Imitating a high-pressure field goal in practice isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but Josh Heupel does have his ways.
While speaking to the media this week, Tennessee placekicker Max Gilbert gave some insight into just what that looks like on the field. Despite not having the replication of a stadium and screaming fans, Tennessee still rallies to make the kick as challenging as possible.
“Normally in fall camp and every single time in spring practice we go up there and he’ll do pressure kicks, all three kickers,” Gilbert said of Heupel’s methods. “We’ll get to kick in front of the whole team. They kind of form a tunnel around us, in front of the snapper. They’re messing with the snapper [Matthew Salansky], they’re messing with Jackson [Ross], the holder, and Heupel’s standing right behind me screaming in my ear, telling me I’m going to miss it.”
Gilbert says that practice actually can be a good representation of pressure kicks in games, though, especially when the rules are a bit nixed and an entire team can try to distract you from just a few feet away on the attempt.
“It’s really good,” Gilbert said of the practice kicks. “It really prepares you. I mean, practice, honestly, is pretty similar to the game in terms of pressure. If I can make a kick with Heupel screaming this close to my ear, I think I’ll be good anywhere else.”
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Gibert, a redshirt freshman from Memphis, TN, won the Vols’ three-man kicking competition before the season. While all the kickers were listed as “or” on the official depth chart, it was Gilbert who went out to boot the first field goal attempt against Chattanooga.
Through just two weeks of the season, Gilbert has knocked through 18-of-19 kicks with a perfect 13-for-13 mark on PATs and 5-of-6 on field goal attempts, his lone miss coming from a whopping 53 yards out.
Gilbert has a heck of a leg for such a young player, and it’s easy to see that the Tennessee kicker was trained well in his lead-up to Rocky Top.
“So the coach at my high school was Josh Jasper, who was an All-American kicker at LSU, won a National Championship under Les Miles,” Gilbert said. “He emailed my mom (after 8th grade football) and was like, ‘I’ve seen Max kick a couple times. I think he could be really special. And we really need one.’ So I went out there and got to learn under coach Jasper for years and here we are now.”
Tennessee specialists coach Mike Ekeler said that Gilbert had been doing an “awesome job” during camp, but it’s clear to see now that the awesome work is turning into awesome results for the Vols’ kicker. Gilbert has hit from 32, 36 (x2), 42, and 45 yards out in Tennessee’s first two games.
The Vols have shown that if Nico Iamaleava and the Tennessee offense can just get the ball a good bit into opposing territory, points are on the table at a minimum with the leg of Max Gilbert.
Check out his full interview from Tuesday in Knoxville below:
