Gerry McGroarty U. of Buffalo

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Gerry McGroarty (University of Buffalo) came here to Scottsdale, Arizona for some One on One Kicking Lessons. Gerry handled the kickoffs for Buffalo this past season and is eligible for this year's 2009 NFL Draft. He came here to work on his field goal and kickoff technique and get my evaluation of his NFL potential.

Gerry is about 6'2 and 220 pounds and is a good looking athlete. He had many honors coming out of high school. However, at the college level he was only the kickoff man at the University of Buffalo. He wants to refine his technique and that is why is here.

On the first day I saw that Gerry has a very strong kicking leg but was having some trouble with his 'foot position' on the ball, which is illustrated in the picture (below). I had him work on some different drills to work on opening his foot more to get better contact on the ball.

Gerry obviously has leg strength, which he demonstrated when he hit a 64 yard field goal in high school off a two inch block.

Gerry must focus on better foot placement on the ball because his toe keeps hitting the ground behind the ball on almost every kick. If he can achieve better foot position and kick up and through the ball he will be a much more consistent field goal kicker.

Gerry just loves to kick hard and out of control. Kicking harder doesn't always mean kicking better. I really focused on trying to get him to slow down and kick more under control.

I believe Gerry has some tools to kick at the next level. He must take what he has learned and go back home and practice and become more consistent. As I tell all specialists the key to the NFL is practice, drill work and consistency, consistency and more consistency.

It was a real pleasure working with Gerry and I want to wish him the best of luck in the future on his pursuit of kicking at the next level.

Stay Tuned for More of Coach Zauner's Blogs!

Visit: www.coachzauner.com