Our Wisconsin Lutheran College punter (and starting wide receiver), Drew Mears, was just selected as the Wisconsin Private Colleges Special Teams Player of the Year by the WFCA! What a well deserved honor! Drew was a real weapon for us all season long! Great directional punts, most left on the ground or fair caught. No long returns. Super pooch punts locking opponents deep in their territory. Even pulling off a great rugby fake for a critical first down in a win. Put all that on top of senior leadership, a steady head and great hands and you've got a coach's dream punter — and multi position player. Every college coach wants a guy like Drew on his team. _ _ _ _ 43 punts • 41.28 avg. • 61 long • 12 FC • 16 I20 • 4 50+ • 0 blocked

I was casually watching the Sunday Night Football game between the Cowboys and Eagles, and then IT HAPPENED. I think it's the greatest showcase of EFFORT I've ever seen in any sport. Dallas rookie Alijah Clark, a safety, and gunner on punt team, shows that no matter how far from the play you are, you might just have a chance to impact the game. After a booming punt by Brian Anger, Clark not only gets back up after being blocked and pushed to the ground, he actually makes the hit on the return man that caused the fumble that turned the tide for the Cowboys to eventually win the game — who, may I remind you — had been down by 21 points in the game, only to come back and win on a last second field goal by Brandon Aubrey.

Our beloved Wisconsin Badgers are off to a rough start this year in the Big 10. However, their "new" punter is Sean West, a KICKERS CAMP camper, turned counselor has been battling to win a spot on the team for a couple of years now. In their last game, as a starter, on a risky play, Sean ran for a first down vs. Ohio State that earned the praise of his teammates and is making the rounds on TikTok, Instagram & YouTube. Nice moves, Sean!!

Truly an amazing ending when a Bills victory seemed almost impossible. What was truly epic was the 25-yard "Mayday" field goal by Matt Prater to end the game. Would you be prepared on the sidelines to manage that kick? The Bills were down by 2 with just under 2 minutes to play. They were out of time outs. After a successful drive to well within FG range, Josh Allen knelt down to force Baltimore out of time outs, too. Then, on the next to last play of the game, he took a knee – moving the ball to the left hash for Prater's FG attempt (so that he could use a hash to spot the ball). That was with just over 20 seconds left on the clock. The offense needs to get off the field, the special teams unit on the field and set. The clock is ticking. Ideally, you want the kick to be made just as time is about to expire. Prater took his time (a little too much time for me 😵‍💫) and his holder (P) Brad Robbins, waited until 3 seconds to go to call for the snap. Good snap, good hold, good kick and perhaps the greatest comeback victory in Buffalo Bills history! 🏈 Really, a thing of beauty! Oh, and btw, Matt Prater wasn't even on the Bills team until last Thursday. Ahh, the life of a pro kicker! 🤣 _ _ _ _ Notice one more thing... that kick should have been blocked. It takes entire team to make a successful field goal. Watch the left side of the screen (the right TE and wing). The TE sees the inside pressure and commits too far to take his man down, while the wing focuses only on the outside threat, leaving the actual intended kick blocker free. Had he taken a perfect straight route to the ball, he would have gotten it. Instead, he hopped over a man that was never there, slowing him down just enough to miss Prater's kick. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. 🍀

As the Fall football season gets underway, I expect the involvement in KICKING SKOOL to grow. We're almost over the 100 member mark! Thanks for your participation! @Arav Patel has been active for almost a whole year now. We're excited to hear about his punting and he's even running an active charity campaign tied to his punting (what a neat idea)! I'm sending a $25 McDonald's Gift Card out today to Arav for the win. Will you be next? Just get active in here — sample anything and everything in the Classroom. Check out detailed breakdowns of NFL pros and analysis in our EPISODES. Type in a topic in the SEARCH bar. I guarantee you, there's something new for you to learn so that you simply get better and better in the kicking game!! 🏈