K-State roster lacks a proven foot

MeanGreen61 · August 24, 2005

Interesting tidbit about future OOC opponent K-State from another board.

Wildcats aren’t so sure-footed when it comes to kicking game

By HOWARD RICHMAN

The Kansas City Star

MANHATTAN, Kan. — As is the standard operating procedure, Kansas State lined up to kick the extra point after its first four touchdowns in 1979. Kicker Butch Stocking vividly recalls one of them in the season opener at Auburn.

“There was a bad snap. I picked it up and got absolutely mauled,” Stocking, now a businessman in California, said last week.

Of those four extra-point attempts, the Wildcats failed to convert every one of them. In fact, nearly any extra-point attempt that year was an adventure. K-State made a measly six out of 15 extra-point attempts on kicks.

No wonder Kite’s Bar and Grill, a popular hangout in the Aggieville business district, got a kick out of it. Kite’s launched a promotion in which every time K-State successfully kicked an extra point, it would give a free keg of beer in a drawing.

Could a similar unsettling scenario be brewing for 2005?

Uncertainty in the kicking game has to be an issue for coach Bill Snyder. For the first time in years, K-State enters the football season without a kicker named either Rheem or Gramatica. None of the kickers on the current roster has attempted an extra point or field goal in a game.

According to the pre-camp depth chart, the kicking chores will fall to either junior Jeff Snodgrass from Leawood or sophomore Tim Schwerdt, though it is believed that Snodgrass had the edge when practice started Aug. 5. Both of them kicked 56-yard field goals in the spring game.

Snodgrass, however, originally wasn’t the plan. Not when he (and Schwerdt) were walk-ons, and Jared Parker is on scholarship.

For Snodgrass, who attended Rockhurst High School, his experience consists of one kickoff (he booted it out of the end zone) in week No. 3 against Louisiana-Lafayette.

“It’s a great opportunity. I mean, I guess it’s a shot of a lifetime,” Snodgrass said. “People back in Kansas City keep asking me what it’s going to be like to follow Joe (Rheem) and follow Jamie (Rheem) and follow Martin (Gramatica). I’m like, man, I just hope I can fill their shoes as best as I can. Those guys did a great job.”

And they racked up numbers that will be hard to match.

In 1996, Gramatica suffered torn ligaments in his right knee the week of the season opener, which also just happened to be the first-ever Big 12 Conference game as K-State played host to Texas Tech.

Jamie Rheem produced. He nailed all 43 extra-point attempts that year and still owns the school record for extra-point percentage at .978 (135-138).

Gramatica, who went on to play several years at Tampa Bay, was 69 for 69 on extra points in 1998. The previous year, he converted 19 of 20 field goals.

Jamie Rheem, whose brother Joe did most of the kicking for the Wildcats during 2002-04, said he isn’t overly concerned about K-State in the kicking department because he knows the amount of time that is spent on it. Snyder personally oversees the kickers.

“He instilled in us how special it was to be part of the special teams,” said Jamie Rheem, who hit 15 consecutive field goals for a school record that still stands. “With kicking, it’s mental. If you’re not mentally tough, it’s hard to do it.”

Snyder demanded perfection from his kickers at all times.

“Going into my senior year, I had just finished second to Sebastian Janikowski for the Groza Award (presented annually to the nation’s top kicker),” Jamie Rheem said, “and one day I’m hitting field goals in practice, and coach Snyder says, ‘No good. It’s only worth one point.’ It slid through the uprights on the right side. He said it’s not worth three points unless it’s right down the middle.”

More recently, Joe Rheem got a good look at K-State’s kicking future. He likes the potential.

“Snodgrass has a really strong leg, and he’s got the mentality to do it,” said Joe Rheem, who made 37 of 38 extra points and 13 of 15 field goals in 2004. “Schwerdt doesn’t have the strongest leg, but he gets it (ball) up fast.”

The biggest mystery has been Parker, who has not yet emerged as expected.

“He wasn’t hitting the ball as well as Jeff and Tim were,” Joe Rheem said of what he saw from those three last spring, “but I think he has what it takes to get there.”

If Snodgrass wins the job during fall camp, Rockhurst coach Tony Severino expects him to succeed. Years ago, Severino saw Snodgrass persevere through a difficult time.

Snodgrass was just a sophomore in October 1999 when the No. 2-ranked Hawklets traveled to No. 1 Jefferson City. The game was tied late when Snodgrass faced a 30-yard field-goal attempt. It clanked off the cross bar, and Jefferson City eventually prevailed in overtime.

“I think he learned a lot from it,” Severino said. “I think he had the ability if he missed a kick to block it out of his mind, which helps down the road when you have to make a big kick the next time.”

That could come soon enough for Snodgrass. He might not have to kick a game-winner Sept. 3 in the opener against Florida International, a game the Wildcats shouldn’t need a late kick to win. But what about Sept. 10, when K-State hits the road to face a usually pesky Marshall team?

If it comes down to a kick, Snodgrass insists he’s prepared.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “I’ve always wanted that opportunity, like if we were in the national championship, I hope it’d come down to a kick. That opportunity would be phenomenal.”