Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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The Canton, Mich., native was an allstate punter in high school, but said placekicking comes far more naturally. He struggled to get the consistency he needs out of his booming right leg during spring practice. This summer, he traveled to kicking camps throughout the country as part pupil and part counselor to hone those skills. Brindza, who enters the season ranked as the No. 16 kicker in the country in Phil Steele's College Football Preview, said he worked on his field goal form as much as his punting, but the top priority was to improve the latter. "It's what I've been working on all summer," he said. "Day in and day out, it's just getting better. I've been able to pick up a lot and get better every day." The mechanics of kicking a football and punting one are completely differ- Specialists Depth Chart Pos.No. Name Ht. Wt.Cl./Elig. PK 40 Nick Tausch 6-0 195 5th/1 27 Kyle Brindza 6-1 236 Jr./2 P 27 Kyle Brindza 6-1 236 Jr./2 98 Alex Wulfeck 5-7 154 5th/1 84 Andrew Antognoli 6-2 190 Fr./4 KO 27 Kyle Brindza 6-1 236 Jr./2 43 John Chereson 5-9 170 Fr./4 H 14 Luke Massa 6-4 237 Sr./2 or 98 Alex Wulfeck 5-7 154 5th/1 LS 61 Scott Daly 6-1½ 248 So./4 99 Hunter Smith 6-3 204 So./4 PR 7 TJ Jones 5-11½195 Sr./1 3 Amir Carlisle 5-10 190 Jr./2 1 Greg Bryant 5-10 204 Fr./4 KR 4 George Atkinson III6-1½ 220 Jr./2 1 Greg Bryant 5-10 204 Fr./4 33 Cam McDaniel 5-10 207 Jr./2 ent, he said — the approach, the way use your foot, dropping the ball in a punt are all factors that make the two jobs less alike than they appear initially. Brindza said when he makes a mistake on a field goal attempt he can immediately feel where he went wrong. In punting, he still needs to watch the film or have a coach correct him when he duffs one. Brindza is competing with another fifth-year senior on the punting front. Wake Forest transfer student Alex Wulfeck is nipping at the junior's heels. Wulfeck punted as a junior for the Demon Deacons before losing his job to an Australian import last season. Listed at 5-7 and 154 pounds, Wulfeck is considerably smaller than Brindza, but gets rid of his punts quickly in a smooth and slightly unorthodox motion. There's a chance that Brindza wins both battles and ends up being a renaissance man in the kicking game. Few players in college football today handle both kicking and punting because mentally the double duty can create problems. "That is a legitimate concern," Brindza said. "Coaches don't like a punter being the kicker because if they have a bad punting day it might contribute to bad kicking and vice versa. The biggest thing I've been working on is my mentality." Losing power is less of a concern for the oversized kicker. He tries to keep his leg fresh by taking daily visits to the training room, not usually a popular place for kickers to hang out. He said that growing tired over the course of the season falls more under the mental category than the physical.