Following a legendary sports figure is something usually associated with new coaches following a highly successful coach, a great quarterback, an all-conference running back or defensive star.
You don’t usually think about how tough it is to follow a legendary kicker.
One of the main reasons is we hardly think about kickers in terms of legendary. We think of good or bad. Despite the fact that a kicker can often make the difference in winning or losing we hardly ever think of kickers as legendary. And many coaches have been hesitant to “waste” a scholarship on a kicker.
That has been changing in recent years considering the importance of a good kicker can effect wins and losses. And let’s face it, wins and losses determine whether a coach can keep his high-paying job.
This spring, the Florida Gators are trying to replace a legendary kicker — Caleb Sturgis. With all due respect to Jeff Chandler, who came to Florida in 1997 as a walk-on and finished his career as Florida’s leading scorer, Sturgis wound up his four-years in the Sugar Bowl as arguably the Gators’ greatest placekicker.
Sturgis finished his career with a school-record 70 field goals (in 88 attempts) and was 130-of-136 on point-after kicks. He finished with 340 points, including 106 points as a senior last season.
Stepping into the Sturgis old role this fall will be one of three kickers on the spring roster — redshirt freshman Austin Hardin, senior Brad Phillips or redshirt junior Francisco Velez — and February signee Johnny Townsend.
Sturgis himself is helping the Gators make the transition to a new kicker. He’s been working with kickers this spring, just as he did when he was an active player.
Phillips, a senior from Gainesville, has been taking tips from Sturgis for the past few years.
“Caleb’s taught me so much these last four years that I have been here,” he said. “He’s helped me with everything from form to the mental approach to kicking a football. I’ve been in real situation games and know what to think; what goes through my head before each kick, just trying to just be as consistent as I can and try to get better every practice.”
Phillips understands what it means to follow such a legendary kicker.
“Undoubtedly he is. It’s over whelming,” Phillips said. “You’ve got to come in after a four-year starter. It was automatic any time Caleb stepped on the field. You’ve just got to not think about it as hard as it is to not think about it. You’ve got to do what you’ve been doing the last couple of years and just kick the football.”
Phillips is not the only kicker that feels the pressure. It is felt by all the kicking candidates.
“Over the spring we’ve tried to be more consistent,” he said. “We have the talent to fill Caleb’s shoes. Caleb was so consistent. We’ve just got to keep up with him. I’ve lost a lot of focus with school and football it is hard; just relying on your technique and staying with what you have to do and kick the football as hard as you can.
“It get frustrating at times. Obviously kickers want to be as consistent as you can so we’ve been working on consistency. If you don’t kick as well as you can you feel like you’re letting the whole team down because you know you have the ability. So it is just us being as consistent as we can.”
The Gators spend time during every practice on situational field goal attempts.
“We’ve had a huge emphasis on situational field goals,” said Phillips. “That’s the big thing making sure the whole team is ready — O-line, snapper, kickers — just like a live game kick.”
Austin Kearns, a redshirt freshman from Atlanta, wasn’t exposed to Caleb for that long, but he did benefit from his time with the former kicker.
“(I’ve learned) A lot,”Kearns said. “Obviously he’s a great kicker. He’s had a great career here so it is going to be tough replacing him. But I’m not going to be Caleb so I’ve got to go on and have my own career. I took a lot from him and I learned as much as I could while I’ve been here.”
Like Phillips, Kearns was a sponge around the Gators’ former kicker and learned plenty from Sturgis.
“It’s been really fun working with him,” said Kearns. “A few things here and there just to help me be that 90 percent field-goal kicker I know I can be. Things like keeping my head down, not looking at the kick, just some things like that. Just things I need to work on — a few small mechanical things.
“It’s tough to change different things you’ve been doing for years, but there are things that need to be changed and they are going to help me out in the long run.”
Although Caleb Sturgis has finished his career, his influence will still be felt on the field this fall no matter who Will Muschamp chooses as the Gators’ new placekicker.