Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/499410
Just For Kicks, Or Punts Replacing graduating kicker/punter/kickoff man Kyle Brindza is possibly the most underrated task on the 2015 Notre Dame football team. "We had a special young man in Kyle Brindza that was able to do all three," Irish special teams coordinator Scott Booker said. "They don't do that in the NFL, not many specialists are able to do it in college. Kyle was able to do it at a high level." In February 2014, Notre Dame signed Georgia native Tyler Newsome as a potential heir to Brin- dza in all three facets. Standing a rangy 6-2½ with "long levers," Newsome was renowned as an All-American kicker, but he redshirted last year while concentrating on punting. He punted only 20 times as a high school senior for a 38.65-yard average, and it was the first time he was asked to punt. Early in fall camp he displayed inconsistency with his punts, which is why the staff wanted him to get that squared away first. "I'll never forget the first time we went out kicking, just seeing [Brindza] kick like he did and realized how consistent I needed to get, how much stronger," Newsome said. "That stuck with me throughout the whole season. I did learn a lot from him and I started to compete with him toward the end of the year. I could tell I was making progress. "My steps were covering a lot of ground [on punts] and he told me, 'Look, you've got to shorten those up if you want to play.' If you have too long steps, you're not going to be able to hit as good a ball. Compact steps correlate to the flight of the ball." The now 205-pound Newsome has added 23 pounds since his enrollment to facilitate his strength, while also doing yoga for flexibility. In the Blue-Gold Game, he averaged 42.9 yards on seven punts but was inconsistent. "Tyler's best attribute moving forward is going to be punting," Booker said. "He's working on field goal kicking and being an all-around specialist, but he's going to be focused more on punting and being the best punter he can be. "He'll go through the mechanics and make sure he can improve on his field goal kicking, too, because you never know what will happen." Head coach Brian Kelly declared this past National Signing Day that incoming freshman Justin Yoon, who is ranked as the No. 1 kicking prospect in the nation by Kohl's Kicking, will be the starting placekicker. Some insight into why showed during a couple of open practices in which several field goal attempts by Newsome inside 35 yards went awry. Holding the ball for Newsome was No. 3 quarterback DeShone Kizer, while Malik Zaire, whose chemistry with Brindza last November never quite meshed, did the same for junior walk-on John Chereson. Kizer could have the starting role for the first time, so his work with Yoon this summer will be crucial. In punting, two open practices and the Blue-Gold Game April 18 showed feast-or-famine tenden- cies by Newsome. When he connected correctly about half the time, the punts sailed 50 yards with extraordinary hang time. The other half displayed shanks and short line drives or knuckle balls. "It's about consistency," Newsome said of his next step. "It really showed what you have to do to play at this level." — Lou Somogyi