Videos of JJ McGrath: We may have hit jackpot

So many times when we hear the word "Walk-On" our mind usually dismisses this player as a small, non-physical, all heart, Rudy, type player that will likely never have an impact. However, at the kicker position, that is not always true. McGrath was a preferred walk-on at a school that probably doesn't use scholarships on kickers.

After watching these videos, I am not saying that we have landed Sebastian Janokowski, but it is nice to see that we have a strong, physical kicker, with some leg strength transferring in. And while this guy may suck like the rest of em, if we keep getting strong legged kickers with some physical ability, our chances of landing a good one go up tremendously.

Enjoy these videos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnyqHV7Y0pw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HTL...M8mTzxmTU2bpGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3asyjACJxw

Holy shit. Does anybody know for sure if this guy can play this season?

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Originally Posted by GreenheadDawg

Holy shit. Does anybody know for sure if this guy can play this season?

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Yes, Paul contacted him and he said he could play.

This is Mullen's biggest move to date in correcting the weakest part of our team and yet no one is really noticing it.

Question his pad level!

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Yes, Paul contacted him and he said he could play.

This is Mullen's biggest move to date in correcting the weakest part of our team and yet no one is really noticing it.

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I agree, this is absolutely huge. That guy has a cannon for a leg. The wool runneth over

shit wrong thread

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

So many times when we hear the word "Walk-On" our mind usually dismisses this player as a small, non-physical, all heart, Rudy, type player that will likely never have an impact. However, at the kicker position, that is not always true. McGrath was a preferred walk-on at a school that probably doesn't use scholarships on kickers.

After watching these videos, I am not saying that we have landed Sebastian Janokowski, but it is nice to see that we have a strong, physical kicker, with some leg strength transferring in. And while this guy may suck like the rest of em, if we keep getting strong legged kickers with some physical ability, our chances of landing a good one go up tremendously.

Enjoy these videos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnyqHV7Y0pw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HTL...M8mTzxmTU2bpGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3asyjACJxw

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I don't give a flying flip about leg strength, the question is can he put it between the pipes? Doesn't matter how far you kick it if you can't split the uprights and accuracy has been our problem, not distance. I haven't seen any of our FG attempts falling short.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

I don't give a flying flip about leg strength, the question is can he put it between the pipes? Doesn't matter how far you kick it if you can't split the uprights and accuracy has been our problem, not distance. I haven't seen any of our FG attempts falling short.

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Agreed. Accuracy in games is what we need. If he can be accurate on game days, then he's just what the doctor ordered. We'll see this fall.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

I don't give a flying flip about leg strength, the question is can he put it between the pipes? Doesn't matter how far you kick it if you can't split the uprights and accuracy has been our problem, not distance. I haven't seen any of our FG attempts falling short.

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It absolutely matters how far you can kick the ball because it gives you more room for error. If you can kick a 50 yard field goal, then that means you don't have to kick with max effort on a 35 yard field goal and you don't have to square the ball up perfectly every time to make it. There is a reason that you don't see many NFL kickers with weak legs.

Again, no one is saying that this kid is the answer because we simply don't know. But it is a positive development and him having a strong leg beats the hell out of a guy that doesn't.

Anybody know what year he is going to be this fall?

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Originally Posted by state66

Anybody know what year he is going to be this fall?

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Fairly positive that he redshirted last year at Michigan and will therefore only be a redshirt freshman for us.

Impressive

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Originally Posted by dawgoneyall

Question his pad level!

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The real question is can he be a wing slasher for Brick Ray's team?

/JR
//The OBTUSE Buster

this could be absolutely HUGE for us!

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

It absolutely matters how far you can kick the ball because it gives you more room for error. If you can kick a 50 yard field goal, then that means you don't have to kick with max effort on a 35 yard field goal and you don't have to square the ball up perfectly every time to make it. There is a reason that you don't see many NFL kickers with weak legs.

Again, no one is saying that this kid is the answer because we simply don't know. But it is a positive development and him having a strong leg beats the hell out of a guy that doesn't.

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Yep. Where would we have been without Hazelwood and Westerfield in the late 90s/early 2000s, both of whom could nail it from 50+? Get some guys that can kick the bloody piss outta the ball, then hire a real ST guy who can help them with accuracy.

Frankly, I'm not going to salivate over a kicker's practice highlight tape- that could probably even make Bell look good.

Let's see if he can put it between the uprights on gameday first.

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Originally Posted by messageboardsuperhero

Frankly, I'm not going to salivate over a kicker's practice highlight tape- that could probably even make Bell look good.

Let's see if he can put it between the uprights on gameday first.

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We all know that Bell looks like the second coming of Sebastian Janikowski in practice. It's been reported by plenty of people. Bell's problem is between the ears on game day. Can't handle it mentally when the lights are on.

All we have to go on with McGrath right now is practice/highlight film. But if you aren't even the least bit excited that we're bringing in a guy who looks like he has a cannon for a leg at what we ALL said was our biggest position of need this coming season, then I have to question your sanity. It's a helluva move by Mullen & Co to bring this guy in to compete with the clowns we already have kicking. If he's bad, it's not any different than what we already have. But if he actually can handle it mentally and is good, our ceiling for this season just increased tremendously. Either way, I see this as Mullen acknowledging we have a glaring weakness in one phase of the game and making an adjustment to try to improve the weakness. Something he's seemed to damn stubborn to do in the past.

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Originally Posted by War Machine Dawg

We all know that Bell looks like the second coming of Sebastian Janikowski in practice. It's been reported by plenty of people. Bell's problem is between the ears on game day. Can't handle it mentally when the lights are on.

All we have to go on with McGrath right now is practice/highlight film. But if you aren't even the least bit excited that we're bringing in a guy who looks like he has a cannon for a leg at what we ALL said was our biggest position of need this coming season, then I have to question your sanity. It's a helluva move by Mullen & Co to bring this guy in to compete with the clowns we already have kicking. If he's bad, it's not any different than what we already have. But if he actually can handle it mentally and is good, our ceiling for this season just increased tremendously. Either way, I see this as Mullen acknowledging we have a glaring weakness in one phase of the game and making an adjustment to try to improve the weakness. Something he's seemed to damn stubborn to do in the past.

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I am definitely pleased/happy with the addition- Mullen is at least making a good effort at shoring up a huge hole in our team.

That being said, I can't force myself to get more excited than just "cautiously optimistic" about a guy who has yet to attempt a live field goal at the college level- especially after the awful kicking we had last year. He sure as hell can't be any worse than what we already have though.

Well, at the very least we have competition and options. Either one of these guys will step up or it will force one of our current guys to step up. I don't like giving kickers scholarships because to me, that almost obligates you to use the guy. If you're getting a scholarship, you better be without a doubt Morten Andersen or Ray Guy level and even the good ones- I would be very leery of giving them a scholarship.

The other thing I think giving kickers a scholarship does is add pressure to a fairly high pressure position. If they miss a kick, it's automatically "why did Dan waste a scholarship on this guy"- and I think that magnifies the pressure because now they become a "bust" because we "wasted" a scholarship on them.

So now we have McGrath, Reed Bigham, Sobiesk, Westin Graves, and Devon Bell all competing for the job. May the best man win.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

It absolutely matters how far you can kick the ball because it gives you more room for error. If you can kick a 50 yard field goal, then that means you don't have to kick with max effort on a 35 yard field goal and you don't have to square the ball up perfectly every time to make it. There is a reason that you don't see many NFL kickers with weak legs.

Again, no one is saying that this kid is the answer because we simply don't know. But it is a positive development and him having a strong leg beats the hell out of a guy that doesn't.

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I do agree that range matters and it definitely makes it a lot easier on an offense when they only have to get to say the 35 as opposed to the red zone- but I value accuracy over range. It just seems like Dan is the opposite and is more enamored with leg strength than anything- even if the guy struggles with accuracy in high school.

Kickers are weird in general. I go back to when Madison Central had Stephen Gostkowski and they ended up having to bench him in high school and now he's been kicking with the Patriots for awhile and has had a nice career. It's almost a total crapshoot and personally I think the best way to go about it is to let the guys that want to come play for MSU all walk-on and tell them that whoever performs the best gets the job. Like Sobiesk and Bigham. And I'm not opposed to a guy like McGrath throwing his hat in the ring- I just think that typically we can find a guy that is a decent kicker that wants to play for us from Mississippi that can do a good job. Scott Westerfield comes to mind.

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Originally Posted by messageboardsuperhero

I am definitely pleased/happy with the addition- Mullen is at least making a good effort at shoring up a huge hole in our team.

That being said, I can't force myself to get more excited than just "cautiously optimistic" about a guy who has yet to attempt a live field goal at the college level- especially after the awful kicking we had last year. He sure as hell can't be any worse than what we already have though.

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I'm with you, but at least this guy has kicked some monster FGs in high school, and he apparently was 7-11 his senior year. That means most of those were probably from a pretty good distance, and he still made more than anybody we had last year.

Obviously that's HS and it's different, but he has a better resume than anybody we currently have.

And he looks like he can boom some kickoffs, too. I say let he and Bell battle for kickoff, let he and Graves and Sobiesk battle for FG, and let Bell and Cook battle for P. It is interesting, though, that we will now have two scholarship K/P on the team and yet they are probably just going to battle it out for P.

we do have a kicker who has never missed in a game - he's 1/1 ..... I think he is more of a position player than a kicker ... Earhart

I still haven't seen it mentioned as to why this kid is leaving Michigan and coming to State. I assume he didn't win the job at michigan?

Lets just hope that he's as good as a former nice sized left footed kicker that came out of Michigan State years ago. If he was from Denmark I'd feel real good about him.

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Originally Posted by AlSwearengen

I still haven't seen it mentioned as to why this kid is leaving Michigan and coming to State. I assume he didn't win the job at michigan?

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Evidently there is a scholarship kicker already on campus and another one coming in 2015, so he probably felt like they were looking at other guys to start. He redshirted last year, was just a true freshman walk-on.

But there are probably about 100 D1 schools that have a backup better than anybody we have.

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Originally Posted by messageboardsuperhero

I am definitely pleased/happy with the addition- Mullen is at least making a good effort at shoring up a huge hole in our team.

That being said, I can't force myself to get more excited than just "cautiously optimistic" about a guy who has yet to attempt a live field goal at the college level- especially after the awful kicking we had last year. He sure as hell can't be any worse than what we already have though.

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Fair enough. Can't say as I blame you for that approach.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

I do agree that range matters and it definitely makes it a lot easier on an offense when they only have to get to say the 35 as opposed to the red zone- but I value accuracy over range. It just seems like Dan is the opposite and is more enamored with leg strength than anything- even if the guy struggles with accuracy in high school.

Kickers are weird in general. I go back to when Madison Central had Stephen Gostkowski and they ended up having to bench him in high school and now he's been kicking with the Patriots for awhile and has had a nice career. It's almost a total crapshoot and personally I think the best way to go about it is to let the guys that want to come play for MSU all walk-on and tell them that whoever performs the best gets the job. Like Sobiesk and Bigham. And I'm not opposed to a guy like McGrath throwing his hat in the ring- I just think that typically we can find a guy that is a decent kicker that wants to play for us from Mississippi that can do a good job. Scott Westerfield comes to mind.

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To be fair, Bell was primarily a punter in HS. He had very little experience kicking FGs. Same for Logan Cooke coming in this fall. Mullen should be shot for trying to make a punter into a kicker.

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Originally Posted by FISHDAWG

we do have a kicker who has never missed in a game - he's 1/1 ..... I think he is more of a position player than a kicker ... Earhart

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Earhart was a SR. And he only got the kick in garbage time of the bowl game as a reward. The fact we never even gave him a look during the season with the disaster that was Bell/Sobiesk should tell you all you need to know about how good he probably was.

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Originally Posted by AlSwearengen

I still haven't seen it mentioned as to why this kid is leaving Michigan and coming to State. I assume he didn't win the job at michigan?

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From his commitment interview, he said Michigan told him he would come on as a preferred walk-on with the promise of a scholly the following year, because they already had a senior that has the kicker scholly. Then this year, they offered a scholly to another recruit. I'm assuming that's why he's leaving. I'm also guessing that means we've either offered him a scholly, or the opportunity to earn one.

Anything walking and breathing with a K next to his position is good news.

What's the story with this guy?

I guess that he can play immediately since he was a walk on and didn't play any?

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Originally Posted by deltadawg99

What's the story with this guy?

I guess that he can play immediately since he was a walk on and didn't play any?

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Yes.

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Originally Posted by blacklistedbully

From his commitment interview, he said Michigan told him he would come on as a preferred walk-on with the promise of a scholly the following year, because they already had a senior that has the kicker scholly. Then this year, they offered a scholly to another recruit. I'm assuming that's why he's leaving. I'm also guessing that means we've either offered him a scholly, or the opportunity to earn one.

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That's a pretty fu*king big deal to tell a player you'll get a scholarship after waiting a year and then not follow up on that. I'm guessing the cost of tuition alone at Michigan for only one year is more than four years at State if out of state is waived. Most would be forced to leave. Michigan's tuition fees are closer to Vanderbilt's than MSU. Good for him to telling them to shove it.

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Originally Posted by Dawg61

That's a pretty fu*king big deal to tell a player you'll get a scholarship after waiting a year and then not follow up on that. I'm guessing the cost of tuition alone at Michigan for only one year is more than four years at State if out of state is waived. Most would be forced to leave. Michigan's tuition fees are closer to Vanderbilt's than MSU. Good for him to telling them to shove it.

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Michigan is only $12,800 for in-state students, which is only 1,800 more than the national average, but 38,928 for out of state students.

When it's all over this kid may have a chance to be the most important JJ we've ever had. Of course, I'm comparing him to JJ Johnson, the running back that carried us to our last SEC Championship berth. Kick a couple of game winners and he could be one for the ages.

I looked up Michigan's kicking stats yesterday. I font remember the exact numbers but I do remember only seeing one bad year in the last 10 years. That would leave me to believe that with the stats and with Michigan's reputation that they bring in a lot better talent at K then we do. That alone has me optimistic about him.