Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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specialists Double Duty Notre Dame's search for a new punter might have Kyle Brindza working overtime this fall Junior Kyle Brindza served as the kickoff man in 2011 and expanded his duties to No. 1 placekicker last year (his 23 made field goals, many in crunch time, were a new single-season school record), and might add punting to his repertoire this season. photo by bill panzica By Dan Murphy unior Kyle Brindza was one of the busiest placekickers in the country a season ago. Only three players on Football Bowl Subdivision rosters lined up for more field goals than Brindza's 31 attempts during the 2012 season. And there's a chance his workload is going to continue increasing in the fall. Notre Dame used Brindza strictly as a kickoff specialist during his freshman year in South Bend. The following year he never relinquished field goal duties after he took over midway through the first game of the year when senior Nick Tausch injured his groin. In the spring, with no other viable options on campus, Brindza added firstteam punter to his list of special teams responsibilities. Punting is not new to Brindza, but he considers himself much J more raw in that department than in kicking off of the ground or a tee. He set a Michigan high school state record as a senior with a 70yard punt in the final game of his career at Plymouth High School. He averaged 48.2 yards per punt his junior season and was named Associated Press first-team all-state that year. Yet, he didn't consider himself a real punter until buckling down to learn the nuances of the position in the spring. "Now I think I can call myself a pure kicker and pure punter," he said in late April. "I've finally worked on the fundamentals of punting. I finally understand if I hit a bad punt why that happened, just like when I miss a field goal I know why it happened. It's come a long way, that's for sure." Brindza worked with defensive coordinator Bob Diaco while on 108 ✦ Blue & Gold Illustrated 2013 Football Preview 108-111.Specialists.indd 108 6/25/13 2:39 PM