Displaying items by tag: field goal
By Drew Champlin / Dothan News
TROY – Troy kicker Michael Taylor is looking to move on from a game where he missed two “very makeable” field goals.
Taylor, Troy’s fifth-year senior kicker,, has made some big kicks in his career, but missed field goals of 31 and 33 yards in the first half in Troy’s 38-28 loss at Arkansas. He also missed an extra point in the season opener at Clemson. Troy hosts Middle Tennessee on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Taylor’s first miss, the extra point after Troy’s first score at Clemson, was a result of poor technique, he said. The same things happened at Arkansas, where he pulled one field goal miss to the left and missed one to the right.
“That was me being lazy,” Taylor said. “(Student) coach Kyle (Fuller) always tells me to be smooth with it and don’t let the crowd affect your kicks. If I get too lazy, I end up falling off.
“I happened to stop my leg, which is falling off, and not going through with my fundamentals. It’s just falling off and not following through with your kick.”
But Taylor said it isn’t always easy to get the bad kicks out of his mind.
“It’s still there, but you’ve got to move on,” Taylor said. “I’m ready to show that they come and they go. You have your bad days and your good days and unfortunately that was a bad one.”
Taylor took over as Troy’s starting placekicker midway through his sophomore season. He has been the kickoff specialist for all four years.
While some kickers don’t get the thrill of making game-deciding kicks, he’s had two.
The first was a 48-yarder in the GMAC Bowl two years ago against Central Michigan to send the game into overtime in front of an ESPN audience, and a 34-yard field goal in the final seconds to beat Bowling Green last year.
“Every kicker wants that opportunity to have that huge kick,” Taylor said. “If you’ve done it before, it feels great and you know how it feels and you want to have that chance again.
“To miss easy kicks is not the best feeling at all.”
Look for Troy to stick with Taylor, because he’s proven his worth in the past and also because there’s no experience behind him. Troy signed kicker/punter Ryan Kay this spring, but Kay is delaying full-time enrollment until next spring. Troy’s backup kicker is walk-on freshman Jed Soloman,
Troy has a new holder this year in Jaquon Robinson, but long snapper Wes Henry is in his second season as the short snapper and third as the deep snapper for punts.
“It didn’t look like to me there was any bad execution,” Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. “I thought the snaps were good on the two he missed. On the (extra point) that got tipped and went through, it seemed like something happened on that snap. It’s an 11-man deal, and Mikey’s one of that 11. He has a major role.”
Taylor has been solid throughout his career. He’s made 30-of-40 field goals, and boomed a career-best 50-yarder in last year’s New Orleans Bowl, which was also on EPSN.
“He’ll be alright,” Blakeney said.