Sat, Oct 11 2008
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Published September 22, 2007 01:32 am - Young kicker making adjustments By Zach Ewing
zewing@joplinglobe.com PITTSBURG, Kan. — Freshman kicker Jared Witter bounced his leg on the ground, stole nervous glances around the room and did a decent job of hiding the shake in his voice. He wasn’t dissecting a game-winning field goal. No, Witter hasn’t had to prove the strength of his nerves on the field yet this year. But chatting it up with the media at a Thursday news conference wasn’t exactly what Witter had in mind when he committed to Pittsburg State out of Shawnee Mission (Kan.) West High School. What Witter did anticipate was winning the Gorillas’ starting kicking job as a true freshman. “I had a pretty good idea about it,” said Witter, who’s the replacement for graduated All-American kicker Nathan Alleman. “They told me that I should be prepared to take that job, and I got the job.” Witter has been mediocre on field-goal attempts this year — he’s 3-of-5 but no attempt has been longer than 27 yards and one has been blocked. But he’s perfect on 13 extra-point tries and has shown his worth in other areas of the kicking game. He took over punting duties for Matt Liess in the middle of Pitt State’s second game and has averaged 42.9 yards on seven kicks, including three inside the 20. He’s also helped PSU (3-0, 1-0 MIAA) avoid a letdown in kickoff coverage, even though the NCAA pushed back all kickoffs five yards to the 30 for this season. "We started out not letting him punt, because we didn’t want to overload him,” PSU coach Chuck Broyles said. “And you can probably tell, he’s a little nervous in here. But he’s got a strong leg and he doesn’t have all of the rhythm quite yet, but then again, he averaged 42 yards a punt last week, so he’s got a strong leg. “He has a tendency to have a draw on everything — it’s all left upright, even on extra points, seems like. But potentially, he’s better than a lot of kickers we have as freshmen. ... And he’s been able to kick the ball high and deep. His worth so far has been great kickoff coverage.” Witter and the No. 7 Gorillas take their show back home to Carnie Smith Stadium at 2 p.m. today for an MIAA game with Missouri Western (2-1, 0-1). This past week, Pitt State held off Missouri Southern 31-28 in the Miner’s Bowl in Joplin after taking a 31-14 lead. Witter’s 25-yard field goal in the first quarter opened the scoring and ultimately was the difference. That came two weeks after Witter was named MIAA special teams player of the week for his performance against East Central (Okla.), in which he was perfect on two extra points and picked up punting for the first time. “That first game was tough,” Witter said of a performance against Texas A&M-Commerce where he had the blocked field-goal attempt. “I was shaking quite a bit, but I got over it and I’ve got three games under the belt now.” 
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