Vanderbilt uses female kicker in 2nd half
- Thread starter Dan1911
- Start date
She kicked it off and it landed on the 35? That’s not very good. Was it one of those pop up kicks to try and get the team to fair catch it?
The ESPN studio host said it was an intentional squib kick, if I heard correctly.
For context, COVID wiped out all of Vanderbilt’s kickers, the student body had been sent home, and the Vandy women’s soccer team had just arrived back at campus from the SEC Tournament. Not sure how much experience she has kicking a football (e.g. high school) but it sounds like she was their only option and was brought in on short notice.
Was happy for her. Mom and dad at the game. Had to be a big thrill....way to go girl.....
Simmer down, OP just asked if it was a gimmick or not. There was no huge rush to judgement at all.
She’s a really good goalie with a solid leg. Would have liked to see more options for her to give it a go. Definitely was a squib kick. As soon as she hit it she bolted for the sidelines.
Who is rushing to judge her? Seems like everyone is being kind or afraid to judge her.
But you do collect 100 virtual signaling points.
Easy now cowboy. Wth is wrong with anything in this thread? Jeez
she’s a goalkeeper. I’m sure she can kick a soccer ball 60 yards at least. I’m pretty sure she can kick a football further off a tee.
Great story for sure.
I didnt know Vandy didnt have a mens soccer team until today either.
Would have loved to see her score a point though
I didnt know Vandy didnt have a mens soccer team until today either.
Would have loved to see her score a point though
It was definitely an intentional short/squib kick. They probably didn't want an inexperienced kicker put at risk of getting blocked or in position to make a tackle. She did a fine job with the kick...though there were a couple of over-the-top college football guys saying it was Vandy's best play of the game and it could've been recovered by Vandy. I'm not gonna give her ridiculous praise. She kicked it right where they needed her to and she seemed to have fun today with the experience.
Interestingly only 1 SEC school has men’s soccer (Kentucky)
That was the odd thing. She didn't kick the kick off from a tee. She kicked it off the ground with a teammate holding the ball like it was a field goal or an extra point. I wonder how many times this week she actually practiced kicking from a tee?
I honestly think that the plan was that she wasn't going to do the kickoffs, that the guy who punted today was going to handle them. But their offense was so completely and utterly inept in the first half that the coach realized that if they wanted to play her the second half kick off was probably going to be their only chance. And she hadn't practiced kickoffs, so she kicked the ball off the ground rather than off a tee, because that's more akin to what she is used to. And the had her squib it because they had no idea how far/high a regular kick would go, and a squib kick took the uncertainty out of the equation.
Of course if that's what they did, they aren't going to admit it at this point, so we will likely never know.
Was it a gimmick??? No one will admit it, but of course it was.
Look, I don't want to "rain on Sarah Fuller's parade", but espn will take this story and run with it. We will see her kick replayed over and over again for weeks and then it will show up again of their espy award show and she will win the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
The reality of it is, the Vanderbilt football program is horrible. They came into the game 0-7 and left 0-8.
I can guarantee you that there are roughly 100 players on the Vanderbilt football team that could gave done what she did. The problem is, if any one of those players did that, no one and that includes espn would have cared. On the positive side of things, it gave espn's Linda Cohen a chance to talk about how nervous she was as a back-up goalie on her high school boy's ice hockey team.
In conclusion, I'm happy for the girl. She seems like a nice person and got to do something that she probably has wanted to do for quite sometime, good for her and her family.
However, it was still a stunt pulled off by a winless Vanderbilt football program.
Look, I don't want to "rain on Sarah Fuller's parade", but espn will take this story and run with it. We will see her kick replayed over and over again for weeks and then it will show up again of their espy award show and she will win the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
The reality of it is, the Vanderbilt football program is horrible. They came into the game 0-7 and left 0-8.
I can guarantee you that there are roughly 100 players on the Vanderbilt football team that could gave done what she did. The problem is, if any one of those players did that, no one and that includes espn would have cared. On the positive side of things, it gave espn's Linda Cohen a chance to talk about how nervous she was as a back-up goalie on her high school boy's ice hockey team.
In conclusion, I'm happy for the girl. She seems like a nice person and got to do something that she probably has wanted to do for quite sometime, good for her and her family.
However, it was still a stunt pulled off by a winless Vanderbilt football program.
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Ah, you’re referring to ESPN “Wokecenter”. I’m not bothered because I don’t watch. Sure the SJW weirdos will tune in over and over again and watch it...but for me anything on that network is like a tree falling in the woods.
I’m a fan of women’s sports so I think it’s a cool story and I’m happy for Fuller. You do speak a lot of truth though. Ultimately the SJW’ weirdos will be drunk on all the wokecenter coverage. It’s because of my appreciation of women’s sports that I’m not too excited for the day that Wokecenter will be covering a transgender man dropping 80 points on the UConn women’s basketball team and winning the NCAA title, or a transgender man putting the UNC Asheville women’s soccer team on his back and makes a run through the tourney defeating UNC,FSU, PSU, WVU, UCLA, and Stanford while scoring 30 goals and putting countless female opponents in the trainers room. I don’t want to ever see that happen, but I do wonder what type of civil war will occur in the woke community when it happens.
The squib kick could have been done by everyone on the team. This was a gimmick
Squib kicks can come off a tee, why did they have a holder and kick off the ground? That seemed like a disadvantage to her for a solid kick.
was the holder actually considered the 11th player and she 12th? Because she bolted for the sideline. Almost like they allowed 12 players on the field just to allow her to kick yet be safe from having to tackle or get blocked.
The real story that could have made legitimate headlines is if she kicked off a tee and blasted it through the end zone. This was unfortunately more gimmick than anything else. I really did want to see her given a chance. I’ve watched her play soccer about a handful of times, she’s a great goalie with a solid leg. Let her kick for real, off a tee.
was the holder actually considered the 11th player and she 12th? Because she bolted for the sideline. Almost like they allowed 12 players on the field just to allow her to kick yet be safe from having to tackle or get blocked.
The real story that could have made legitimate headlines is if she kicked off a tee and blasted it through the end zone. This was unfortunately more gimmick than anything else. I really did want to see her given a chance. I’ve watched her play soccer about a handful of times, she’s a great goalie with a solid leg. Let her kick for real, off a tee.
She kicked it off the ground with a holder since the plan was only for her to kick field goals and that’s all she practiced. Once the Vandy coached realized they weren’t even going to make it into field goal range he had her do the 2nd half kickoff, they had 11 players on the field and treated the holder the same way they do when someone has to hold in a windy game.
anyone on Vandy’s roster yesterday could have kicked the ball farther than she did. she was hardly their only option this was a huge gimmick and embarrassing they played it up like they did.
She ran immediately to the sideline after Kick?? You mean, before the guy was tackled??
If so, gimmick of the year.
If so, gimmick of the year.
If you don't think that a soccer goalie can kick a football further than what she did on Saturday I can only imagine you've never seen a soccer goalie kick a ball.
Technically the guy didn't get tackled. It was a squib kick. The Missouri player just fell on the ball and covered it up. No tackle was needed.
She can probably kick the crap out of it. But it was a terrible setup for her. The team is getting a ton of negative comments.
Let her tee that damn thing up and kick it through the end zone.
As I said further up in this thread, I don't think they were planning on her doing the kickoffs, they were going to have the guy who punted do them. She did not practice kicks off a tee all week, only field goals and extra points. But when it became obvious that the only chance for her to get into the game was probably going to be the second half kickoff they changed their plan and put her in.
I've never seen her play soccer, but if she has the leg that a lot of high major women's goalies do she could easily kick the ball 60 or 70 yards with some practice. Those goalies can routinely put the ball down for a goal kick essentially four yards deep in the end zone and kick the ball past mid-field, no problem. Obviously that's with a different kind of ball, but that's also a ball sitting on the ground rather than up on a tee.
I played soccer until 10th grade and switched to football and I also kicked for my HS team and kicking a soccer ball and kicking a football are entirely different. Anyone should be able to kick a soccer ball farther than a football. Anyone thinking it’s easy to kick a football has never done it.
I bet in a 100 tries she doesn’t kick a football through the end zone. Most college guys can’t do regularly. The best can but not even the best do it every time and like I said in another post kicking a football is entirely different than kicking a big round ball. It just is. Don’t believe me go out and stand at the 25 and kick a soccer ball through the uprights then try it with a football. Most guys can’t kick a 35 yard field goal. It’s not easy
As a non kicker, I remember kicking a football off a tee 65 yards as a high schooler. This was just casually messing around in practice. I can’t imagine a P5 goalkeeper who participated in national team camps, like Fuller did, not be able to respectably and conservatively put the ball at least on the 10 yard line.
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