An integral part of the Ole Miss football team that hasn’t received much buzz this season is special teams and, more specifically, the field goal unit.
Sophomore kicker Gary Wunderlich has been almost like clockwork this season while hitting six of his seven field goals and all 24 of his extra point attempts. Wunderlich is second on the team in total points scored this season with 42, second only to junior transfer quarterback Chad Kelly who has scored 78 points this season.
Wunderlich was pleased with how the field goal unit has performed so far this season.
“I’ve felt pretty good. I’ve felt like the operation time has been pretty fast. This past game we got one blocked,” Wunderlich said. “It was a little bit slower than it has been in the past couple of games. We need to fix that, but I’ve been hitting the ball pretty well.”
The blocked field goal during the Vanderbilt game last Saturday caused Wunderlich’s only miss of the season.
“Some guy kind of split the snapper and the guard, got a lot of pressure up in the middle and got the block,” Wunderlich said.
The field goal unit saw a major change this year after long time long-snapper Will Denny, who started at the position for four years, graduated and was replaced by junior Will Few.
“At first it was a little bit different. Denny did such a great job last year. Every snap was great, but I think Will has done a great job and especially with the past couple games,” Wunderlich said. “The defense has had a lot of pressure up the middle. They’ve been coming at him a little, but he’s done a good job.”
Wunderlich saw a lot of improvement in himself from last year to this year.
“I’m a lot more comfortable. Just more reps and going through the spring and getting all the reps in fall camp has really helped me,” Wunderlich said. “It’s just the confidence I have in my snapper and my holder and the line. That really helps.”
To be a kicker for a college football program and even in the NFL, it’s not just the process of kicking a field goal, but it’s the mental aspect that makes a kicker great. That’s what Wunderlich has been working on before and during the season, the mentality of the kicker position.
“I’ve been working on mental stuff, just being consistent,” Wunderlich said. “The biggest thing Coach Freeze says is just we have to have the same kick every time. That’s been my biggest thing.”
In high school, Wunderlich kicked field goals and handled the punting and kickoff duties as well. While he still does some punting in practice, Wunderlich has solely been used to kick field goals, but he said that he appreciated being able to give the extra focus to his field goal kicking. Wunderlich felt that this extra focus helped him get much better at kicker than he was in high school.
“I think mentally I wasn’t as strong back in high school, and I think that coming here and being here for a year and half now has really helped me,” Wunderlich said.
