The Wolfpacker

July 2014 - Football Preview

The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports

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JULY 2014 ■ 75 FOOTBALL 2014 BY RYAN TICE N C State's trio of senior specialists — punter Wil Baumann, kicker Niklas Sade and long snapper Scott Thompson — has not al- ways had it as easy as they made it look last fall. The three were brought to Raleigh on scholarships — a move that raised eye- brows from fans and recruiting analysts. NC State was the only school in the land with each position filled by a true fresh- man in 2011, and the group got off to the rocky start that probably should have been expected. In the season opener against Liberty, the youngsters opened the scoring with a 33- yard field goal. In the second quarter, they were called on for the first extra point of their college careers — and it did not go as smoothly as the opening kick. "I just remember the snap was low and inside," Thompson recalled. "Wil patted the ball down and shuffled it over, but Nik pelted [offensive lineman] Rob Crisp in the back of the head. Running off the field, [former head coach] Tom O'Brien was screaming at me: 'You've got one job, do it right!'" "It was first-game jitters," Baumann added. "But we got out of it, and I think we learned a lot from that." Since that debut contest, the trio has missed just two point after tries, and Sade has established the school record with 121 conversions. More importantly, all three players have become remarkably consistent in their jobs. However, that has not stopped any of the three — who have missed just one game together — from working to improve. "They'll be hard to replace when they leave," co-special teams coordinator Ed- die Faulkner said. "They've been open to improving their games and doing the things we've asked so that they will get better from a year ago." The MVP Sade was nervous when new head coach Dave Doeren took the helm following the 2012 campaign. After a promising rookie year where he finished 11 of 16 on field goals with just one miss from inside of 40 yards, he went through a self-described sophomore slump. Sade finished 2012 just 13 of 23 on field goals and was a disap- pointing 7 of 15 on kicks from between 30 and 49 yards. "It was bad — really bad in my eyes," he remembered. "When you have a sea- son like that, you have to re-evaluate where you stand and how you're doing things. It brought me back to reality and made me realize I had to work." One of the biggest turning points for Sade was watching the offensive linemen who doubled as his blockers on the field goal team, and how his misses affected them. "When you miss a field goal, all of their heads go down," he said. "They are tired and didn't get any points off that drive. I wanted to change that — even though we stalled out on offense, we got some points. There's much more enthusiasm off a made field goal versus a failed drive. "A new coach was coming. What I thought about was if I was a new coach and looked at the statistics, I'd say: 'I can't trust this kicker.' I really wanted to make sure I worked hard for the new staff, so that they could trust me." Sade's newfound accountability paid off in a big way last fall. He was named a semi- finalist for the Lou Groza Award, which is annually given to the nation's top kicker, and also won the Governor's Award, which is annually given to the Wolfpack's MVP. He finished the season 19 of 23 on field goals, including 9 of 12 from 30-49 yards, and tied for 11th in the nation with an aver- age of 1.58 field goals per game. His 19 field goals stand as the second-highest sin- gle-season total in program history, and he ranked seventh in the league in scoring (7.3 points per game). "I had high expectations coming in, and I wanted to play to my potential," Sade said. "I worked really hard last offseason, and I was pretty happy with the season I put in. I'm just trying to repeat that and maybe even be better — I'm going to try to be perfect." The All-American Sade and Baumann like to give Thomp- son a hard time because he was named a first-team All-America by Phil Steele's after last season, but his photograph has not been added to the group of All-America plaques that hang in the Murphy Center yet. It's in these lighter moments where the trio's personality shines through, but make no mistake about it — the three take great pride in each other's successes. "I'm the proudest punter in the country because I've got the best snapper in the whole country," Baumann noted. Thompson said there is no doubt that the chemistry built off the field carries onto the gridiron, but they didn't become best friends immediately. Thompson and Sade roomed together at Owen Hall as freshmen, and the close quarters might have prevented the two from getting off on the best foot. They had to feel each other out, but the process wasn't always easy since there wasn't much of a break from one another — on or off the field. "We just butted heads on some stuff," Thompson remembered. "Nik always likes to say you can't put two alphas in the same room; I think that was part of it. We were both too stubborn to shift on things, ticky- tack things, but it made us closer." The initial problems were taken care of quickly, and now the three are nearly insepa- rable. They lived together sophomore year and will live under the same roof once again for their final campaign in Raleigh. "It helps when one of us goes: 'I'm going to go out and kick,'" Sade noted. "The other two will come out with you; and we'll snap, kick and punt. "It helps with consistency, trust and ev- erything else. We can all push each other all THREE-MAN WOLFPACK NC State's Senior Specialists Provide Stability In The Kicking Game Last year, senior kicker Niklas Sade converted 82.6 percent of his field goal attempts and tied for 11th in the nation in field goals per game (1.58). PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN "They'll be hard to replace when they leave. They've been open to improving their games and doing the things we've asked so that they will get better from a year ago." ■ Co-special teams coordinator Eddie Faulkner 74-76.Seniors on Special Teams.indd 75 6/27/14 10:57 AM

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