Matt Gay and his journey to starting FG kicker at Utah

I had an interesting chat with a friend of the Matt Gay family about his journey from Orem High Soccer to Field Goal kicker at the U.



He is by all accounts an avid soccer player but had also played some football in HS. Due to some circumstances in his life came home from his mission for medical reasons and decided to turn to football. His family were big BYU fans and reached out to the current staff about having the chance to walk on and do compete for the kicking job. He worked out for the staff and hit, from what I was told, 57 out of 60 field goals ranging in distance from 20 to 55 yards. The staff didn't feel like he had what it took to be a division 1 football player and passed on him completely. He then went to the Utes and gave them the same option and they instantly wanted him and brought him on as their kicker.



The family is now Ute proud, and Matt is doing a tremendous job at the U of U. By all accounts he's a very good young man with a good head on his shoulders and a real class act.



It's unfortunate the Cougars missed on this opportunity as our FG kicking has had some serious problems this year. But hopefully it's a lesson for the staff in talent evaluation. Obviously you can't get them all right all the time.

There is no good excuse for not always having a solid kicker at BYU. It's sad to see opportunities missed like this. Congrats to the young man on his success.

Too many of these types of stories.

Gunk wrote:

Too many of these types of stories.

I agree in the abstract sense, but I hate to fault the staff in any particular instance without knowing all the facts. Did he have a snarky attitude toward the coaches when he was working out? Did he display a massive ego? Was there some other area where he completely failed in the tryouts that would make them concerned with his ability to play? I work with a bunch of young BYU students every year who are trying to get into our program, who are plenty talented, yet display other problems that make them a bad fit. Most of the time it's laziness, pride, or a super annoying personality. For all I know, they get our rejection letters, completely change their attitudes, then go somewhere else and become rockstars. But you'd have a hard time convincing me that their rejection in the first place was a mistake, and I'd argue that it was a necessary step for them to avoid catastrophic career failure.



I'm not saying in this case that Matt Gay had a bad attitude, but I am saying that the coaches deserve a little benefit of the doubt because we just don't know. They're not dealing with pro recruits, they're dealing with stupid freshmen or younger.

I couldn't care less what his attitude is, if he hit 57-60 practice FG's, he should be on our team today. What we currently have couldn't hit the ocean from the pier. Matt Gay won the game against the utes practically by himself. (including bringing down Trinneman on the KO return).

hawkwing wrote:
The family is now Ute proud, and Matt is doing a tremendous job at the U of U. By all accounts he's a very good young man with a good head on his shoulders and a real class act.

That makes me sick. I would try and dissuade my kid from playing for the U. But if he did end up playing for them, while I would hope my son would do well individually, I wouldn't suddenly change my loyalties and become "Ute proud." I'd still hope they lose every game and would keep rooting for BYU.

frdbtr wrote:

I couldn't care less what his attitude is, if he hit 57-60 practice FG's, he should be on our team today. What we currently have couldn't hit the ocean from the pier. Matt Gay won the game against the utes practically by himself. (including bringing down Trinneman on the KO return).

This seems like an interesting half of a story written to persuade rather than inform. We do not know how many of how many practice field goals our guys currently on the team hit, we also don't know how the ball looked coming off of the kick (i.e. was it a low blockable ball or what.) there are too many things that we don't know about this story to get much of an informed opinion on the situation as a whole.

ABYUFAN wrote:

I couldn't care less what his attitude is, if he hit 57-60 practice FG's, he should be on our team today. What we currently have couldn't hit the ocean from the pier. Matt Gay won the game against the utes practically by himself. (including bringing down Trinneman on the KO return).

This seems like an interesting half of a story written to persuade rather than inform. We do not know how many of how many practice field goals our guys currently on the team hit, we also don't know how the ball looked coming off of the kick (i.e. was it a low blockable ball or what.) there are too many things that we don't know about this story to get much of an informed opinion on the situation as a whole.

Not intended to persuade, but rather written from the obviously and understandably biased point of view of the family. Now unfortunately BYU will never reveal the reasoning they had for passing on Gay, it could be he actually only hit 30 of 60 field goals, or he had a chip on his shoulder, or they thought their field goal kicker in Almond would be good enough until that other kid gets home from his mission.



I just thought I'd pass along the info that I had heard.

BYU should have taken him specifically in order to keep the utes from getting him. The utes would have done the same thing in reverse.

frdbtr wrote:

I couldn't care less what his attitude is, if he hit 57-60 practice FG's, he should be on our team today. What we currently have couldn't hit the ocean from the pier. Matt Gay won the game against the utes practically by himself. (including bringing down Trinneman on the KO return).

Gay said, two weeks ago, that the BYU coaches told him that the “timing wasn’t right”.



I don’t know if that means that because he was a senior they didn’t want to waste a scholarship on a one- year player. Or it meant that they had their kicker(s) in place and they werent going to add another. Or a combination of both those scenarios.



This is reminiscent of the Andy Phillips story. He sent BYU staff a tape. They basically brushed him off. He sent the tape to Utah. They looked at it, gave him some tips and advice, told him to practice more and contact them in the spring. We know the rest.

Gay said, two weeks ago, that the BYU coaches told him that the “timing wasn’t right”.



I don’t know if that means that because he was a senior they didn’t want to waste a scholarship on a one- year player. Or it meant that they had their kicker(s) in place and they werent going to add another. Or a combination of both those scenarios.



This is reminiscent of the Andy Phillips story. He sent BYU staff a tape. They basically brushed him off. He sent the tape to Utah. They looked at it, gave him some tips and advice, told him to practice more and contact them in the spring. We know the rest.

[/quote]



BYU coaches evaluated Gay as lacking talent and failed to try to teach him. Utah coaches evidently evaluated Gay as having potential and taught him how to be a better kicker. Evaluation and teaching are the two basic things coaches do. In other words, bad coaching on one hand vs. good coaching on the other.

frdbtr wrote:

(including bringing down Trinneman on the KO return).

I could be wrong, and I'm not interested enough to look it up but...



I'm pretty sure it wasn't Gay that tripped trinneman

It was actually Wishnowsky, the Utah punter, that brought down Trinnaman on the kick return. He's handling both punts and kickoffs this year.

When the Announcers said who had brought him down, they said it was Gay and commented that along with his FG's he saved a TD. I guess I assumed they were right, which is usually a mistake. :)

frdbtr wrote:

When the Announcers said who had brought him down, they said it was Gay and commented that along with his FG's he saved a TD. I guess I assumed they were right, which is usually a mistake. :)

You know what they say about those who make assumptions... ;)

BroncoBot wrote:

When the Announcers said who had brought him down, they said it was Gay and commented that along with his FG's he saved a TD. I guess I assumed they were right, which is usually a mistake. :)

You know what they say about those who make assumptions... ;)

No kidding. :lol:

frdbtr wrote:

When the Announcers said who had brought him down, they said it was Gay and commented tdhat along with his FG's he saved a TD. I guess I assumed they were right, which is usually a mistake. :)

I had remembered them crediting Gay with the tackle. They should have just said "the kicker".

FWIW on the "timing wasn't right" thing, we have Almond through next season:


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He's not exactly chopped liver, and it's not like Gay was an All-American when he was trying out for the team. The coaches would have had to cut someone else on the team loose to open up a scholarship for Gay when our kicker position was pretty solid already, especially with Oldroyd coming back as soon as Almond graduates.

I saw those tweets early, and I have to admit, I was shocked that Almond was as good as 78% on FGs. He seems much worse, but then I realized the Cougars almost never go for it when it's beyond 30-35 yards with Almond as the kicker. (Now I should look up the stats and actually see if my thoughts are correct, or if I'm being unfair and wrong).

I don't think he has attempted anything much more than 40 yards in his career. He missed at least 1 FG inside 30 yards in the utah game if I remember right.