Michigan Wolverines Football: Partridge Not Worried About His Kickers
On paper, Michigan has one of the best placekicking situations in the country with redshirt junior Quinn Nordin and sophomore Jake Moody both more than capable. The two have combined to go only 7-for-13 this year, however, including a trio of missed under 40 yards.
Special teams coach Chris Partridge isn’t concerned.
“There are three kicks we should have made, right?” he said Wednesday. “Iowa, Illinois and Maryland … then three kicks we could have easily not kicked, but we want to kick them. We want to kick the 58, the 55 … we’ve got to make at least one of those.”
Nordin (1-for-4 this year) missed the 55-yarder just before halftime against Iowa. Moody (6-for-9) was short on a 58-yarder just before the half at Penn State.
“We could have punted or went for it like most other teams would have done, then we wouldn’t be 7-of-13,” Partridge said. “We’d be 7-of-10.
“I think both guys are still kicking and doing what we’re asking them to do. We’ve just got to get a feel for it in the game, or who’s hot coming off the practice week, make those decisions.”
Neither kicker has expressed any disappointment about sharing duties, nor have they been uncomfortable with it … or at least they haven’t said anything, he continued.
“We’ve got to go for what we feel and what they feel,” Partridge said. “Maybe, it might be, but again, we have two guys. We tell both … to stay warm. It’s not like one of them is cold and we’re asking them to kick. Both are ready to go, both are expecting to go and know who’s up on the drive so it’s not like, ‘hey! You’re up.' We’ve done that ahead of time, so they know if they’re up or not.
“Again, they haven’t been perfect, but we have two guys that are kicking at a high level.”
They’ll continue to try the long ones as long as they feel it’s the best option, Partridge said, adding they ‘want to have that weapon.’ The have confidence they can make them, both having done it in practice.
“It’s a tough kick but in a situation where it’s the end of the half, you might as well,” Partridge said. “Two of them were right at the end of the half. So what are the percentages? Can you make this kick and get three points, or do you try a Hail Mary? Or 10 seconds left, do you want to risk something happening on the punt? Those are all things you have to weight.”
NOTES
• Partridge spent much of the bye week preparing for MSU’s potential trickery on special teams rather than recruiting. He showed his team 12 plays over the years they needed to be prepared for and schemed for anyting else the Spartans might do.
“We have to look at what our weaknesses might be and how they might attack them, that’s first and foremost,” he said. “Then we have to look at what they do. Trick play or not, we have to prepare for anything. But we just need to make sure our eyes are disciplined and be ready for anything they can throw at us and be ready to understand the situations where they’d throw them at us and go from there.
“It’s really looking at ourselves and hey, how are they going to attack?”
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