The Cardinal Countdown: 40 Days Until Kickoff

***Before we jump in today just wanted to take a second and wish Mrs. CardinalStrong a Happy Anniversary. There is quite literally a 0% chance she will read this but if it ever gets brought up in a court of law I’ve got proof I didn’t forget. For those of you that have been reading this nonsense I’ve been cranking out the last decade you already know, the woman is a saint. If I could pick one position to reflect our love for each other, it would be a kicker [insert your own joke here].***

#40 Brock Travelstead

Class: Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-1/214

Position: Kicker

Hometown: Acworth, GA

Twitter: @KP12Travelstead

Thoughts: When Brock joined the Cards last year the only thing bigger than the hype around the Top 6 kicker in the country was his leg. I was a big fan of Brock but was unsure where he would fit in the mix when it came to kickoffs, place kicking, etc. When the season rolled around Brock had earned the starting spot as a kickoff specialist and did a solid job as a true freshman in 2020.

Brock finished last year with 58 kickoffs, appearing in all eleven games and averaging around 59 yards per kick. While it’s not a “true” representation of power my personal observations tend to fall back to touchbacks and touchback percentages. As much as I loved Creque we seemed to struggle getting the ball in the endzone on kickoffs, so much so I felt like it was a Petrino strategy, but then not much changed in 2019. With a significantly smaller sample size due to 2-3 fewer games Brock did post the largest touchback percentage (24.14%) we’ve seen since 2017, but it’s still in the bottom 16% nationally.

While I liked what I saw from Travelstead I’m hoping he did some extra leg lifts in the offseason and can add another 3-4 yards on his average in 2021 and boost that TB% up closer to 30-35% which would still be below the national average but something to build on for sure. Looking forward to seeing the development from Brock this season.

Sweet Tweet:

Coach Holt has the specialists out there doing some Karate Kid action on the fence….adds about 10 yards to your kicks. Proven fact, Daniel son.