Matt Ruffolo missed two field goals at Missouri but remains UK’s kicker. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky is not going to change kickers — or at least Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said that Monday.
Kicker Matt Ruffolo missed two more field goals at Missouri Saturday and is now 9-for-15 on field goals this season with only two kicks of 40 or more yards. He’s also missed two extra points.
“Matt is the starting kicker right now. I think it is fair to say we constantly are working other guys and getting them ready,” Stoops said.
He has two other scholarship kickers — Chance Poore and Jackson Smith — but has gone exclusively with Ruffolo this year despite the special teams struggles.
Once again, Stoops tried to use golf to explain what is happening with the UK kicking game.
“I don’t know why I use golf a lot as an analogy with kickers, but you know they have it in them and I have trust in him. That second one (at Missouri), that was from 47 yards, it came up a yard or two short and really a big gust (of wind) hit it. He had to hit it high,” Stoops said.
“That’s a combination of things. Like I talk about quarterback play or sacks, it’s not just all O-linemen, there are tight ends, backs, quarterbacks, everybody is in it. It is kind of the same with kicking. He was afraid to drive it because we have been giving up a little bit of penetration, but the protection this week was really good.”
Why was the protection better?
“We put Justin Rogers in, put him in to the right side and Kiyaunta (Goodwin) to the left and Kiyonta felt much more sturdy on the left, probably his right foot is anchoring (him) and he was really good. Justin came in and helped us, so the protection was good,” Stoops said.
So what about the first miss that was low, wide and probably short?
“I think the first miss, his operation was so fast. We have worked on getting the operation faster, it was just a fraction too fast. The second one, he probably tried to get it up but it got up into that wind. He could have made that, he was confident, he told me point blank, and he wouldn’t do that. He’s going to be honest. He knows me well enough. He would tell me, he told me point blank, ‘I can go this way 50, no problem,’” Stoops said.
“You hit a gust, and he hit it a little high. I can’t blame him for that. I thought it was a good kick. I think he was worried about getting the ball up and not getting it blocked because in other games we were getting some leakage. You put all that together and those are all things you constantly work at and get better.”
While special teams play has been lacking all season, Stoops begged to disagree a bit at his press conference Monday when he did confirm that punter Colin Goodfellow is out for the season after being injured on his game-winning play at Missouri.
“We need to continue to work the op time, continue to work the snaps. Again, I defend some of the special teams because there is some stuff we do really well. We had two (punts downed) inside the 10. We were plus 51 (on hidden yardage),” Stoops said.
“Our kickoff return team, nobody’s kicking us the ball, that is pretty dangerous. That is a high degree of respect in the SEC when they are not kicking you the ball. You don’t see that very often, certainly from the No. 1 team in the country two weeks ago and this team.”
Stoops noted that backup snapper Clay Perry had been perfect on snaps this year and in six games last year when he sailed the ball over punter Colin Goodfellow’s head at Missouri.
“Cade Degraw’s been good, he had one field goal (bad snap). So it is not OK, I want to be 100 percent, certainly when the game is on the line,” the UK coach said. “But to lump it all together, is not right. That is where we have to look at those things. I am not making an excuse for that.”
“It is not good football. That is not something I want to look at. That is not good and not clean. I am the head football coach and they are snapping the ball over our head with the game on the line, that’s not good. Again, I am not going to bring him in my office and break his arm (laughter).”
