Ad Disclosure
Michigan football: Moody’s first day on the job was quite a kick
By Tom Brew
Published:
All across the football landscape, be it college or professional, finding someone to make field goals on a regular basis is a constant struggle. Every week, it seems like there’s a game or two — or more — that get determined by a simple missed kick.
Quinn Nordin has been kicking field goals for Michigan for two years now, and he’s made a bunch of kicks — but missed some, too. So when he wasn’t feeling well prior to Saturday’s game against Indiana, it was determined that a backup kicker, a 177-pound freshman former walk-on named Jake Moody, would kick the field goals and extra points.
And what happened?
All Moody did was make all six of his field goal attempts, something that had never been done in the 139-year history of Michigan football. The previous mark of five was held by several others, including his friend Nordin.
“Everybody put me in a good position to do it,” said Moody, who has been kicking off all season but hadn’t tried a field goal. “The offense did really well marching down the field, they got me in position. Nothing too long. The offense was doing pretty good.”
Not to take anything away from Moody’s record-setting accomplishment, but he did have a lot of chip-shot attempts all day long. Moody’s kicks were from 32, 30, 31, 33, 23 and 29 yards, all because Michigan’s offense bogged down over and over in the red zone. From that distance, even Moody admitted that the record “wasn’t too hard to break.”
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who’s seen a few kicking disasters as a player and coach through the years, was impressed that Moody handled the high-pressure moments well in the 31-20 victory over the Hoosiers.
“His demeanor didn’t even warrant anything, didn’t change at all,” Harbaugh said. “He didn’t look like he needed a pep talk or a snickers or anything. Just get warmed up and go out there. He was good, there’s no facial expression change, no body language change, he just went about his business of getting ready, and then same when he was in there kicking, he was making them.
“Cool customer, which is a good thing for a kicker. It was a really big day for Jake Moody.”
Moody has worked hard all year with holder Will Hart and snapper Camaron Cheeseman and said Nordin also helped him with the mental side of things on Saturday.
“It felt great,” Moody said. “I’ve been practicing all season. Quinn’s been a great role model for me. He’s taught me what to do when you get out there and how to get your mind right when you kick.”
Moody was a high school sensation in Northville, Mich., making a state-record 39 field goals in his high school career. One of those was from 58 yards, tied for the second-longest in state history.
Despite that high school success, Michigan didn’t offer a scholarship at first because Nordin was still around to keep the job. Moody came to Michigan anyway as a walk-on, won the starting kickoff job and a scholarship soon followed.
How much longer he kicks field goals this year has yet to be determined. Who gets the call this week in the huge showdown with Ohio State, Moody or Nordin.
“We’ll see, we’ll see this week,” Harbaugh said.
Tom Brew has been a recognized reporter in Big Ten sports for decades. Among other projects, he writes about Big Ten football for Saturday Tradition.