Once again, the team is going into the season with NO capable Kicker in Training Camp.
The silence from the team about Seth Small is deafening. I wonder what an actual journalist could find out?
As well, it seems as if the punting position is up for grabs, but at least neither of our punters are on the suspended list, and Hayes played well in the limited time he did.
Why is it, under EVERY season of Stein’s reign, has the team had issues with signing competent punters and kickers to START THE FLIPPING SEASON???
If Small’s absence is indeed due to family issues, then why hasn’t the team put out a statement to the effect of “He’s expected at (insert date here)” rather than complete silence?
Obviously, the team isn’t nearly as concerned with the Seth Small situation as all the people baselessly speculating on here. It seems they feel he will be here and there is nothing to worry about.
Relax. Now that we’ve signed Castillo here in the 'Peg, we’ve got WAY TOO MANY capable kickers in camp. Stein will bide his time and swoop in on the ones we can’t keep. Who knows… you might even wind up with Liegghio.
Do we know that there are no capable kickers in camp?
Garibay
Put his name in the Texas Tech record book during his final year as a Red Raider … became known for the big kick as one of the most accurate kickers in college football … was 15-of-16 on field goal attempts and 49-of-50 on PATs after being called upon in 12 games … was a perfect 14-for-14 on each of his attempts within 50 yards two of his field goals were game winners with late kicks in victories over both West Virginia and Iowa State.IN NCAA RECORD BOOK: his 62-yard field goal versus Iowa State marked the longest by an FBS kicker to win a game with less than a minute remaining … field goal was the third-longest successful attempt by a FBS kicker since the NCAA disallowed the use of kicking tees in 1988.
Ethan Ratke
Was 29-of-32 on field goals and 63-of-64 on point after attempts… Led the country in field goals per game (2.07)… Also ranked second in scoring per game (10.7) and fourth in field-goal percentage (.906)
Too funny.
1- 2 weeks into camp he is still a no show
2- We have recently signed 2 kickers with very good ( better then Seth’s) NCAA stats.
3-Coach O has said nothing for two weeks.
4- He took Hamilton Ticat off his socials and has " NFL Free agent" instead.
5-He had a new baby 3 weeks ago and lives in Texas.
And yet, there is complete silence from either the Head Coach, General Manager(so), or President of Football Operations on the absence of what turned out to be the team’s star placekicker.
Is it too difficult, take too much time out of their precious day, to post something - ANYTHING - on any of the various websites, newspapers, social media platforms, carrier pigeon, telegraph lines, etc to say:
“Seth Small is dealing with family issues and we expect him here soon” or whatever news they have.
For crying out loud, it’s not exactly a state secret…
Sounds to me like a Chris Williams-style situation. Player is trying to get out of his contract, on the basis that he wants to. Team is trying to prevent it, on the basis that the legal merits are on their side.
Negotiations of some type are going on. Still friendly enough that it hasn’t erupted into the public domain. In which case, it would be unproductive for either side to talk about it. Hence the silence.
League HQ may be taking an interest, as they don’t want to see players tear up contracts at will. (Only the teams can do that.) Not sure where CFLPA would stand.
Hopefully the NFL will honour its past commitments to treat CFL contracts as binding except in very limited circumstances. This would give the Tiger-Cats some leverage, since they could stop Small from getting the NFL tryouts he covets (but for whatever reason couldn’t secure months ago when it was allowed).
A kicker is probably the only player on a team that could miss all of camp and the pre-season and no practice and still come out in the first game and kick.
More baseless speculation.
There has to be a reason why Small was not drafted and was not given NFL workouts this year from December to February.
Despite his success with us last year , he had a 78% FG accuracy in College and it seems 90% is becoming the new bare minimum to get NFL looks.
The fact that he kicked 91% for us last year should have gotten him an NFL workout but for some reason it hasn’t.
I hope he told the team “I want to spend a full month with my new born, and I will report before the season starts , I promise” and the team signed the other two kickers as a back up plan.
