Most of the time, when your football team gets the ball back, you expect big things. A touchdown, a field goal—the bottom line is that points define success for an offensive unit. Three and outs, short, 20-yard drives and big plays followed by stalling are not tolerated.
Not with the Princeton football team. Not when you have senior punter Colin McDonough.
"One of the things you have to understand is that, right now, if our drive ends in a kick, that's good. If it's a punt, if it's an extra point, if it's a field goal — if it ends in a kick, that's good," head coach Roger Hughes said. "As long as it's not turning it over and making our defense defend a short field."
Essentially, football fans, coach Hughes is telling you that should the Tigers punt the ball, fear not. Smile, relax and let McDonough take care of things.
But what makes McDonough, a perennial first team All-Ivy talent, such an asset to his team that his coach will be pleased with an offensive possession that only yields a punt?
Everyone knows what a punter is supposed to do — when jammed in behind your own 20-yard line, boom a punt down the field. Or, when on your opponent's side of the field, pin them down his own 10-yard line. As fans, we take these feats on the field to be nothing more than simple kicks of a football. When a punter doesn't get it right, we become infuriated. When a punter does, we take it for granted, because that's their job and that's what they're supposed to do every time.
But if it's so easy, why don't we see more fantastic kickers in the NFL? Why are kickers and punters a sacred find, as opposed to a common commodity?
The way McDonough sees it, the problem is consistency, consistency and consistency.
"It's been a struggle with consistency. As a punter, pretty much everybody is going to hit some good punts here and there — the most important thing is to have most of your punts be the good punts," McDonough said. "You try to really limit your bad punts, as far as that goes. It's something that just takes repetition over the summer."
Ultimately, there are three factors that makeup a good punter — technique, talent and confidence.
All skill
A good punt begins with a good snap. After cleanly fielding the snap, the punter grips the ball and sets his body so that the ball will head in the right direction. Then the punter will drop the ball and kick it.
"The drop, you have to get the ball situated well so when it hits your foot so that it's in a position where you can kick it well. A lot of people say the drop is about 80 percent of your punt. There are so many things that affect your drop. There's one perfect drop that you want, but if you hold the ball a little too tight, or if your hand moves it a little bit, or if the wind shifts it a little bit as you drop it, those things will affect your drop," McDonough said.
Most of the mechanics involved with the punt up until this point are simply techniques that need to be hammered out over time. Hard work will give you good technique. The actual kicking motion, however, is where much of the talent comes into play.
"At the end of it there's leg strength. For whatever reason, certain people are just able to get more momentum hitting the ball, and the distance factor really comes from how fast your leg hits the ball."
A head game
Finally, there's the psychological aspect of punting. A bad kick here or there and all of a sudden a kicker can lose focus.
"In a normal game, I hit the ball four or five times, so I don't get a lot of second chances. So when you're out there, you really need to be focused on 'you need to your job now, you need to do it well.' If I do it badly, that's what people are going to remember," McDonough said. "It's not like when you miss a tackle, and you say 'oh well you can go out and get a tackle on the next play. You don't get any second chances, so you really need to be focused."
That hard work has enabled McDonough to take his talent as a punter — derived from his days as a soccer player — and refine it into a beautiful craft. Whether it's booming kicks or daggers behind the five-yard line, McDonough can do it all. Even more importantly, his teammates and coaches know he can. And for McDonough, that's what matters most.
"There's not a ton of recognition, but as a punter, you don't punt for the recognition," McDonough said. "If you wanted more recognition, you'd probably become a field goal kicker —making a game-winning kick, that's a big-time play. I don't really mind that, because, every time I go out there and punt, and if I do my job well, my teammates realize that, my coaches realize that, and if I can help the team that's what it's really all about."
An unsung hero
Punters don't rack up the individual statistics like running backs, linebackers or quarterbacks do. Punters lack a 'sexy stat', such as TD passes, TD runs and sacks. The net end of this fact is that being a punter means being a good team player. You don't live for your sacks and interceptions; you live for your team's successes.
"Really, the best part of punting is when you hit the exact punt you need to whether it's a real long punt or it's a punt that goes out inside the five-yard line, you know that you've gone out there and done your job successfully," McDonough said. "The flip-side is that if you go out there and you need a big punt, and for whatever reason you don't get it, you really feel like you've let your team down. That's the worst part of punting."
In similar fashion, McDonough's best and worst moments have mirrored the state of the football team. His freshman year, the team severely underachieved, but last year, the team's 7-3 record really meant a lot.
"It's really the team glory that I enjoy," McDonough said. "So last year, going 7-3 and having one of our best seasons in 10 years, and having the chance to improve on that this year, that's the best part."
For his part, McDonough thinks this team certainly has the ability to improve on last year's showing. Last year's serious run at the Ivy League title ended with an abysmal game against Yale, in which the Tigers let a commanding first quarter lead slip away in the second half. But that experience may have been exactly what the Tigers needed.
"You know I think we definitely had heartbreak last year, the Yale game," McDonough said. "The core of our team was at that game, the sophomores through seniors. We all have been there, and we don't want to be there again. We've been working all off-season to make sure that doesn't happen this year."
Goal-oriented
Eventually, McDonough would like to play in the NFL. Playing for his favorite team, the Chicago Bears, would be a dream come true — even if it meant launching punts into the stiff gusts that the Windy City is known for.
Until then, however, one thing sits on McDonough's mind—an Ivy League championship. So this year, Tiger fans, don't groan when a drive stalls. This year, things are different, and McDonough hopes to do his small part to make sure that holds true in more than one way.
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