He'll smack the ball and you, too
Hampton University's Andrew Paterini is one of the top place-kickers in Division I-AA, and he's not afraid of contact.
October 20, 2005
HAMPTON -- He settles under the kickoff at his goal line. A few yards downfield, Howard's Mario Lawrence sees an opening down the sideline and shoots for it.
The next thing he knows, he's flat on his back. Imagine the look of bewilderment when he realizes the truck that just hit him was the kicker.
Then again, Hampton University's Andrew Paterini is not your typical kicker. He also played linebacker in high school, and sometimes it's hard to shake that mentality.
"There's nothing about him that says he's just a kicker," Pirates coach Joe Taylor said. "It just so happens he is a kicker."
And a good one at that. Going into Saturday's first-place showdown with South Carolina State, Paterini has made 15 of 21 field goals, including a school-record 55-yarder in last week's victory at Norfolk State. Nobody in Division I-AA has made as many field goals or scored as many points (74) by kicking.
"Since he's been here, he's continually improved in consistency," HU kicking coach Greg Howell said. "That's the thing. He came in kind of shaky as a true freshman, but he's really worked on being more consistent with his leg swing."
The Pirates had an idea he'd be this good. HU offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss first became aware of him through Rob Pelfrey, an old friend who runs a nationally known kicking camp. Kaiss asked for video of the better kickers he had seen, and Pelfrey sent three cassettes. Kaiss never made it past the first.
"I turned it off after about five or six plays and went to get Coach Howell," Kaiss said. "He took one look and said, 'We don't need to see the other two, this guy is good!' In high school, he never came off the field because he played fullback and linebacker. But his leg never got tired. So we thought, what's going to happen when we make this guy just a kicker?"
In Paterini's freshman season, the answer was not much. He missed eight of his 44 point-after attempts and was 7-for-17 on field-goal tries. He struggled for typical first-year reasons.
"I was trying to get the feel of everything, but kicking off the ground was basically the thing, really," said Paterini, who grew up in suburban Kansas City. "Once I got used to not kicking off a tee, I could tell going into the second year I was going to do big things. You never want to step down. You want to move forward."
He's done that. Starting with his sophomore season, Paterini has made 31 of 43 field-goal attempts. With at least four games remaining in his junior year, he is already HU's all-time leader with 38. That's nine more field goals than the previous record holder.
With progression has come confidence. Coming on the final play of the first half, Taylor's decision to send Paterini out for a 55-yard attempt last week wasn't much of a gamble. Yet Taylor had a feeling. Reason being, Paterini had made a 55-yarder the previous day in practice.
"He was halfway on the field before we made the decision," Taylor said. "When you have that kind of confidence, and you know his ethics, we don't have a problem with that."
Paterini's longest attempt to that point had been from 49 yards, his longest make from 44. But this kick, which matched the longest field goal in MEAC history, was perfect.
"Somebody said it had a few more yards on it," he said. "I was just trying to keep the ball straight. The 47-yarder I missed (against Morgan State) in New York, it had the distance by far but was wide. I just wanted to keep it straight."
Paterini didn't make the tackle on the second-half kickoff, but he does have 10 in his last 19 games. Understand, they haven't been last-line-of-defense stops after a 60-yard return. They've been come-up-and-stick-you. At 6-feet and 205 pounds, he packs a wallop.
"I know how to hit," he said. "I'm always ready."
Still a linebacker at heart.
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Sunday, October 23rd 2005 at 1:44PM
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