Mike Norvell, John Papuchis remain confident in kicking game despite Ryan Fitzgerald's struggles
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Florida State is in the midst of the toughest three game stretch of its season and five of the Seminoles' final seven opponents currently have records of .500 or better. It's safe to say that the team is going to be involved in some close games throughout the second half of the year. That means the Seminoles are going to need to be on point in all three phases of the game.
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One area of the team that has really struggled through five games is the field goal unit. Redshirt sophomore kicker Ryan Fitzgerald is 4/9 on the season and has missed five of last seven kicks, including both attempts against Wake Forest. The Seminoles hold the eighth-worst field goal success percentage (44.4%) in the FBS. No team below on that list Florida State has attempted more than seven kicks all season.
Despite the miscues, head coach Mike Norvell and special teams coordinator John Papuchis have remained behind Fitzgerald. The Georgia native is still listed as the starter on the most recent depth chart that was released at the beginning of the week.
"We're going to go into this week and continue to push, continue to evaluate. Last week, Ryan made every kick in practice. I felt very confident. Watched pregame, made every kick. Missed a 29-yard field goal right there before the half. I fully expect him to go out there and make it," Norvell said to the media on Monday. "Obviously, just like with other -- all other positions, we're going to go into practice. We're going to work. We're going to push and challenge guys. Everybody gets evaluated."
"I promise you we're going to put the best guy out there that we feel is going to give us the best opportunity to go win games, and Ryan has been that guy. We're going to go into practice, and I have the utmost belief that he is going to be that guy because I've seen him do it," Norvell continued. "I've seen him go out there and be able to execute in the moment. For us, just like there's times where you see receivers that might struggle at finishing a play or a guy that gets in his head in coverage, or something on the offensive line or defensive line, it's all part of the game and having to work through different situations. That's something that Ryan's working through. But I definitely believe he's going to respond the right way this week in practice, and he's got to go and apply into game time."
With under a minute remaining in the first half of Saturday's loss to Wake Forest, Fitzgerald pushed a 29-yard attempt wide right that would've cut Florida State's deficit to 21-10 headed into the intermission.
In the second half, the Seminoles elected to go for two on both of their touchdown drives rather than attempt an extra point. FSU missed the first one but converted on the second attempt with a delayed pass to tight end Markeston Douglas.
Penalties stalled Florida State's final offensive possession. Facing 4th and 15 and trailing by ten points with 1:18 remaining, the 'Noles elected to kick a field goal in a last ditch effort to pull off a comeback. An offensive lineman was late running out to the formation and it delayed Fitzgerald's approach.
With no timeouts remaining, FSU was forced to take a delay of game penalty and Fitzgerald's 55-yard attempt had the distance but traveled wide right.
Special teams coordinator, and defensive ends coach, John Papuchis says you could see how hard Fitzgerald took his performance by the look on his face after the game. It's not easy to go through this kind of slump but Papuchis is trying to help him through it where he can.
"He's a guy, just like all of our guys I'd imagine, who takes a lot of pride in his performance. When he doesn't do well or doesn't do as expected, he certainly takes it to heart. You could see it on his face following the game the other night," Papuchis said on Monday. "I talked to him a little bit after the game but I was trying to give him a little bit of space but then yesterday he came back just like all of our guys did, ready to continue to work. Had what appeared to be a good attitude, got some work in yesterday.
"Obviously, it's not an easy thing that he's going through but he's doing the best he can to work through it, block out all the noise that isn't beneficial, and just focus on trying to get better every day," Papuchis continued. "That's really the message for everybody; keep pushing forward and build on the things that haven't been positive and correct some of the things that haven't and be better tomorrow than we were today."
This hasn't always been the story for Fitzgerald. He was regarded as one of the top kickers in the country in the 2019 class which included a five-star rating by Kohl's Kicking. During his prep career, Fitzgerald broke two Georgia State high school career records that he still holds today; field goals made (51) and 50+ yard field goals made (8). As a senior, he made a single-season state-record 22 field goals and was named a first-team All-American by MaxPreps. Fitzgerald hit a school-record 60-yard field, the fifth longest in Georgia history by a high schooler, and broke the state's single-season record for 50+ yard field goals made (6) as a junior.
Last season, he started 3/5 through Florida State's first four games. Fitzgerald went 2/2 in the Seminoles' fifth game against Syracuse, including a 34-yard walk off game-winner. Over his final eight appearances, he connected on a combined 7/8 kicks with the lone miss coming in a win over Miami.
Fitzgerald has proven that he can play at a high level before. So, what has changed? Norvell is evaluating all aspects of the kicker this week.
"It's all parts of it. For me right now, is it fundamentally consistent? Sometimes a guy can miss the ball and it goes through the uprights. Are we striking the ball pure? Are we trusting our fundamentals? Are we staying true to who we are? It's very similiar to me sometimes in a way with a quarterback," Norvell said following practice on Tuesday. "There's times where you want a certain fundamental for a quarterback, he can throw the ball and it be on point for not being fundamentally right but the consistensty over that stretch for a long period of time, the ball will not be accurate. I really carry the same kind of elements into evaluating specialists in general, that's one of the things we're looking at and focused on. I thought we had a good day kicking the ball. There's still some things that we're pushing in that but we made all our kicks, good competition and Ryan responded the right way."
For whatever reason, the 6-foot-1, 198-pound kicker has been unable to translate his performance on the practice field to game days. Fitzgerald was perfect in practice last week and that streak continued into Tuesday where he went 3/3 with makes from roughly 40, 32, and 40 yards.
However, his longest field goal this season is from 30 yards out against Boston College. Fitzgerald has missed from 29 yards, 36 yards, 37 yards, 47 yards, and 55 yards.
Papuchis says the drop off from practice to games makes Fitzgerald's performance tougher to evaluate. The coaching staff will make the best decision for the team.
"We continue to evaluate the position to the best of our ability. Like you said, the thing that probably makes it a little bit trickier is that he's performed really well in practice," Papuchis said. "Last week he had a great week of practice. It's one of those things that we've got to continue to build him physically and mentally to be his best just like we do with every position player. Continue to evaluate and make the best decision for the team."
On Tuesday, backup kicker Aidan Shahriari repped alongside Fitzgerald during the special teams portion of practice for the first time in a few weeks. Shahriari was perfect on his kicks as well, connecting from 28 and 40 yards out. His second attempt likely would've been good from 50+ yards out.
Norvell was observing the kickers closely, crouched on one knee while purposely being visible in each players' peripheral vision.
Florida State has stuck with Fitzgerald to this point of the season. If his slump continues, it'll be hard not to consider giving Shahriar a look with the stretch of games that the Seminoles are staring down.
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