West Virginia has addressed a need at specialist with a commitment from Tulane kicker Ethan Head.
Head, 6-foot-1, 175-pounds, spent one season at Tulane where he attempted 77 kickoffs for 4,873 yards and 50 touchbacks. That’s an average of 63.3 per attempt.
The Illinois native also attempted five field goals, making four of them including a long from 38-yards out. He was 18-21 on point after touchdown attempts in his true freshman season.
Head entered into the transfer portal Dec. 10 and had a number of suitors including Arkansas. He took official visits to both West Virginia and Arkansas prior to announcing his choice.
Head has three years of eligibility remaining in his career.
WVSports.com breaks down the transfer of Head and what it means to the West Virginia Mountaineers football program both now and in the future.
The data:
Head played a total of 105 snaps in his true freshman season, all on special teams, and 79 of those were on the kickoff team where he handled that role. Given the fact he had a touchback percentage of 65-percent that’s a good mark for a true freshman that should only continue to grow and improve.
Head also has the ability to kick field goals and extra points making 22-26 attempts between the two. That could be a role where he competes for time as well given the current situation.
Fitting the program:
West Virginia is looking to replace Michael Hayes, who has served as the primary kickoff and field goal kicker over the past two seasons and Head is an option that has proven himself at the FBS level. Currently, Head would be the only scholarship kicker on the roster and while that isn’t a guarantee that he would earn the job the fact that he has performed well in the role is a good sign for what he could potentially do in Morgantown.
Adding a versatile specialist is always a good thing but even more so when you consider that he still has three years of eligibility remaining in his career. That means it could be an addition that pays off not only this coming season but for future ones as well in potentially multiple areas in the kicking game.
Recruiting the position:
Specialists aren’t typically a position that receives multiple scholarship offers in one given class and targeting a kickoff specialists with the ability to hit field goals checks a lot of boxes. It isn’t out of the question that the Mountaineers could add another kicker by the time the dust settles, but it does seem that Head would satisfy that need for the Mountaineers given his versatility to handle multiple roles.
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