Lots of unknowns about this University of Louisville football team. Among the major concerns is who will replace Art Carmody, the NCAA’s all-time scorer as extra point and field goal kicker, and Todd Flannery, who handled the lion’s share of kickoff duties for the last four seasons.

Here are the players competing to fill their shoes, with info scraped from the UofL football site:

Chris Philpott, Freshman: Played for Paul Standard at St. Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta .. broke all school records for kicking… connected on 12-of-15 field goals with longs of 49, 50 and 51… was 30-for-30 on PATs… averaged 41.0 yards per punt… named by Rivals.com as the second-most accurate kicker… rated  as the 10th-best kicker by Rivals… kicked 53 of 57 kickoffs out of the end zone.

Tim Dougherty, Sophomore: Transferred to Louisville from Purdue, consequently sitting out last season. Played high school football at Louisville St. X where he was second team All-State, first team All-Regional and first team All-District as senior after making 9 of 11 field goals (82 percent) with a long of 44 yards… sailed nearly 90 percent of his kickoffs into the end zone.

Cory Goettsche, Junior:  Appeared in 11 games in 2007 as the team’s full-time punter, averaging 38.9 yards a punt, including 11 punts inside the 20-yard line. In 2006, he appeared in eight games… averaged 37.9 yards per punt… connected on three punts of 50 or more yards and placed seven inside the 20-yard line.

Numbers appear to be there in the stats column. Whether the kickoff specialist is Philpott or Dougherty, it would be a refreshing change to see UofL kickoffs sailing into or out of the end zone of a consistent basis. One would hope, too, that Goettsche had gotten all of the shank punts out of his system. Replacing Carmody’s field goal skills and extra point skills? That’s a tall order.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

One thought on “Kicking Soon Near You”
  1. Sounds like these kids have talent but as you said, replacing “Artomatic” IS truly a tall order.

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