Thursday, August 16, 2007

UMass Special teams

I had a chance to talk with all three of the UMass kickers during the Media Day.

Chris Keopplin set himself in the UMass record books in one season. He set the school record for kick-scoring points with 99 and points after touchdowns with 51. He also tied the school record for field goals with sixteen.

I asked him about his game-winning kick against Montana. He said the biggest problem was trying to stay loose in the cold. On the kick he missed at the end of the game he said that it was 46 yards, which is at the end of his range. He said "I tried to kill it, and it ended up going low and got tipped".

Also spoke with Armando Curko . He said he was coming off a medical redshirt year. He has worked hard on his leg strength and he was looking forward to the season.

I also met UMass' new punter Brett Arnold a JUCO from Penn. He keeps the UMass average up for articulate, well spoken players. I asked him how his first training camp was going.

His answer may shed some light on the several players who have left training camp. He said, "The big thing is adjusting to the speed of the game. Coming from Junior College, the speed here is awesome." He later hit a couple of booming punts in practice.

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