Iowa football: 3 best kickers Hawks will see in 2019
By Ryan Sikes
Kickers can just as easily take a game or lose it for you as well. Who are the top 3 kickers Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa football team will see this year?
Iowa football is rich in history with some memorable game-winning kicks. Daniel Murphy putting one through the uprights to beat #3 Penn State in 2008, Keith Duncan to beat #3 Michigan in 2016, and Miguel Recinos to beat Nebraska as time expired last season. It’s not a sexy position but the kicking game is such an important aspect to the game of football because every point literally matters.
Miguel Recinos has graduated and it appears it’s Duncan’s job to lose although Caleb Shudak has looked strong as well with both kickers being perfect in all attempts at kids weekend. Both guys even hit a 50-yard field goal to finish the scrimmage. I suppose having two reliable guys is a good problem to have and maybe the Chicago Bears can draft one of them. All jokes aside, let’s take a look at the three best kickers the Iowa football team will see this season.
3. Jake Pinegar, Penn State
Iowa had essentially no interest in the Ankeny native who was ranked as the 8th best recruit in the state and the 6th best kicker in the 2018 class. Pinegar was pretty solid inside 40 yards, converting 11/13 but he was shaky beyond 40 yards making just 5/11 last season.
Pinegar was great in converting extra points, missing just two of them in 2018 and he has a career-long field goal of 49 yards. That came in the 22-10 victory against Wisconsin last season.
2. Quinn Nordin, Michigan
Nordin was a three-star recruit from Rockford, Michigan was ranked as the number 1 kicker in the country and the 18th best recruit in the state. That’s pretty incredible given his position. He converted 45/46 extra points last season and 11/16 field goals.
Nordin made a season-long 50-yard field goal in the win against Nebraska but that was his only conversion from 50+ yards in 3 tries. He’s pretty much money from within 40 yards as he missed just 1 attempt last year in such situations. Nordin has a huge leg, converting a career-long 55-yard field back in 2017.
1. Barret Pickering, Nebraska
Pickering was the 8th best kicker in the 2018 class and was the 61st best prospect in the state of Alabama. He doesn’t have as strong of a leg as Nordin but he is slightly more accurate. Pickering converted 40/41 extra points and 14/18 field goals last season.
Like Nordin, he missed just 1 field goal inside 40 yards, went 2/4 between 41-49 yards. He was perfect in the game against Iowa last season converting both a 27-yard and 46-yard field goal in the second quarter of that game.
That concludes the opposing player position previews. If you missed any of them, you can recap them below:
If there are any other groups you’d like to see, drop them in the comments section below!