Aug. 14, 2015
Past Mick McGrane 2014-15 football features
2014
Kaehler: A Thinking Man's Game (Aug. 5)
Whittaker: Long Time Gone, Never Forgotten (Aug. 6)
Life in the Weight Room: Hall's Strong Suit (Aug. 15)
Roberts: A Career Comes Full Circle (Aug. 21)
The Season's in Session, Take Your Seats (Aug. 29)
How Quickly we Forget (Sept. 7)
Looks can be Deceiving (Sept. 19)
O-Line has Aztecs' Running Game in High Gear (Oct. 23)
Falling Short is no Longer an Option for Aztec Football (Nov. 29)
Winds of Change: "Rise To 25" Fuels New Direction for Football (Dec. 23)
Pumphrey in Need of a Playing Partner (Dec. 24)
2015
Football no Longer Needs Sun to Sell Itself (Feb. 4)
Aztec Football is Flush with Experience in 2015 (Feb. 20)
Regardless of the Road, J.J. Whittake's Future is Flush with Success (July 23)
Gordon no Longer Wrestling with Football Future (July 30)
Kazee has the Corner Covered in Aztec D (Aug. 5)
McGrane: Hageman has Given Boot to Aztec Kicking Woes
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
For all intents and purposes, Donny Hageman arrived at San Diego State heralded less as a savior than sure-fire shaman, a menace to malevolent spirits that had somehow transformed the team's kicking game from serviceable to the far-flung reaches of frightful.
To suggest there was nowhere to go but up would be to imply that the sky is high. There is little need to dissect a disaster where fault-finding isn't overly problematic. Bad placekicking is bad placekicking in the most arcane of dialects.
In two of the three seasons prior to last year, field-goal range, largely considered favorable in football, had reason to induce fear. While Chance Marden briefly infused a modicum of hope by missing just four of 14 field-goal attempts in 2012, the seasons preceding and proceeding would have been enough for a coach to scrap kicking altogether.
And so it was in the Aztecs' season opener at Washington in 2012 that Coach Rocky Long iced his own kicker, opting not to attempt an extra point or field goal the entire game. If it came as a surprise, it also came with more than a measure of sound reasoning. SDSU, still without a proven placekicker against the Huskies, had concluded the previous campaign with a conversion rate of 40.0 percent (6-of-15), a figure that abutted abysmal and landed squarely on awful. In comparison, one FBS kicker among the nation's top 100 that season ranked below 50.0 percent (47.1).
But just when Marden was seemingly giving gloom the proverbial swift kick, 2013 brought more botched boots, as SDSU finished 8-of-16. The theme was becoming all too common and patience paper-thin. In 2007, during Long's second-to-last season as head coach at New Mexico, the Lobos had produced a consensus All-American placekicker in John Sullivan. Surely, there was a specialist somewhere who could give the Aztecs' kicking game a lift --- if not a thorough exorcism.
"Until I started talking to the coaches, I really wasn't aware of (the team's kicking struggles), because I obviously hadn't watched (SDSU) that much," Hageman said. "But when I found out that they weren't doing real well with field goals, I got excited to come in and compete for the starting job, knowing that they expected me to be a big-time role player. It was an easy transition. I came in really focused and was ready to be the starting kicker.
"There's always going to be pressure, but to be a good kicker you have to be able to completely take that pressure off of yourself. I wasn't here for the previous season, so I didn't experience what it was like for the team to deal with all the missed field goals. I was coming off a season at (Mt. San Antonio College) where I had made 19-of-20, so my mindset was right. I was calm and I was ready to go."
He didn't have to wait long in line. Fending off what competition remained during fall camp Hageman proceeded to connect on 20-of-25 attempts last season, his 20 made field goals establishing an SDSU single-season record. He led the Mountain West with an average of 1.54 field goals per game, a mark tied for 17th-best in the country.
And he wound up kicking himself.
"A lot of people have come up to me and told me how good of a season I had last year," he said. "But for me, I had a season before (at Mt. SAC) where I only missed one field goal. When I look back at last season, I should have been at least 24-for-25. I've looked at every single field goal I missed and I think the only field goal that I would allow myself to be OK with was the first game of the season when I missed (a 46-yarder in the season opener) against Northern Arizona. It was my second kick of the season, so I can live with that.
"But the other (misses) were pretty short field goals, and for me that's just unacceptable. I can definitely get a lot better in terms of accuracy. It has to be automatic. I guess, overall, that (2014) was a good season and I was happy with it, but as a kicker you always want to be perfect."
Hageman's work clearly did not go unnoticed --- or unrewarded. He enters his second season at SDSU having not only parted the clouds in the kicking game, but as a preseason all-Mountain West first-team selection, an honor also bestowed by Phil Steele, the Sporting News, Athlon Sports, Lindy's Sports and ESPN College Preview. The Sporting News deemed him the "Mountain West's Best Under Pressure," an accolade warmly embraced by Hageman.
"It's huge to be recognized like that, to see my name is out there being recognized around the country," he said. "It's always been my dream to be a big-time kicker. It's what I've always worked for and it's the expectation I have for myself. It's been fun so far, but the journey isn't over. It's all about taking it to the next level."
And forgetting your last kick.
If Donny Hageman gave Rocky Long reason to reel in his philosophy of eschewing field goals on fourth down, his final lick of the season also stands as his most recent miss. In a game in which he had already delivered field goals of 43, 37 and 30 yards, Hageman's 34-yard attempt with 20 seconds left against Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl sailed wide right. His 43-yarder established a Poinsettia Bowl record; his miss sealed the Aztecs' fate in a 17-16 loss.
"We have a good kicker, but I still have people ask me all the time, 'What are you going to do about a kicker?' " Long said. "They only remember the last kick that he missed. People don't remember that he was good throughout the rest of the year. He was good in that game until the last kick."
Said Hageman: "Unfortunately, my last kick of last season didn't go the way I planned. Sure, it was probably the biggest pressure situation I've had in my career so far, but every kicker has that one kick and for me that was the one. I wish I could go back and redo it, because I know 100 percent in my mind that I would put it through. Unless you're another kicker, I don't know how you can relate to that (feeling); it's tough. The thing you have to be able to do is keep a positive mindset and move forward from it.
"But it's a good learning experience and I think it's going to make me even better in those pressure situations. Now I can say I've already been in a situation like that and I can't wait for the next time."
Nor can he wait until Long recognizes his kicker is worth more than the occasional three points. Hageman, who has been referred to by Long as an "athlete," was one of the top hurdlers in California while attending Damien High in La Verne, advancing to the CIF State Championships. Whether such distinction would prompt Long to order a fake field goal with his placekicker following holder Tanner Blain seems more than a stretch, but it hasn't dimmed Hageman's hopes.
"I've always been a pretty fast guy," said Hageman, who also practiced with the Mt. SAC track and field team during his gray-shirt season at the school. "We might have to throw (a fake) in this year. Maybe I'm not as fast as a lot of guys out there, but I'm definitely fast enough to run a fake where I can get to the outside and beat somebody to the corner of the end zone. I think it would be a good idea if we needed something more than a field goal. If we had the operation down and got it pretty smooth, I think we might be able to sell Coach Long on it."
For now, perhaps it's enough that Rocky Long is merely sold on a placekicker.