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April 3, 2007
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UVa Spring Football Central
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VIDEO: Practice Report for March 28
Cavalier senior kicker Chris Gould made 11 of 19 field goal attempts last season to lead the team in scoring with 51 points. At the same time, he handled the bulk of the punting and kickoff duties. This spring he is dedicated to improving his consistency to provide more scoring from the UVa’s special teams. Last January he went with his family to the Super Bowl to watch his older brother, Robbie, who is the Chicago Bears place kicker.
Question: How would you summarize your efforts last season?
Gould: : Erratic and unpredictable. It was not what I wanted. Some aspects I felt I did good and other things I did badly. Consistency through all three phases of the kicking game is what I need to work on.
Question: What are things you are working on this spring to improve?
Gould: : Accuracy. Last year I went 11 for 19 so if I can increase to 80 percent that will help us compete for the ACC title.
Question: How do you improve your accuracy?
Gould: : During practice I try to hit the uprights with the ball. I try to do some straight-line kicks across the field to make sure the ball is traveling straight. Finally, I try to work with Vic Hall on how he holds the ball a certain way so that every time we go out to kick, he has the right lean on the ball so that it will travel straight.
Question: Has there been much of an adjustment working with Vic Hall?
Gould: : No, Vic is very knowledgeable about football. He knows if he did not get the right lean, he’ll apologize. Vic is really good at what he does and is a great athlete. He gets it right probably 99 percent of the time.
Question: Which of the three phases of the kicking game do you enjoy the most?
Gould: : I like kicking off. You can set the ball up and try and hammer it as far as you can, sort of like a long driving contest in golf. You just step up and let it rip.
Question: Do you ever worry about an opponent headhunting the kicker?
Gould: : No, in fact I think other teams have to worry about me coming down and taking a shot. I’ll take a shot at somebody, especially if they are not looking. During my second year, Maryland sent a guy out to block me on kicks. That happened on every kick. It just shows that coach Groh and the special teams staff coaches us well to get down and to be a part of the coverage and not just hang back.
Question: Did you see Nate Collins get dropped while covering a kickoff at Duke last year?
Gould: : I saw it and I tried to step up and fill his void. I was the one who tried to help him up off the field. I picked him up and he fell back down and I said, `You just stay there,’ and then he started to crawl and I said, `No, just stay there.” Then I yelled over `ambulance’ to the sidelines. That was one of the greatest hits I’ve ever seen in a college football game. That ranks up there when Nate Lyles knocked the helmet off of Jo Jo Walker at Maryland a couple of years ago.
Question: Do you have any special rituals or superstitions that relate to being a kicker?
Gould: : I have a couple of sets of cleats and if I have a bad day of kicking, I bench them. I either bring out a new pair or I bring out an old pair. Just the other day I did not have too good of a night and I brought out a new pair and now things seem to be going better. I retire them until it is there turn to come up again. I demote them all the way down to Single A.
Question: A lot of kickers wear two different shoe sizes on the field. Do you do that?
Gould: : I wear a size 10 1/2 to 11 normally. In a game I wear either 9 or 9 1/2. By the end of the game my feet usually hurt. I wear the same size on both feet. I don’t like the feeling of having one loose and one really tight. I like having consistency.
Question: Can you relate what the pressure can be like at times when the situation comes down to you making a crucial field goal?
Gould: : Tell an ordinary person to try and do their job while 65,000 people are following everything they do. Imagine holding onto someone who is dangling off a cliff. Everybody’s heart is hanging on that one action. Kicking is not a life or death situation, but sometimes he feels like it out there. You have a whole bunch of guys who are counting on you and you might just get four or five plays in a game to do your job.
Question: What do you think about as you prepare to kick a field goal?
Gould: : You are supposed to clear your mind. It is hard to do that. Sometimes I just try to take a deep breath and visualize making the kick. Now, I’m trying to work on clearing my mind before the kick and that is harder than it seems. When you are standing there, waiting to kick, there are a thousand thoughts running through your head. If you can have total confidence in everything that is going on around you, you can relax and let the muscle memory take over.
Question: What do you do during practice to pass the time when you are not working on special teams?
Gould: : We are always given a schedule of things to work on. It might be onsides kicks one day. A lot of those days are correction opportunity days, where you can correct what you did wrong the last time you kicked.
Question: Do you have a kicking guru you work with?
Gould: : In high school I went to a lot of different kicking camps. A lot of people helped me. Basically I stay within the family and get help from my dad and brother. My dad was a three-time All-American soccer player at Lock Haven University (Pa.) and he won a national championship, so he knows what it is like to play at the highest level. He can relate what it is like for my brother and me. He tries to build our mental toughness.
Question: Do you seek much advice from your brother?
Gould: : It is hard to talk to him during the season because of our schedules and they are an hour behind us. He cannot look at our video. He just tries to help me out based on what he sees at the games. Last summer I went and live with him for a couple of months and that really helped me out. I am modeling my swing after him and some other kickers in the NFL.
Question: Did you have a favorite kicker growing up?
Gould: : We both like David Akers (Philadelphia Eagles). We went to his kicking camp. My brother really liked Adam Vinatieri (Indianapolis Colts) and I liked Pete Stoyanovich from Miami. Growing up, I was a big Dolphins fan.
Question: What was the best advice you ever got from another kicker?
Gould: : Everybody all says exactly the same thing, `Step back, feel comfortable and swing like you have always known how to.’ That’s easy for those pro guys to say. I think one day, kicking just clicks. One day you just really understand what they are talking about. With my brother it happened this past year. Hopefully that will happen with me this year.
Question: What was the Super Bowl like?
Gould: : It was really an intense week. All of the players just wanted to win so badly. It felt more as if it was supposed to be a concert or entertainment than the championship football game. There seemed to be more emphasis on what was going on around the field. Because my brother was playing in the game, I didn’t really like that too much. If you were an ordinary fan, it is one of those things you really have to see.