Coaches insist they are ‘comfortable’ with Cougars’ inexperienced and untested kickers

A big, fat zero.

That’s the number of points that the kickers on BYU’s 2023 roster have scored in college football games in their entire careers.

But special teams coach Kelly Poppinga and head coach Kalani Sitake don’t seem to be overly worried, with the season opener against Sam Houston almost three weeks away.

“Great,” is what Poppinga said last week, lifting his voice a couple octaves, when asked how he felt about the kicking situation. “I am going to leave it at that. Great. I feel very, very good about it, though. Very good.”

The Cougars’ kicking problems in the media viewing portions of spring practices five months ago have been well documented. Far more field goals were missed than made. It was ugly.

But at least one guy knew what it was like to send the pigskin through the uprights during a game.

After spring camp in March and April, the Cougars thought they would have at least one kicker with some experience booting field goals and PATs, but Justen Smith — who was all-time leading BYU scorer Jake Oldroyd’s reliable backup the past few years — decided to hang it up this summer.

“Yeah, we kinda expected it for awhile,” Poppinga said of the former Brighton High kicker’s absence in preseason training camp. “He had been battling with an injury for awhile, going all the way back to last season, and through spring ball, and was struggling and knew it was kind of a long shot for him to get himself healthy.”

Poppinga said Smith, the son of former BYU kicker Courtney Smith (1995-96) has decided to focus on getting his degree.

But it is still a three-man battle for the job.

Boise State transfer Will Ferrin and Matthias Dunn, a walk-on returned missionary from Heber City, have been joined by freshman Jordan Kapisi of Hawaii’s Punahou High.

Ferrin, who prepped at Kaysville’s Davis High, has some experience kicking off, having launched them 36 times last year for the Broncos.

Through a BYU spokesperson, Poppinga asked reporters to hold off interviewing any of the kickers until the starter has been named the Monday before the Sam Houston game.

But the former BYU linebacker and assistant coach at BYU, Virginia and Boise State — where he became familiar with Ferrin — said he is “really excited” about the kickers’ capabilities.

“We gotta get them in a game situation, but from what they did in the last three practices (I was happy),” Poppinga said. “I don’t think Will has missed and I think Matthias has missed one in the first three practices. So yeah, very encouraged.”

Ferrin and Dunn both made short kicks with the media watching at the end of Tuesday’s practice.

After that showing, Sitake was asked if he agreed with Poppinga’s assessment that the kickers were doing much better than in the spring.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think Will and Matthias have done an amazing job kicking throughout this camp. And we know that they struggled a little bit. We put them in some tough spots in the spring. But they are going to be fine.”

Sitake said he’s not only “really comfortable with those two guys (Ferrin and Dunn) competing,” he is also pleased with the long snapper (Austin Riggs) and the holders, punter Ryan Rehkow and his younger brother, backup punter Landon Rehkow.

“The Rehkows can punt, but they can also hold the ball, which helps us out,” Sitake said.

At last month’s Big 12 football media days in Arlington, Texas, Ryan Rehkow defended the kickers’ poor showing in the spring, saying too much was being made of the misfires on the first day and last day of spring camp.

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“People saw the worst of it,” he said. “I mean, fall camp comes around, and we are going to see how good those guys are, and it is going to be really good for the team.”

Poppinga said at Boise State’s spring camp in 2022, Ferrin was better “percentage-wise” than BSU’s starting kicker, but lacked the experience to be called on in games.

“I am very confident in Will and Will is confident in himself and feeling healthy. And Matthias is right there with him as well,” Poppinga said. “So that is a great problem to have, is you have two guys that are competing, and the team sees it.”

Poppinga said Kapisi has been on his radar for quite some time.

“Through recruiting, you always have guys that you are aware of,” he said “We have a list of walk-ons that we have to get ready to take just in case a situation like this (Smith medically retiring) happens. So I have been talking to Jordan for a long time.”

Kapisi was going to join the team the first day of school, but when Smith moved on, the Hawaiian was put on the fall camp roster.