Boise State Football

It’s an unsettling sensation, one college football fans have grown numb to over time.

A productive drive just stalled on third down, not far from the opponent’s end zone—perhaps a pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage or a counter was stopped before it ever started.

The offense exits stage left and out trots the kicker. 

What follows, regardless of the distance between an anxious young man tasked with kicking a small, oddly-shaped ball and the large yellow uprights in front him, is the game’s ultimate wild card. 

For some, it’s become the ultimate heartbreak. 

College football’s most glaring on-field Achilles’ heel has origins that date back decades. In recent years, however, the blunders have become more pronounced.

Boise State is well aware of this. The Broncos watched undefeated seasons come undone with missed field goals in back-to-back seasons. Kyle Brotzman’s two missed kicks against Nevada in 2010—both of which came late and from fewer than 30 yards—remain excruciatingly painful even dozens of viewings later.

The following year, Boise's lone loss again came as the result of a missed field goal, this time against TCU. Dan Goodale’s 39-yard miss snapped the Broncos's 35-game win streak at home. Two losses by only a combined four points, all the result of missed kicks.

During that same season, Alabama's much discussed 9-6 loss against LSU in ''The Game of the Century'' was in large part because the Tide made only 2-of-6 field goals.

Nick Saban’s group bounced back, of course, beating LSU in the BCS National Championship. Before things went their way, however, the misses loomed large.

Shortly after Alabama’s kicking woes, Oregon kicker Alejandro Maldonado watched his potential game-tying kick from 37 yards sail well left against USC as time expired. Ranked No. 4 at the time, the Ducks’ title hopes came crashing down all it once. 

And only six weeks later, it was Stanford’s turn.

With a chance to tie Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl, freshman Jordan Williamson’s potential game-winning 35-yard field goal sailed wide left. He later missed a field goal in overtime, and Oklahoma State prevailed 41-38.

These are just a handful of the meaningful missed kicks that come to mind, moments that still turn fans’ stomachs. They are memorable because of the stakes, the timing and the outcomes that followed.

More startling than these pressure-packed misses, however, is a seemingly deteriorating craft felt from coast to coast and conference to conference. While Boise State has undoubtedly drawn the most headlines in recent years, this isn’t limited to one team or a handful of late-game heartbreaks.

The kicking in college football is collectively bad. Just channel surf for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon and it becomes quite obvious. At a time when offenses are flourishing, the kicking game is still spurting, one shank or “doink” at a time.

For kickers, the distance and pressure undoubtedly impact these results. But at the college level, there are no chip shots, no distance that generates supreme confidence. .

How many of the 120 FBS teams are hitting 80 percent of their attempted field goals? Not many. In 2010, only 21 percent of FBS teams hit this mark. 

Over the past five years, that percentage has remained remarkably consistent, outside of a 2010 surge.  

By comparison, 78 percent of NFL teams, 25 of 32, hit 80 percent of their field goals in 2012. There should be a significant difference in these percentages—after all the NFL is the NFL—but the gap is still staggering. 

At a time when kicking in the NFL looks almost easy at times, it’s anything but that in the college ranks, even for the nation’s elite.

The majority of the teams that finished in the final AP Top 25 over the past five years did so without an elite kicker. In 2012, 11 of the AP Top 25 also finished in the top 25 in field goal-kicking percentage. This was actually significantly higher than in recent years.

Much like the overall percentages, the presence of good kicking teams among final AP Top 25 teams shows a similar trend over a five-year stretch.

The kicking isn’t necessarily getting worse—at least from a percentage standpoint—despite the growing notion that it is deteriorating. But it certainly hasn’t improved, either. 

And while it isn’t a championship necessity, a team never knows when this weakness could come back to haunt it. Recent history certainly highlights this, and it can surface at any moment. 

Recent history also shows that NFL teams are passing on college kickers when given the opportunity to select them. Since 2008, only 12 kickers have been taken in the NFL draft.

Much of this is the result of a lack of positional value, a value that kickers themselves have helped create. It’s also indicative of the current pool of talent in the college game, or perhaps more specifically a lack thereof.

There are, of course, exceptions.

Nebraska has acquired the “Kicking U” label, producing successful kicker after successful kicker. Former Cornhusker Alex Henery—a fourth-round pick in 2010 and one of the finest field goal marksman in recent memory—serves as one of the rare game-changing talents in recent years. 

Much like the NFL draft, the recruitment of college kickers still has yet to take that next step like so many other positions. 

Although powerhouse programs recognize the importance of these players given how little room for error there is in a given season (see: Boise State), this urgency isn’t necessarily where it needs to be. There also isn’t the same interest and eyeballs on high school kickers as there is at other positions.

For those teams that land a top kicking recruit, there are still no guarantees. And therein lies the root of college football’s kicking problem.

It’s easy to forget that 18- to 21-year-olds are being thrown into some of the most tense sporting situations imaginable. For a sport so deeply entrenched in the team mentality, kickers are on an island by themselves.

Not all kicks will come with this unimaginable pressure, with games, conferences championships and millions of dollars potentially on the line, but there is still pressure on every kick.

Given the inconsistency of the position, the youth and the pressure of a whole building wishing for one of two things to happen, it's easy to see how the kicking has dipped to this depth and not recovered. 

A handful of talented college kickers will surface in 2013, positive outliers who have become rare in these parts. They will remain drastically outnumbered, a theme that seems destined to continue.

The 2013 college football season is quickly approaching. For fans, the season can't come soon enough, but for coaches, the days are probably advancing far too rapidly.

Chris Petersen enters his eighth season as the head coach for Boise State, and expectations are high as usual.

The Broncos return several key starters on offense. Senior quarterback Joe Southwick will be looking to lead his team back into offensive domination in 2013. He will get help from sophomore running back Jay Ajayi and a very talented group of wide receivers led by junior Matt Miller and senior Kirby Moore.

The line is probably the biggest question mark on offense. However, with three players who have starting experience returning and several others with previous game-time action, they should be up for the challenge.

The defense has questions in a couple of areas. Freshman All-American Sam Ukwuachu was removed from the team for unspecified reasons, and that leaves some big cleats to fill at defensive end.

Starting linebackers will be new; however, the Broncos have some serious talent in waiting. Junior Blake Renaud and sophomore Tyler Gray will lead the way and should continue where Tommy Smith and J.C. Percy left off last season.

Safety is in good shape with Jeremy Ioane, Darian Thompson, Taylor Loffler and Ebo Makinde, but the corners will need to prove themselves.

Bryan Douglas, Donte Deayon, Deon'tae Florance and Cleshawn Page are going to be pressed early and often. They should all be up for the challenge, but only time will tell how they'll meet it.

Overall, the 2013 version of the Broncos is a very talented group with loads of potential. Depth could become an issue if the injury bug bites, but as a whole, Chris Petersen has another good team at Boise State.

The Schedule

When trying to determine what the under/over would be for Boise State victories in 2013, the schedule seems to break down into three categories.

Five Games the Broncos Should Handle

The home opener against the University of Tennessee at Martin is a game that Boise State should win, and it should dominate. The second home game against Southern Miss is another the Broncos should win.

Colorado State, Wyoming and New Mexico are Mountain West Conference games that the Broncos should also take without a major challenge. However, any one of these five teams listed could surprise Boise State if the Broncos take any of them lightly.

With Chris Petersen at the helm, however, don't count on that. 

Five Games that will be Challenging

The next group of games on the schedule are those that will certainly give Boise State a challenge. They are all Mountain West Conference games, and what makes them even more difficult is that many of them are on the road.

Home against Air Force on September 13 will bring the usual challenge of trying to slow down a pesky option offense. But this year, coach Petersen will probably have his team more ready than ever to take on the ground game of the Falcons.

At Fresno State on September 20, is the first big MWC road challenge. This game will be a battle and should be close throughout. The Broncos beat the Bulldogs last season, but it was a hard-fought game. New head coach Tim DeRuyter has his Fresno State team playing inspired ball. 

At Utah State on October 12 will be another challenge for Petersen and his team. The Aggies were a Top-25 team last season, and even though they lost their head coach when Gary Andersen decided to take the head coaching job at Wisconsin, they return some good players and should be poised for another solid season in 2013.

Home against Nevada on October 19 and at San Diego State on November 23 are the other two very challenging games on the Broncos' MWC schedule. Nevada has a new head coach, and when the Wolf Pack play the Broncos it always seems to be interesting.

The Aztecs upset Boise State last season in Boise, but you know the Broncos want to return the favor in 2013. It won't be easy, but the team Chris Petersen has definitely has what it takes to get the job done.

Two Games that Are the Biggest Challenges for the Broncos

The season-opener at Washington is an extremely challenging game for Boise State for several reasons.

First, the Broncos just beat the Huskies in the Las Vegas Bowl last December. It was a close game, and you know revenge will be a factor.

Second, the Huskies will be playing in a newly revamped Husky Stadium to open the season. It will be a nationally televised game on the new Fox Sports 1 channel, and the home team usually benefits from the energy and excitement of the crowd.

Lastly, the Huskies are good. They proved that in 2012 when they beat Stanford and Oregon State. However, they also showed their youth last year when they lost to Oregon in a rout and let one slip away against a very poor Washington State team in the last game of the regular season.

This season, the Huskies are one year wiser and should be more like the team that beat Stanford rather than the team that fell to the Cougars.

Speaking of Cougars, the other very challenging game on the Broncos' schedule in 2013 is when they travel to BYU on October 25.

The Cougars of Brigham Young are no doubt in the mood for a rematch. They lost a sloppy game to the Broncos in 2012 by an unimpressive score of 7-6.

BYU has a fair amount of talent returning, and the Cougars' defense will be solid once again. It was one of the best defenses overall in 2012, and Boise State found that out the hard way.

The only upside for the Broncos is that they should be much better on offense in 2013, and they play the Cougars later in the season.

Over/Under for the Regular Season

You can't include a Mountain West Championship game or a bowl game appearance in these totals. Those are unknowns at this point, and Boise State has 12 other games before either of those is possible.

A look at the schedule shows five games the Broncos should win, five games that will be challenging and two contests that will be very difficult for Chris Petersen and his team.

All of that leads to an over/under of 10 for the 2013 Boise State Broncos.

That number is even more important for a very big reason. If the Broncos win 10 games, they will probably be visiting another bowl destination like Las Vegas.

However, if those same Broncos win 11 games, depending on the one loss, they may find themselves back in the BCS one last time before the new BCS playoff format begins in 2014.

Boise State could also do what it has done three other times in the last eight years and go undefeated in the regular season. If the Broncos do that, they will certainly be in the BCS, but the only question will be, where they will play?

It should be another eye-popping, hair-raising, exciting season for the Broncos. The most well-known BCS buster could once again be crashing the party.