Boise St. Wins

[ALEX LIFESON]

BYU MISSED A 37 YARD FIELD GOAL WITH ABOUT 30 SECONDS LEFT.
Boise St. 28 BYU 27

[Stallion]

as someone who has played a little bit of soccer in my day, I am always amazed at how these genius coaches always try to line up the kick in the middle of the field. A rightfooted soccer style kicker has a natural tendency-if he hits the kick right- to hit the ball right to left. The proper technique does not have him kick the ball in the dead center of his foot so the ball goes straight. 75% of the time a well kicked ball should move right to left. This ain't the Lou Groza era. Placing the ball in the center effectively decreases his prime target in half. The ball should be placed several yards toward the right in-line. Amazing and yet you see it all the time.

[Sam I Am]

Fresno State and Boise State may get into the MWC thanks to their wining ways. May good non-BCS teams prosper everywhere.

[PonySnob]

We will be lucky to get a field goal against Boise St with our pitiful offense. I expect that the game will be much like the TCU game. OUCH!!!

[SCAMP6381]

HEY PONYSNOB i'm glad to see you have the confidence and belief in OUR MUSTANGS, the least you can do is give them a chance before the game even starts. If your are a ponyfan ,I PRAY that there are not more of your type and attitude on this sight. Give these young men a chance before you beat those kids with a loss that they haven't played. GO MUSTANGS FIGHT ON BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD BELIEVE IN YOURSELEVES IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

[Pony4Life]

as someone who has played a little bit of soccer in my day, I am always amazed at how these genius coaches always try to line up the kick in the middle of the field. A rightfooted soccer style kicker has a natural tendency-if he hits the kick right- to hit the ball right to left. The proper technique does not have him kick the ball in the dead center of his foot so the ball goes straight. 75% of the time a well kicked ball should move right to left. This ain't the Lou Groza era. Placing the ball in the center effectively decreases his prime target in half. The ball should be placed several yards toward the right in-line. Amazing and yet you see it all the time.

Actually, kicking a soccer ball and a football are different. Stallion is absolutely right when he says that kiccking a soccer ball (right-footed) actually results in a motion in which the foot not only drives down and through the ball, but because the (round) ball almost always is moving, the kicker has to compensate for that movement by striking the ball with a little "curl" -- when approaching the (moving) ball, you have to strike down through the ball for significant lift/distance, but in order to prevent the ball from slicing (a la golf) off the side of your foot, you really come around the outside of the ball just a little .... creating the "curl" Stallion refers to.

Go to an SMU soccer game (which everyone should be going to, anyway.) Watch the different flight of the ball when it's hit from a stationary position, as opposed to when it's hit on the run. On a stationary "re-start" (goal kicks, or direct/indirect kicks after a foul, and occasional corner kicks), the player will strike the ball low and through the center (left to right) of the ball. It's like hitting a perfect drive in golf -- the ball carries for miles, straight as an arrow. Then watch a ball that's hit on the run. The guys are very good, and can put the ball where they want, but they're accounting for that curl. You almost never see someone racing after the ball and then drilling a line-drive that doesn't curl .... a round ball that's moving simply allows too many variables. This isn't an indictment of the players - same thing happens with professional players.

The fact that a football is kicked from a stationary position, and because of its shape, there really shouldn't be much pull/hook/curl. A little, if any. Did you see the Tennessee/Florida game last week? Tennessee's kicker wanted to run out of the stadium when he shanked the extra point, and rightly so - it was an awful kick that he hit with the outside of his foot. It started out way right, and faded/sliced as it went. Then, with seconds left, he had a chance to win the game with a 50-yard (or thereabout) field goal. He drilled it, and if you watch, the ball has almost zero lateral (side to side) movement. It was a damn-near perfect kick. Might have been good from 60.

So I'm right there with Stallion in the sense that these missed FGs are partially the fault of the coaches. However, I don't blame them for trying to line up the play in the middle of the field -- IF they have a kicker who can hit the ball straight. My problem is that many coaches can't tell you a damn thing about their kickers' tendencies: their angle of approach to the ball, where their plant foot is placed (front to back of the ball, or sideways -- distance from the ball), or whether their ball curls or goes straight. Many coaches chart their kickers (or probably have the kickers chart each other) and can tell you "Smith hit 40 out of 50 in practice this week." So what? If they don't know what Smith's ball does in the air, or the conditions under which Smith is most effective, then he doesn't know how to best use his kicker as a weapon.

I don't know about the percentage of kicks that normally curl, but a perfectly-struck football won't curl at all. If the play is on one side or another, and the kicker has enough confidence in his ability to repeat that absolutely straight kicking stroke, then it's up to him to simply alter his angle of approach and his striking spot on the back of the ball. Or he can "play the curl" and count on it to move in the desired direction. But this allows more variables to enter the flight of the ball (wind, for instance, affects a curling/slicing ball far more than a straight ball. And when rain makes the ball - and the kicker's shoe - wet, "playing the curl" leaves open a big window for slips.

(And give him hell, SCAMP!)

[PonySnob]

BELIEVE IN YOURSELEVES IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

With spelling like that, I sure hope you did not go to SMU. If you did, maybe you should get your money back!

[PK]

BELIEVE IN YOURSELEVES IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

With spelling like that, I sure hope you did not go to SMU. If you did, maybe you should get your money back!

Pretty weak PonySnob..can't fault the logic so you hit on the typo. Hows about you address the meat of the post???

[Lotus]

WAY out of line, PonySnob. SCAMP is an enthusiastic, loyal PonyFan who has two sons at SMU, busting their tails to make us a better team, and you want to drive him/her away by pointing out a typo? I realize you're perfect and have never made one, but then nobody's as perfect as you are. When you shamelessly bash the team and coaches to make yourself feel better, that's just your charming personality shining through. But when you tee off on players' parents for something as silly as a typo (you might want to run a spellcheck once in a while), then you really need more to do. Get a life and find a way to boost your mood without taking unjustified potshots at others.

[SCAMP6381]

HEY GUYS THAT'S OKAY I MAY NOT HAVE GONE TO SMU BUT, I AM SMART ENOUGH TO SEND MY KIDS TO GET A QUALITY EDUCATION I ADVISED THEM TO GO TO SMU FOR THAT REASON AND THAT REASON ONLY. THEIR FOOTBALL CAREERS WILL BE A REWARDING ALSO. MR OR IS IT MRS SNOB.

[PonySnob]

So I gather that you are a parent of the Chase brothers if they are currently at SMU?

[ALEX LIFESON]

We are with ya SCAMP, you are welcome anytime!