Kicking the ball off effectively requires three important elements that must work in harmony.
That’s a combination of hangtime, distance, and accuracy. Senior kicker Michael Hayes certainly understands that after he booted 69 kickoffs and recorded 47 touchbacks during his final season at Georgia State.
However, last year Hayes only had 20 touchbacks on 73 attempts and so far this year he has yet to record a touchback with one of those balls heading out of bounds.
Against Albany, the Mountaineers attempted to kick the ball into the corner at the numbers, but West Virginia head coach Neal Brown felt that Hayes was trying to overplay the wind when the ball sailed out of bounds.
The advantage to that is it pins teams down there and gets the cover lanes into the corner in order to take away half away of the field and let the coverage teams do their job.
But ultimately, Hayes understands it’s his job to limit returns.
“My job is to put the ball in the end zone, and I need to do a better job of playing the wind and just trusting my abilities there,” he said.
If Hayes isn’t able to get the ball into the end zone the coaching staff has made it clear that he needs to give the kickoff coverage team enough time to get down the field. That’s where strong hang time and accuracy come into play in order to give them a chance to make a tackle.
The goal is to get the ball to the end zone but if it doesn’t you have to be sure that hangtime is critical because if you mess up in one of those areas it’s going to give the team a better chance to advance the kickoff. That’s why those three factors are critical for success in that department.
“Those guys have my back, and I have their back when that ball doesn’t go into the end zone,” he said.
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