Kansas kicker makes tackling plays look easy

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Jacob Branstetter isn’t a typical kicker.

A typical kicker plays soccer until his high school football coach comes calling for a leg. A typical kicker is the crumpled pile of pads on highlight reels who falls over himself while the kick returner breezes into the end zone.

Photo by Jon Goering

Sophomore kicker Jacob Branstetter kicks an extra point during Saturday's game against Kansas State. Branstetter had three tackles on kickoffs during that game, which the Jayhawks won 52-21.

Branstetter appears on a few highlight reels, but not for the plays he doesn’t make.

A three-sport athlete in high school — football, basketball and tennis — Kansas’ sophomore defies the definition of kicker.

In fact, this week there were legitimate questions about whether he was named KU’s special teams player of the week for his kicking or his tackling.

In Kansas’ 52-21 thrashing of suddenly coach-less Kansas State, Branstetter made three tackles on kickoffs. Two of them elicited eruptions from the crowd, and one prevented a touchdown.

“I’m a kicker, and I may be small in weight, but I play football,” Branstetter said. “I want to go out, and when I have the opportunity to help the team out, I’m going to knock somebody out.”

Coaches hate to see kickers rack up tackles because they’re generally the last line of defense. A kicker tackle means poor special teams coverage.

“I told the kickoff coverage team that if he makes another tackle, there’s going to be some serious problems,” coach Mark Mangino said.

Branstetter took some blame from the coverage unit, claiming he tried to make up for bad kicks by making the play. That excuse didn’t work for Mangino, who didn’t know what to do with his hard-hitting enigma.

“He drives me crazy,” Mangino said. “I appreciate his enthusiasm, but he runs down the field like he’s a coverage guy to begin with. He is the safety.”

Branstetter disagrees.

“A lot of guys try to stay 15 yards back from the ball and try to play that safety,” Branstetter said. “By that time the returner’s already got the whole field so he can juke you and go wherever he wants. I try to get up in there and get the returner before he ever knows I’m coming.”

Occasionally Branstetter partakes in defensive tackling drills. Defensive coordinator Clint Bowen joked that his players should start going through kicking drills to see if it’s the key to tackling prowess.

Mangino suggested Branstetter could play safety should the Jayhawks ever face a dire secondary situation. Still, he couldn’t explain what makes him a good tackler.

Linebacker James Holt, a fellow Oklahoma native, has an idea.

“I just think that comes with his Oklahoma ability,” Holt joked. “Us Oklahoma kids, we just like to fly around the ball.”

Branstetter graduated from MacArthur High School in Lawton, Okla., where he was named Athlete of the Year as a senior. That year he also was selected as the starting kicker in the Oil Bowl, a rivalry clash pitting Oklahoma’s high school stars against Texas’.

Big 12 quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Graham Harrell played in the game, as did current NFL kickers Kris Brown of the Tennessee Titans and Phil Dawson of Cleveland Browns.

This season Branstetter is 8-for-11 on field goals, but he brings so much more to the table. His hits prevent big plays and also energize the team.

After a particularly big hit against Iowa State this season, players told Branstetter that “he brought the wood” on that one. Branstetter said he was confused by the expression, but happy that he could break out of the kicker stereotype.

If you close your eyes, the description of that play sounds like it’s coming from a bruising linebacker rather than a 5-foot-10, 175-pound kicker.

“That guy came around the sideline, and he didn’t see me because there was a guy getting blocked in front of him,” Branstetter said. “There was no shiftiness, like they said I just tried to lay the wood to him. Whatever that means.”

He hasn’t mastered the defensive terminology for big hit, but Branstetter’s efforts have rendered his title of kicker insufficient.

Just call him a playmaker.

— - Edited by Kelsey Hayes

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