Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/195693
don Kornblue, a former Wolverine who now keeps a gaggle of Division I and NFL kickers on his client list. But he was always calm. "That's usually one of the things that separates the best kickers — the great ones from the good ones," Kornblue said. "It's that demeanor, and Kyle has that." When he isn't drawing inspiration from Rivera, Brindza looks inward to steady himself before a big kick. He gets there with a string of breaths deep enough to send shoulder pads visibly heaving. His teammates know the routine well. Each kick begins with an ex- aware of how he's feeling, a sense that will grow more important during the coming weeks. Brindza's powerful right leg started to lose some of its oomph in November during his first two seasons in South Bend. He said he felt like he needed to be kicking all the time in practice to justify his spot on the roster in those years. Too many reps and the cold weather zapped some of the distance from his kickoffs. As one of the busiest kickers in college football this season, he and the Irish staff are monitoring his work in practice with more of an eye toward preservation. He's on a self-imposed "He just has that feeling that he's a clutch player for us, and he has been since he's been here." Head coach Brian Kelly on Brindza aggerated, zen-seeking gulp of air. The breathing exercises come from Brindza's growing obsession with yoga, a trick he picked up from training partner and current Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh. He trusted Walsh enough to join the average mat-toting undergrad in a few public sessions at the university's gym when he was getting started. Now most of his yoga workouts are done with videos in the privacy of his own room. The flexibility is an obvious benefit for Brindza, who carries a heavy workload as the team's punter, placekicker and kickoff specialist. It's the mental dividends, though, that keep him coming back for more. "I've become a little bit of a freak about it," he said. "It calms your whole body and trains your whole body." It also keeps Brindza more keenly "pitch count," and as soon as he feels he's accomplished his goals for the day he's done. So far, it's helped. Seven of his eight kickoffs inside AT&T Stadium in Dallas were touchbacks. He booted a 51-yard punt to pin the Sun Devils against their own goal line late in the game, and he kicked two other 50-plus yarders in a close win over Michigan State a couple weeks earlier. The Irish are 11-1 in their last 12 games decided by a touchdown or less, and there's no doubt that Brindza is an essential part of that streak. His coaches and teammates need his leg to remain locked in during the second half of the year. They know the rest of him will. "He's that kind of player for us," Kelly said. "We can really rely on him." ✦