Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Zauner, but he has strong directional control on his kicks and is at his best while using a rugby style on the run. Zauner worked with Wulfeck last spring to help him prepare for his senior season. ���It doesn���t matter how big a guy is if he can put it to the sideline or away from the return guy,��� Zauner said. ���As far as a traditional hang time guy, I don���t think he���s got NFL potential, but I think he could be a good college player especially with the directional punt.��� Wulfeck said he plans to start summer classes at Notre Dame after finishing his undergraduate degree at Wake Forest. He won���t have to sit out for a year after transferring because he will enroll as a graduate student. He said he expects his experience to help him compete for the starting job this fall in training camp. A New Operation If Wulfeck or one of the other incoming kickers can take punting off of Brindza���s full plate, it will give the rising junior more time to focus on his consistency kicking field goals. He made several clutch and gamewinning kicks to propel Notre Dame���s 12-0 start last year, but missed kicks frequently early in games from makeable distances. Brindza finished the year with a 74.1 percent success rate, hitting 23 of 31 attempts. To complicate matters, he���ll have to adjust to a new snapper and a new holder this season. The kicker is only one part of a field goal operation that has to be precise to be successful. Long snapper Jordan Cowart and Turk, who was the team���s holder on field goals, are both gone this year. That duo also attended high school together in Florida, which gave them eight years to perfect their timing. Freshman Scott Daly, who was rated as one of the country���s best long snappers as a recruit a year ago, is expected to take over for Cowart. Turk���s replacement could be a backup quarterback like senior Tommy Rees or senior Andrew Hendrix. Wulfeck also served as a holder for Wake Forest during his final season there. ��� Returns In Reverse Irish special teams coordinator Scott Booker and the rest of the Notre Dame coaching staff enter the spring of 2013 much the same way as 2012, searching for a solution for their punt return problems. Prior to Brian Kelly���s arrival in South Bend, Notre Dame and his teams both produced above average results returning punts consistently during the past decade (see chart). When the two parties united in 2010, results took a sharp turn toward the negative. Kelly focused his answer on the man doing the actual returning last March when asked about the team���s average of 3.69 yards per return. The Irish attempted only 13 returns in 2011 and their fair catch frequency became a running joke among fans. The coach said he would look for a more dynamic returner and the numbers would improve. The prevailing sentiment was that it couldn���t get much worse. But it did. ���I think probably if you look back on it, I would take more responsibility for not having a guy like Theo