• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

K Aaron Pettrey (Las Vegas Locos - UFL)

ozone

Kick Scrimmage Brought Smiles to Most Faces
By John Porentas

The fall kick scrimmage brought smiles to a lot of faces this fall, but there was one notable exception. Ohio State place kicker Aaron Pettrey had a great day in the field goal department, the returners did well, the punters did well, the long snappers did well, and both Pettrey and fellow kicker Ryan

Pretorius kicked off extremely well. Pretorius, however, was very disappointed in his field goal kicking in the scrimmage after having had a great spring and fall in that category.​
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=100 align=left border=0><CAPTION align=bottom>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ryan Pretorius[/FONT] </CAPTION><TBODY><TR><TD>
85-Ryan-Pretorius-02-small.jpg
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

"Terrible. Probably the worst I've every kicked a football, which is very disappointing after have such a solid camp," said Pretorius describing his day.

"I missed three or four at the end. I should have had a 60-yarder today, it had the distance, but I pulled it left. The three or four kicks I missed at the end all went slightly left and I knew I was pulling the ball left and I tried to correct it by aiming at the right upright.

It just wasn't my day. I just couldn't control the ball as it happens to ever
y kicker or golfer. Today was the day I wanted to shine, and I didn't," said Pretorius.

Pretorius was down on himself for his performance in the kick scrimmage, and was absolutely devastated that what he considers to be the strength of his game deserted him for the scrimmage.

"For some reason this camp I've been very accurate until today. My kickoffs are the one thing that has blossomed. Today is just a letdown, because field goals is what I pride myself on," said Pretorius.

"I felt like crying and I think a few tears did come down my cheek, but I've got to forget about it and just work hard tomorrow," Pretorius said.

Pretorius and Pettrey have been neck and neck this fall for the kicking chores at OSU. Pretorius worked hard on what had been the weakness of his game, kickoffs, and thought he was making progress as an all-around kicker.

"Yesterday I had about ten kickoffs and six or seven hit the wall, which is three yards after the endzone. The worst one I hit was three or four yards deep with a four second hang time," Pretorius said.​
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=100 align=right border=0><CAPTION align=bottom>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Aaron Pettrey[/FONT] </CAPTION><TBODY><TR><TD>
20-Aaron-Pettrey-02-small.jpg
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

While Pretorius was glum, Pettrey was not. Pettrey was nine-for-nine for field goals in the kick scrimmage including the game-winning 47 yarder. He had an 11th attempt lined up, and 57 yarder that missed, but the play was nullified on a roughing the kicker penalty.
Pettrey kicked a 59 yard field goal to win the spring kick scrimmage, but sees himself as a much better kicker this fall.

"Last year I came in and I was awful. I tore some muscles in my groin. I was hurt and kept trying to kick," he said.

Beside being healthy, Pettrey said that former OSU kicker Josh Huston worked with him to improve his mechanics and technique.

"He widened out my stance and gave me new steps, worked on my plant foot, just about everything," he said.
"Before I took three steps back and two over. He changed me to four steps back and two over.

"I talk to Josh about once or twice a week. He helped me out a ton last year. He changed my form. I kick just like him now, so I keep in touch with him."

Pettrey has a big leg and can boom them on kickoffs.

"I've been hitting it well, getting good hang time, getting it eight or nine (yards) deep every time or most of the time," he said.

The place kicking was not the only think on display in the kick scrimmage.
The punters, snappers and holders all performed well and there were signs of life in the punt return game as well.

"I really think that the return game is high quality players. I think we've spent a lot of time making sure that our quality returners are going to have plenty of opportunity to have some space to run with the football," said OSU assistant coach Dick Tressel.

"We have added to our whole practice situation and extra three or four minutes to catch balls this fall. We just carved that out of our time to give those guys who catch place kicks and punts three or four minutes to get out and get warmed up."

There were visible results of that strategy in the kick scrimmage.

"Malcolm Jenkins had a good return, Brian Robiske had a good return," said Tressel.

According to wide receivers coach Darrell Hazell, so did Ted Ginn and Brian Hartline.

Both Hazell and Tressel. were left smiling over the return game and the kick coverage teams as well as the actual kicking by both the punters and place kickers.

"I really think our kids have encompassed the thought that special teams are critical to being a great football team," said Tressel.

"They seem to enjoy running down the field to cover kicks and do a great job of it.

"The other thing that caught my attention were some pretty talented kickers and punters. I really felt like there were some live legs out there."​
 
Upvote 0
One more warning since the season is here...

Bash any player, coach, recruit, or person of interest to tOSU and your stay here will be very short.

This includes player threads, game threads, etc.

The removed material once again proves to you non-believers that players, coaches, recruits, and families read this site.

We will not tolerate any form of bashing here and I implore everyone to please report such posts as soon as you see them. Our Mods do a great job, but there will be times when things slip past us.

Grazie.
 
Upvote 0
Tell you what I really like about both of our kickers this year. One hasn't heard one word from Aaron or Ryan about the other that hasn't been putting the team first. Both must have been very disappointed at various stages in their competition with one another for a starting post, and no doubt will continue to be until a clearly better kicker emerges. Yet, both have only been supportive of one another.

Well done to them both.:osu:
 
Upvote 0
Tell you what I really like about both of our kickers this year. One hasn't heard one word from Aaron or Ryan about the other that hasn't been putting the team first. Both must have been very disappointed at various stages in their competition with one another for a starting post, and no doubt will continue to be until a clearly better kicker emerges. Yet, both have only been supportive of one another.

Well done to them both.:osu:

Much like when Houston and Nuge were competing for the job.
 
Upvote 0
DDN

Pettrey named No. 1 kicker, but backup will get a look

By Doug Harris
Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 30, 2006
COLUMBUS — Ohio State has named red-shirt freshman Aaron Pettrey its No. 1 kicker, although back-up Ryan Pretorius, a 27-year-old South African, probably doesn't need to be thinking about resuming his rugby career just yet.
Coach Jim Tressel said Pettrey, a 20-year-old Kentuckian, has earned the right to fire the opening salvos against Northern Illinois on Saturday, but the Buckeyes plan to give Pretorius some shots, too.

"We want both those guys to go out there in front of everybody and just see how they do," Tressel said.
Former OSU kicker Mike Nugent made a phenomenal 88 percent of his field goals from 2002-04, and Josh Huston connected at a nifty 79-percent clip last year. But that duo struggled mightily while battling for the job over the 2001 season.
So why not just anoint one player as the starter and allow him to build confidence by having the job to himself?
"That would give one guy some confidence, but I have a concern about both guys," Tressel said.
"If that one guy is anointed and he misses three times in a row and kicks four kickoffs out of bounds, he's going to be un-anointed, so we'll just keep working."
Tressel wants to help
Although he's normally as conservative as Ann Coulter, Tressel said he'll be mindful of helping Heisman candidates Ted Ginn Jr. and Troy Smith pad their stats as long as the outcome of a game isn't jeopardized.
"You would only do that if that was OK from a team standpoint. ... (But) if you're in a situation where the impact on the game isn't one way or the other, then I think you would certainly do that because records are made to be broken and guys are deserving of recognition," Tressel said.
He added with a grin, "We'd like to put one more feather in (longtime sports information director) Steve Snapp's cap of all the great ones he's promoted at Ohio State."
Daniels back upstairs
OSU quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels, who is battling kidney cancer, will resume his normal post in the coaches box for the Northern Illinois game.
Asked to explain the discussions with Tressel over the headsets, Daniels said: "Tress always thinks I go get hot dogs."
Daniels' reply?
"I can't answer. I have my mouth full."
Buckeye bits
• ABC-TV will broadcast the OSU-Northern Illinois game to 47 percent of the nation.
• The Buckeyes, who are 18-point favorites, haven't been ranked No. 1 in the regular-season since an eight-week stretch in 1998.
• The Buckeyes have a 20-1 all-time record against current MAC teams, the only loss coming in 1895 to Akron.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or at [email protected].
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

OSU FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK
Pettrey wins kicking duel — for now
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
20060830-Pc-C3-0800.jpg

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel named a No. 1 kicker, redshirt freshman Aaron Pettrey, for Saturday’s season opener against Northern Illinois. But he stopped short of anointing him the latest in what has been a strong line of OSU kickers.
The reason, Tressel said yesterday, is 27-year-old sophomore Ryan Pretorius, a former rugby player from South Africa, has made it a competition worth continuing.
"I’m not sure there is as much separation as one might think," Tressel said.
But both kickers indicated last week that identifying a starter would make matters better, "because kicking is all about confidence," Pettrey said then. "So you want to know you’re the guy the coaches want out there."
All Tressel would commit to yesterday is he wants Pettrey out there at the start. As for anointment …
"That would give one guy some confidence," Tressel said. "I have a concern about both guys, you know.
"And still, if that one guy is anointed and he misses three times in a row and all the rest — kicks four kickoffs out of bounds — he’s going to be unanointed. So we’ll just keep working."
Tressel said this will be a little like 2001 when freshman Mike Nugent and redshirt freshman Josh Huston dueled for the job, later awarded to Nugent almost by default.
"We have new guys, and we have a little bit of a competition going on," he said.
"Aaron Pettrey will get the first opportunity, but we’ve told them we’d like both of them to have opportunities in this football game. … We want both those guys to go out there in front of everybody and just see how they do."
Asked whether he thought Pettrey, a 20-year-old who sat out school his first fall two years ago, and the world-traveled Pretorius were more mature and better equipped to handle the first-year pressure better than Nugent or Huston, Tressel said it was too early to tell. But the pressure that Northern Illinois special teams puts on kickers and punters will be a good barometer.
"I think it will be good for those guys and I don’t know if they’re more mature or not; we’ll find out," Tressel said.
In defense of Pretorius

Pretorius seems to have many fans in his corner, but none more so than his wife. Yesterday afternoon, when WBNS radio talk show host Bruce Hooley invited listeners to offer questions they would have posed to Tressel at his media luncheon, she called in. At first she identified herself as "Molly" and said she would ask what Ryan Pretorius did that kept him from winning the job.
She came clean, though, saying her husband "is actually handling (being named No. 2) much better than I am. … He is working his butt off. He is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. And he really, really deserves to show what he’s done."
Speaking of impostors

As the OSU defense prepares to go against speedy Northern Illinois running back Garrett Wolfe, the top returning rusher in the nation (1,580 yards), freshman receiver/return man Ray Small has been deployed as the scout team facsimile.
"We’ve had Ray Small try to imitate his cutback skills and stuff, and I think that has given us a good look," cornerback Malcolm Jenkins said.
[email protected]
 
Upvote 0
Dispatch

OHIO STATE NOTEBOOK
Freshman kicker unused to playing for big crowds
Friday, September 01, 2006
Ken Gordon and Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH



The crowd that will watch Ohio State kicker Aaron Pettrey on Saturday will be equivalent to 44 of his hometowns.
About 105,000 are expected to pack Ohio Stadium for the Buckeyes’ opener against Northern Illinois, and that could be nerve-racking for Pettrey. Not only is he a redshirt freshman in his first OSU game, but he’s from Raceland, Ky. (population: 2,355), which means he has never kicked in front of so many people.
Asked what was the biggest crowd he had played in front of, Pettrey said, "Probably the spring game (about 60,000 in April), but I only had a kickoff and a safety (free kick). Kicking field goals, I guess it was the other night (open practice) … about 30,000."
He hopes to not let the big crowd be a distraction.
"I try not to think about it too much," he said, "just think about going out there and putting it through the poles. I try not to think about how much pressure it is and everything — 105,000. I just try thinking that they’re all going to be for me, so try not to let them down."
His biggest distraction might be standing on the sideline. Coach Jim Tressel said in naming Pettrey the starter that he also would like to see sophomore Ryan Pretorius in a game situation before making a final decision.
Hall pass for opener ?

Senior receiver Roy Hall was the only regular listed as questionable yesterday. He suffered a slight ankle sprain earlier in the week.
"I just don’t see it being 100 percent, and we’re not going to put a guy out there unless he can be at his best," Tressel said.
Anthony Gonzalez and Ted Ginn Jr. are the starters if the Buckeyes open in a tworeceiver set, and Brian Robiskie would step into Hall’s spot in a three-receiver formation.
"Brian Hartline (will be out there) when we’re in four, and probably the fifth guy in that formation will be (freshman) Ray Small, though Albert Dukes really had a good last couple of days," Tressel said.
Decision - maker

John Kerr started at linebacker for Indiana as a freshman four years ago. Then in the wake of a coaching change there, he transferred to Ohio State, where he’d hoped to go all along.
It has been a long road, academically and then having to wait in line behind last year’s stellar group, for Kerr to get the chance to start in what is his fifth and final college season. But from an intestinal fortitude standpoint, he said, it has been worth it.
"We should all stick our neck out there at least once or twice in our lives," Kerr said. "If you don’t, then, really, what have you done? "

[email protected]

[email protected]
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top