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These guys are special Kickers, would-be kick returners will make a difference
Posted: Monday January 04, 1999 08:30 PM
By Trev Alberts, CNN/SI TEMPE, Ariz. -- In a game like this, when you're talking national championship, with two kickers like Jeff Hall and Sebastian Janikowski, you can sit back and say one of these two guys is going to have a direct on impact on why his team won. Everyone talks about how they'd love to be a kicker, that they have it so easy. Well, this is the national championship game. This is why these two guys have scholarships. This is not easy. Tennessee's Hall and Florida State's Janikowski are two different types of kickers. Hall is a major reason the Volunteers are here, with winning kicks against both Florida and Syracuse. He's not a particularly strong-legged kicker. But inside 35 yards, he's pretty automatic. Bobby Bowden has been through this so many times -- and he's not been through it a couple times because of some field goals that went wide right. That's why he went out and got Janikowski. The kid is bigger than a lot of linebackers. Bowden said this week he'd have no trouble letting Janikowski kick from 65 yards. He's a huge weapon for field position on kickoffs. If he wants, he can guarantee that every Tennessee drive will start on the 20. In a game like this, you see guys popping up to return kicks that you normally don't see. During the season, you can't have your star players doing that for risk of an injury. But this is the last game. So maybe Peerless Price returns some kicks for Tennessee. And, maybe, the same is true of Florida State. I'd put Peter Warrick back there. You have to get your best athletes out there. I would say it's the wrong decision not to put them out there.
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