With the 2017 season right around the corner, The Chronicle's football beat writers break down each of the nine major position groups: quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, offensive line, defensive line, defensive backs, linebackers, kicker/punter and punt/kickoff returners.
Duke’s kicking game could hardly get worse than it was last year.
No team in college football was worse at making field goals than the Blue Devils were last season, effectively eliminating kicking as an option. A.J. Reed only made one field goal longer than an extra point all season long—making just three of his 10 tries—and head coach David Cutcliffe had no one that he could trust behind Reed to replace him.
Now, Cutcliffe has imported two new faces at kicker, and after a long four-way battle for the job, this week has brought some more clarity on who will be kicking—and punting—this year.
Key players lost: None
On the bright side for Cutcliffe, the Blue Devils won’t be losing any significant depth at either punter or kicker.
The major losses came after the 2015 season, when kicker Ross Martin and punter Will Monday both graduated. Martin was the most prolific kicker in program history, holding high watermarks in field goals made and field goal percentage, and Monday, an All-American, had the highest punting average of any Duke kicker.
Projected starter: Austin Parker
Cutcliffe named Parker the starting kicker Tuesday, but said that No. 2 kicker William Holmquist, a graduate transfer from Division III Tufts, is not very far behind. Parker, Holmquist, freshman Jack Driggers and Reed were all vying for the job, but Parker and Holmquist emerged as the top two.
It remains an open competition of sorts between Parker and Holmquist—the depth chart lists Parker first, but says “or” Holmquist.
Parker started at punter for Duke last season and played in seven games before suffering a season-ending injury. He will punt again this season, and is in the mix to do kickoffs with Driggers. The Mount Pleasant, N.C., native hit a field goal of 47 yards in high school, and has a big leg—he racked up nearly 41 yards per punt last season. He could very well take all three jobs, though Driggers recorded touchbacks on 35 of 42 kickoffs in high school.
Dark Horse: William Holmquist
With the competition so tight between the two, Holmquist could very well emerge as the eventual Blue Devil starting kicker. The Fuqua School of Business student has a career-long of 48 yards, and connected on 21-of-31 field goal attempts in his career at Tufts.
Holmquist is partially deaf and uses hearing aids off the field, but doesn’t use them while kicking, instead relying on the play clock for timing.
“I’m kind of just in my zone,” Holmquist said to the News & Observer in early August. “When I take them out, it’s my signal that I’m ready to go.”
Check in tomorrow to see how Duke’s return game is shaping up this season.
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.