Ivy League Kickers Impress Early On

Cornerbacks who boast 4.3 speed, offensive linemen who carry 350 pounds of biomass, wide receivers who double as end zone choreographers-there are certain attributes at each position that every NFL fan views as commonplace but an Ivy football spectator finds exceptional.

The difference with place kickers is quite simple. When an Ivy Leaguer lines up for a 40-yard field goal and boots the ball through the uprights, fans take notice, while an NFL kicker would only draw the crowd's attention to a 40-yard attempt with a miss.

"Kickers pretty much have the best life in college football," Columbia's standout freshman kicker Jon Rocholl said earlier this year.

Unlike the NFL, where a kicker who misses three or four 40-yard field goals over a season jeopardizes his job and his relationship with teammates twice his size, an Ivy kicker who can boot five field goals from over 40 yards, as Rocholl has done through just six games, is an instant hero and an uncommon offensive weapon.

But with an abundance of young talents like Rocholl currently in the League, the expectations placed on Ancient Eight kickers may steadily be growing. Just last season, the conference suffered through a bare-footed kicker at Yale, a progression of four kickers at Penn, including one from the sprint football team, and Nick Rudd, the all-time leader in field goals made at Columbia, who had a highly erratic senior season.

This year, however, kickers in the Ivy League have dominated. Excluding Dartmouth, which has connected on only five of its 10 field goal tries, Ivy League kickers have made a whopping 88.4 percent of their field goals attempts, or 61 out of 69.

But the high percentage must be taken in the proper context. Excluding Rocholl, who is 5-of-7 on tries from more than 40 yards out and has hit two 47-yard field goals, there have been only two field goals made this season in the Ivy League from beyond 40 yards.

Yet with the exception of Dartmouth and Yale (which only has two field goal attempts on the year), almost every team in the Ancient Eight has found a kicker capable of being spot-on from short range-not necessarily a minor achievement.

Even more promising for the future of Ancient Eight is the youth of its kickers. The Ivy League's leading scorer (all positions included) is Brown sophomore Steve Morgan, who is 13-for-15 on the season and has booted the conference's longest field goal from 48 yards. Another sophomore, Derek Zoch, who is 10-of-12 on field goals, has also solved Penn's kicking problems from a year ago while helping to solidify the Quakers as a heavy favorite for the League title. Harvard's undefeated squad last season relied on then-freshman Matt Schindel who is a perfect 7-of-7 in his sophomore season, including a game-winner in double overtime against Brown at the beginning of the year. And possibly the most talented of all is Rocholl, the lone freshman among Ancient Eight kickers.

Among the array of sophomores, however, Princeton senior Derek Javarone is not to be forgotten. Javarone is a perfect 11-of-11 with a long of 43 yards. Against Columbia earlier this season, the senior tied his own Ivy League record with five field goals in a game and tallied 19 points (including extra points) to break the conference mark for points in a single game by a kicker that Morgan had set just weeks earlier.

While the emergence of the kicker in the Ivy League is in part a reflection of offenses frequently stalling out in the red zone, it is still significant that teams are beginning to rely more willingly on their kicking games (four of the conference's top six scorers are kickers). A dependable kicking game drastically affects how a coach can manage a game and can provide confidence through the entire two-deep.

While 350-pound linemen, cornerbacks with Olympic-caliber speed, and obscene touchdown dances may remain absent from the Ancient Eight for the near future, the conference will undoubtedly receive a further boost in legitimacy, as the days of an Ivy kicker who garners attention with 30- to 40-yard field goals may be coming to an end.