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60 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 24, ISSUE 6 f BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com P aul Griggs is used to the competition. In his first year at Purdue in 2012, he split time with Sam McCartney after neither won the job outright; and the following season, he won a training camp battle again with McCartney, then took all 12 of the Boilermakers' field goal attempts. But after making only half of those in 2013, Pur- due has loaded the field for August's training camp, bringing in Wabash graduate transfer Ian MacDou- gall and freshman Austin McGehee to compete with Griggs and junior punter Thomas Meadows for the Boilermakers' placekicking job. "I came in Day 1 as a freshman and was compet- ing," said Griggs, a junior who has taken 19 of Pur- due's 26 field goals attempts the last two seasons, making 10, "and it's going to continue like that. It's kind of how I like it. I like to have guys around me pushing me." But Griggs will face the pressure now more than ever. In the spring, he and Meadows, the front-run- ner to replace Cody Webster as Purdue's punter this season, took turns as the primary placekickers. But neither stood out enough to claim the job for the summer, leaving Coach Darrell Hazell to say then that Purdue didn't have a No. 1 on the depth chart. MacDougall enters as another challenger. Last sea- son at Wabash, the Westfield, Ind., native made 15 of his 17 attempts, with a long of 45 yards, leading to believe he might be a consistent kicker in the mid- range. Those three — McGehee is seen more as a punter and kickoff specialist, but could compete as a place- kicker if he starts camp well, Hazell says — are likely to split the repetitions in the first weeks of August. "I think early in camp, you have to see who can handle the heat and who's being consistent," Hazell said. It's not only placekicking that Purdue's looking for answers — the punting and kickoff jobs aren't solid- ified either — but it will likely be the most closely watched in the fall. It's easy to understand why. Pur- due's not consistently hit field goals the two seasons following Carson Wiggs' tenure from 2008-11 in West Lafayette, when he became the program's most accu- rate field goal kicker. Griggs understands that he needs to be more con- sistent. He left the spring feeling as though he still had room for improvement and sought out instruc- tion from his personal coach, Dan Horner, a former collegiate and NFL kicker based in their hometown of Additional Competition Purdue sorting out kicking game; return men ready to go Tom Campbell Junior Paul Griggs was Purdue's No. 1 placekicker a year ago, but to remain so, he'll have to beat out a few challeng- ers, including Wabash transfer Ian MacDougall and punter Thomas Meadows. F O O T B A L L : S P E C I A L T E A M S P R E V I E W