Kick in the pants

Back during August camp, Dabo Swinney seemed to have zero concerns about kicker Chandler Catanzaro.

The "Cat Man," as he's known, was drilling everything in practice. The walk-on smoked his two scholarship competitors, Richard Jackson and Spencer Benton.

“All I can do is go based on what we’ve seen in practice,” Swinney said then. “And we’ve tried everything we know to make it as difficult as we possibly can. Everything from players laying down screaming at him and things flying across and blowing a whistle right before he kicks it – we’ve done everything to try to create some type of distraction, and he’s done nothing but just be dialed in and focused and answered the call just routinely. …

“He’s just got a real cool demeanor. You just never really see him get rattled or get high or low or whatever. He is dialed in. Every time he steps up there, I don’t think he sees anything or hears anything. I just think he’s so focused on doing his job, and that’s a great quality to have as a kicker.”

There's a difference between calmly lining up and grooving your field goals in practice, and doing it in a close game with the lights on and the stands full of fans.

We've seen that this year. Missed field goals have played a major role in three of the Tigers' four losses.

The game-ending 32-yarder at Auburn in overtime (after the double-clutch snap by Matt Skinner nullified a successful 27-yarder).

The 42-yarder in the fourth quarter at North Carolina in a 21-16 loss.

And, of course, last week's misses from 44 and 36 yards in a 16-10 defeat at Boston College.

You have to feel bad for Catanzaro, a good kid who's exceedingly humble and gracious. But it's hard to blame Swinney for losing his patience with these misses and going with Jackson.

Since taking over as interim coach halfway through the 2008 season, Swinney is 2-9 in games decided by a touchdown or less.

And problems with field goals have figured prominently into six of those defeats:

-- A 20-yard field goal try by Mark Buccholz was blocked early in the Gator Bowl against Nebraska in the 2008 season. Those lost points ended up being big in a 26-21 defeat; Clemson drove late but could not get into the end zone.

-- A 34-yard miss in the fourth quarter last season against TCU forced Clemson to go for the end zone on its final drive. The Tigers lost 14-10.

-- The blame for last year's 24-21 loss at Maryland fell on the offense for failing to move the ball deep in Terps territory late. But Jackson missed on tries of 47 and 48 yards as the Tigers came up empty.

Clemson has lost 20 of 27 games decided by a touchdown or less since early in the 2005 season, and kicking problems have been present in some of the costliest losses:

-- A missed 43-yarder by Jad Dean in a 10-9 defeat at Georgia Tech in 2005.

-- A blocked extra point in a 34-33 double-overtime loss at Boston College in 2006.

-- A missed 39-yarder that sealed a 31-28 home loss to South Carolina in 2006.

-- Misses from 39 and 28 yards in a 28-20 bowl loss to Kentucky in 2006.

-- A miss from 46 in a 20-17 home loss to Boston College in 2007 (a defeat that cost the Tigers a division title).

-- A miss from 45 in a bowl loss to Auburn in 2007.

And don't forget the two victories over Florida State (2006, 2009) that were marked by monumental kicking-game failures. The Tigers won 27-20 in Tallahassee in 2006 despite a blocked field goal for a touchdown, and a blocked extra point for two points. And last year, the Tigers won 40-24 despite misses from 38 and 26 yards, and three missed extra points.

This season's 4-4 record can't just be explained away by a few missed field goals. But it's probably hard for Swinney to keep from wondering what might've been if he'd had a dependable kicker -- not just this year, but over his entire tenure.

Moving on to some Thursday linkage...

Should be an interesting game in Blacksburg tonight. No doubt Virginia Tech's players have a little something extra for Georgia Tech.

"Oh, yeah, we've been waiting on it,'' free safety Eddie Whitley said. "We're just ready because we felt like they did some things that were dirty to us, and we've got to come out and play our type of ball and our type of defense, and just hit them.''

An Associated Press review of expenditures at ACC schools shows Clemson is among the biggest spenders.

During the 2008-09 academic year, the most recent year with data available for all the schools, the programs that spent the most on football were Miami ($20.9 million), Boston College ($19.4 million), Clemson ($18.8 million) and Virginia Tech ($18.2 million).

BC, Clemson and Virginia Tech have combined to make six ACC championship game appearances and win two conference titles, both by the Hokies, since the league expanded to 12 in 2005.

At N.C. State, a veterinary student has walked on and become a standout punter.

In The Post and Courier, a story on Kyle Parker and Russell Wilson (gotta do something about that headline).

Tony Barnhart wonders if Georgia Tech can even slow down Tyrod Taylor.

This guy says Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham should be fired for making a choking gesture toward Florida's kicker last week.

Come on. Have college athletics become so mercenary, so dollar-oriented it would let something so egregious — a coach of one team making insulting gestures and screaming obscenities at a player on the other team — slide? Will we excuse anything and everything in the name of winning?

Seriously?

To adapt a line from one Dan Hawkins: Go cover intramurals, brother.

And we'll close with an extraordinarily touching column from Ron Morris on his good friend Bob Fulton.

It seems the beginning of our friendship coincided with the death of my father. He, too, was a radio play-by-play announcer. Distance and the passing years prevented me from developing much of a friendship or relationship with my father.

I guess Bob filled that role for me.

Bob has two daughters, Nancy and Robin, who live in North Carolina and California, respectively. Robin called me Wednesday shortly after hearing of her father’s death. She said her father often told her I was the son he never had, but always wanted.

That Bob. All this time he had kiddingly called me his father.

Rest in peace, Mr. Fulton. Never knew you, but wish I did.



LW