This story was posted at 7:17 p.m. Monday, Sept. 8.
In light of his team’s recent field-goal struggles, Cal Poly football head coach Rich Ellerson said Monday there will be open competition for kicking duties.
The season started on an emotional high for junior Andrew Gardner, who booted a game-winning 21-yarder as time expired to carry the Mustangs over San Diego State 29-27 in each team’s opener Aug. 30.
Saturday night, however, the 5-foot-7, 162-pound Davis High School product missed a similarly centered, would-be game-winner from 27 yards, wide-left with 38 seconds remaining in a 30-28 loss to Montana.
“It’s a mess,” Ellerson said of the kicking so far.
With a long of 23 yards, Gardner is 2 of 5 this year – with other misses from 40 and 39 yards.
“That position becomes competitive again,” Ellerson said. “What I want Andrew to do before he steps back on the field as our kicker is to win something, to compete and fight through some stuff and have some success before he goes back out there.”
Cal Poly, ranked 12th in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) coaches poll, is scheduled to play at No. 9 McNeese State in Lake Charles, La. at 5 p.m. Saturday, but Hurricane Ike may force a change of venue or even cancellation of the game, Cal Poly athletic department officials said Monday.
A formal announcement is expected Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.
“We assume that we’re playing that game some place, somewhere,” Ellerson said. “There, here, Phoenix, who knows? But we assume we’re playing McNeese and we’re preparing for McNeese.”
That preparation could start with special teams.
“It’s going to be a competitive environment in practice,” Ellerson added of Gardner’s “chance to either win or lose that job again.”
Such competition will be put in place, Ellerson said, not only for the good of the team, but with regard to Gardner, because it “clears the slate a little bit” so the memory of the latest miss doesn’t “become a monster.”
Gardner earned All-Great West Conference Second Team honors in 2007, when he was 6 of 8 in his first season with considerable playing time at Cal Poly. His 2007 long was 36 yards.
“He doesn’t have great range but he’s been dead-center over and over and over,” Ellerson said. “We (normally) get the ball around the 20-yard line and he’s nails, (but) the facts are this year we’re 2 for 5.
“We’re back to ground zero,” he added. “(Gardner)’s going to have to re-invent himself and re-establish himself as that guy, and that’ll be good for him and us.”
The main source of competition, Ellerson said, will be sophomore kickoff specialist Jake West.
West, a 6-2, 170-pound Atascadero native, was one of three true freshmen to play for Cal Poly in 2007, when he averaged 56.2 yards on 62 kickoffs, sending four out of bounds. None went for touchbacks.
This season, he’s averaged 54.5 yards on 11 kickoffs, with one going out of bounds, and no touchbacks again.
As a prep senior in 2006, he made 4 of 7 field goals, with a long of 32, but hasn’t attempted any at Cal Poly. Still, in spite of directional woes, he’s considered to have a stronger leg than Gardner.
“He’s a gifted guy,” Ellerson said. “If we were going to try one from (long distance) he’d be the guy that would take a swing at it.”
No one else has a realistic chance to take over the job, Ellerson said.
Punting has also presented problems for Cal Poly, which is 85th in the FCS in net punting, at 28 yards per punt, but Ellerson said junior David Fullerton, primarily a strong safety, will continue to serve in the capacity for now.
Saturday, Fullerton’s first punt was blocked in what Ellerson called “ridiculous” fashion, and his second went only 14 yards.
The block occurred after Cal Poly went three-and-out on the game’s first series, and Montana running back Andrew Schmidt burst unfettered through a unit missing a typical mainstay in junior fullback Jon Hall, who was out with an injury.
“We expect him back,” Ellerson said of Hall, who was “day-to-day” heading into the game but “should be fine” this week.
“The challenges we had with the punt were not so much David as some protection issues,” Ellerson said. “Even on the 14-yarder, we managed to screw that one up up front.”
Junior Harlan Prather, expected to be in the punting mix, isn’t quite ready, according to Ellerson, who’s “hoping that in time Harlan will be able to take more of those duties over” from Fullerton.
Prather, a 6-foot, 210-pound transfer, averaged 37.8 yards on 48 punts last year at Cabrillo College. Saturday, he landed a 30-yarder at the Montana 7-yard line.
“Harlan was recruited to be our punter,” Ellerson said. “He gets a little better with what we do every week.
“We would love to see Harlan come on and be a little more game-ready, time-wise and whatnot, and be that guy.”
But for now, Fullerton’s poise and physicality keep the job in his hands, Ellerson said.
“David has been our ‘other’ punter for a couple years,” he explained. “He’s gotten a thousand turns in practice and he’s on the field all the time, so he’s not going to get impressed with the fact that there are people in the stands and there are lights on and there’s a rush. He’s seen all that stuff before.”
Fullerton also holds for all kicks.