationary football off a tee or from a hold.

My point was that a punter has to be more of a football player than a guy like Garo.

To summarize, no Corch, this new punter won't remind anybody of Garo because this guy has to have football skills to be a punter.



Alex.
 

AlexDaGator

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A punter has to be more of an athlete than a place kicker, but I wouldn't say he's much more of a football player, per se. Other than Ingle Martin, who was the last punter at Florida you'd trust to play a snap at any other position on the field?

On the scale of footballiest positions on a football team, punters rank higher than kickers but still far below everyone else.

I'm talking about the foreign soccer dudes who can't do anything but kick off a tee or from a hold.

We had a kickoff specialist here, Matt Piotrowicz (check that spelling tho) who was called a "kickbacker" by Mick because he made so many tackles on kickoffs. Hell, Steve Spurrier punted and kicked some too.

I'm not saying your average punter can play safety but both of the Townsends are decent athletes who can run, throw, and catch a football. Contrast them to Eddy Piniero who was strictly a soccer player growing up. Who would you rather have playing QB, WR, LB, or S?


Alex.
 

TheDouglas78

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I'm talking about the foreign soccer dudes who can't do anything but kick off a tee or from a hold.

We had a kickoff specialist here, Matt Piotrowicz (check that spelling tho) who was called a "kickbacker" by Mick because he made so many tackles on kickoffs. Hell, Steve Spurrier punted and kicked some too.

I'm not saying your average punter can play safety but both of the Townsends are decent athletes who can run, throw, and catch a football. Contrast them to Eddy Piniero who was strictly a soccer player growing up. Who would you rather have playing QB, WR, LB, or S?


Alex.

Didn't Piotrowicz lead the team in solo tackles in the bowl game. We crushed the team so bad, but he make all the kickoff tackles.
 

stephenPE

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Didn't Piotrowicz lead the team in solo tackles in the bowl game. We crushed the team so bad, but he make all the kickoff tackles.
He was a bad azzzz. And kicked old style. I remember one home game it seemed he made most of the tackles on kick off.
Yankee boy I believe and played LB in HS,
 

AlexDaGator

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He was a bad azzzz. And kicked old style. I remember one home game it seemed he made most of the tackles on kick off.
Yankee boy I believe and played LB in HS,

Yup, old school straight-on kicker, good hang time on his kicks. He was from Chicago and played NG in high school.

Found some video for you:




Alex.
 

PhD Gator

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Yup, old school straight-on kicker, good hang time on his kicks. He was from Chicago and played NG in high school.

Found some video for you:




Alex.

Oh man, that was fun to watch. I remember loving him during his time with the Gators. He was like a missile coming down on kickoffs because teams never block the kicker. Not usually the first guy down there, but almost always in position to make the tackle if the returner got past the first couple of guys.
 

Zambo

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Have any of you ever watched Aussie football? Its basically entire teams of punters running, catching, and kicking the ball all over the place. I don't know why every damn big time punter doesn't come from there.
 

AlexDaGator

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He was John Xynidis with a leg.


Funny Spurrier story...

So in 1996 Danny Wuerffel is winning all the QB awards. One of them is the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm award. The people who host that award (the Golden Arm Foundation) call the athletic department to let Spurrier know that his QB had won. Specifically, Johnny Unitas himself placed the call to the UF athletic department. The call goes to Spurrier's secretary who announces to the HBC that it's Johnny Unitas on the phone. Spurrier misunderstands her. He hears it's Johnny Xynidis on the phone who was a player at the time. So Johnny Unitas, one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game (still top 3 if you ask me) is waiting patiently for the HBC to pick up. Spurrier finally picks up the phone and booms out "X! Not getting in any trouble, are you?" Unitas doesn't know what to think. Took them a while to straighten out the confusion.

Alex.
 

stephenPE

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I love it but I would love to have heard what SOS said or asked Johnny U, Im sure their careers crossed in the NFL.
 

Yankeetown

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Have any of you ever watched Aussie football? Its basically entire teams of punters running, catching, and kicking the ball all over the place. I don't know why every damn big time punter doesn't come from there.

This. I played rugby for 6 years growing up, and pretty much everybody playing that game is a punter. While running. Aussie football is the same. And anybody coming from that background is going to know how to tackle when needed. (Now whether they have the speed and agility to be a good deep safety on a break-away kick returner is a different question.)
 

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