Rice Krispies Treats, apple sauce and a renewed focus: The secret to WSU
kicker Erik Powell’s senior-season resurgence
Originally published December 15, 2017 at
12:24 pm Updated December 15, 2017 at 11:00 pm
Powell missed the first five field goal
attempts of his junior season and didn’t convert one until WSU’s sixth game.
But he's made 28 of 33 since and was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award
this season.
By Stefanie Loh Seattle Times
Twice this season, in what’s been the best
year of his career, Washington State kicker Erik Powell has extended his
career-long in field goals.
He converted a 52-yard field goal against
Oregon, matched that at Cal, then knocked a 56-yarder between the uprights
against Arizona with room to spare.
“I like to say that kick would have been good
from 62,” Powell says.
That 56-yarder put WSU’s senior kicker in
elite company as one of only four FBS kickers who have successfully converted
field goals of more than 55 yards this season.
Powell’s 56-yarder against Arizona ties him with
Utah’s Lou Groza Award-winning kicker Matt Gay, and Pitt’s Alex Kessman for the
second-longest FBS field goal this year.
As WSU special teams coach Eric Mele will
attest, Powell has always had a big leg. But finding consistency this year was
a game-changer for Powell, who, in his final season, has surpassed all
expectations, going 19 of 23 on field goals and finishing as a Lou Groza Award
semifinalist and All-Pac-12 second team selection, with three Pac-12 Special
Teams player of the week awards.
With just the Holiday Bowl game against
Michigan State remaining, Powell sits in third place behind WSU’s Drew Dunning
and Jason Hanson in career field goals made (50) and points (312).
Powell’s surge toward the top of WSU’s
all-time kicking ranks is even more remarkable considering how miserably his
junior season started – the Cougs’ kicker missed his first five field goal
attempts and didn’t convert one until WSU’s sixth game – a 36-yarder against
UCLA.
“I don’t think anyone has ever cheered that
loud after a first quarter make. But it was good to finally get over that
hump,” Powell says, reflecting back. “And Mele did a really good job of helping
to make sure I was keeping my head up and stuff like that, he had a lot of
confidence in me, which really helped.”
That conversion against UCLA shook Powell out
of his slump, and he converted nine of his final 10 field goals to finish the
season. Combine that with his 2017 record, and Powell is 28 of 33 over WSU’s
last 20 games since Oct. 1, 2016. That’s a 85.8 conversion percentage, compared
to his career conversion percentage of 72.4.
However, Powell claims there’s really no big
secret to how he’s turned things around in the span of a year.
“Prior to this season, I had bits and pieces
of it, and I think what came together this year was mentality,” Powell says.
“That’s a huge part of kicking. Making everything the same, keeping each kick
the same, routine kick whether it’s the fourth quarter or the first quarter.
And when you go out, only worrying about what you can control.
“In the past, I worried about the snap or the
hold or how much time was on the play clock. But you have to realize when you
go out there that the kick is the only thing you can worry about, and trust
that the other guys will do their jobs.”
Being single-mindedly focused is, of course,
more difficult to do than to talk about. And it took Powell, a former walk-on
from Vancouver’s Seton Catholic High School, five years to put everything
together and develop that confident, steady mindset that all kickers covet.
“I think it’s developed over time,” Mele said.
“He’s always been resilient. Now, it’s just dialing in the focus and the confidence.”
Along the way, Mele has devised little tricks
to cultivate Powell’s steadiness. He got Powell involved with a sports
psychologist during his sophomore year, and the kicker says he still uses many
of those tips today.
Also, “last year, we started calling (kicks)
extra points instead of field goals,” Mele said. “If he’s kicking a PAT, even
if you back the ball up, he’ll make it. If he visualizes it as an extra point
instead of a field goal, it’s, ‘go kick an extra point.’”
Now, Powell has honed his gameday routine
“down to a science,” Mele says. “We’ve had a routine, but over time, it’s
gotten more detailed and more specific and dialed in to what he needs.”
This year, for instance, a student assistant
keeps a backpack of snacks for Powell on the sidelines that contains apple
sauce packs, Rice Krispies Treats and Gatorade Energy Chews.
Powell says he’s not superstitious enough to
eat each snack at a specific juncture of the game, but he generally goes
through two apple sauce packs and Rice Krispies Treats in a game.
“I always get hungry during the game, so I
definitely have my snacks on the side, and I’m always eating in the games,”
Powell said. “I think we’ve tried to make that more of a thing this season. It
kinda just goes back to keeping the same routine.”
Powell now has his sights set on the NFL. It’s
something he might not have put as much stock in last year, but, “it makes it
more of a reality when you have a solid senior season,” Powell said.
Breaking into the NFL’s kicking ranks is
notoriously difficult. However, WSU has some history of producing solid pro
kicker: Jason Hanson was Detroit’s second round draft pick in 1992, and he
played his entire 21-year career with the Lions before retiring in 2012. Rian
Lindell, who, like Powell, is from Vancouver, was signed and cut by the Cowboys
and Seahawks before he broke through and enjoyed a 10-year career with the
Buffalo Bills.
More recently, Andrew Furney signed with the
New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2014, but was cut before the regular
season began, resigned, then cut again the following year.
Powell says he’s in touch with Furney, who
gives him helpful pointers, and that he’s also worked with Lindell once, a
couple of years ago, when the former Bills kicker came out to a spring practice
to help WSU’s kickers.
Powell believes he has the leg strength and
accuracy to compete for an NFL job. He estimates his field goal range at about
60 yards and says that would have been his answer last season too, though, he
quips, “you might not have believed me last year.”
“But I feel like I could kick that far,”
Powell says. “Making it that far more consistently has definitely improved this
year.”
Still, he knows it’s going to be a crapshoot.
“It’s tough. There are only 32 spots and there
are no backups,” Powell said. “It’s hard to get in that kicking pool. There’s a
little luck that goes into it. Look how many senior kickers there are. And when
you get your shot you’ve got to execute. You only get so many chances.”
