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ASU kickers off on the right foot
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Published: September 4, 2008
Questions about Appalachian State's kicking game were eased a bit last Saturday. Jason Vitaris, the Mountaineers' new full-time kicker, was solid on kickoffs and knocked through both of his field-goal attempts against LSU -- including a 44-yarder.
"He missed one ball on a kickoff, where we wanted the ball kicked, but other than that he kicked well," Coach Jerry Moore of the Mountaineers said. "I think the long field goal was probably a good confidence builder for him and probably for us too as far as trying to make a decision on a longer field goal.
"He won't kick very many field goals over 44 yards anyway, but at that time for the sake of the kid and our team you get a little buzz knowing here's a guy that can hit a 44-yarder for you."
Vitaris, a redshirt sophomore from Seneca, S.C., spent the past two seasons working behind Julian Rauch, the Mountaineers' all-time leading kick scorer, and he beat out new recruit Sam Martin for the starting job this year. Vitaris played in two games last season, but didn't have a field-goal attempt.
"Inside the 45, I feel real confident," Vitaris said. "Outside of that I still have faith I can make it, but it's a little more risky."
Moore said that Vitaris has range comparable to Rauch, and is capable of getting kickoffs to at least the goal line, although the game plan against LSU was not to kick deep to LSU's dangerous return personnel.
"We came out of there in pretty good shape." Moore said. "We watched the Auburn film (against LSU) and Auburn squibbed the ball every time against them. They never kicked it deep. Florida the same way… There's a reason for that. They've got Southeastern Conference people. We just kind of took a note from that and Jason kicked it just about where we wanted every time except once."
Moore was also pleased with the punting of veteran Neil Young, who averaged 39.5 yards on eight punts with good hang time. He booted one 47-yarder, and had four punts that kept the Tigers inside their 20-yard line.
Vitaris and Young aren't hard to spot along the Mountaineers' sideline, both with fluffy mops of hair.
"We just kind of let it go," Vitaris said. "We figure that's what the ladies like. That's our good-looking feature right there, our hair."
Vitaris was also noticed last year for his fiery game-time emotion.
"On third down I'd go stand on a bench or something and wave a towel and get the crowd pumped up," Vitaris said. "I'm still going to get the crowd hyped up when I can. I'll stay true to my roots."
■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.
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