For today's countdown, we pay tribute to a number that is very significant in Cyclone History. From the span of 1995 to 1998, kicker Jamie Kohl attempted 113 extra points, a Cyclone record. His 105 extra points made over that span are an ISU record as well.
Kohl is the founder of Kohl's Professional Football Camps, helping Kickers, Punters, and Long Snappers reach their maximum potential. These camps have helped high school kids get on college teams, and college kids make it to NFL camps. He holds an offseason camp every year at Iowa State, and in 2010, Kirby Van Der Kamp was the top punter at the camp.
What makes it interesting is that if you look at the McCarney years in 4 year blocks (1995-1998 was his 1st 4 year block), those first four years produced the second most TDs, but the team had a record of 9-35. The team's offense averaged 31 TDs per season over that span, which ranks below the 39 TD average from 1999-2002 (team record was 27-22), but ranks higher than the 27 TD average from 2003-2006 (team was 20-28). Over the course of his tenure, Iowa State's offense averaged about 32 TDs/season.
It's interesting to me that during McCarney's worst period at Iowa State, he had a reliable kicker, and actually had a team that was on his career par for TDs scored. Sure, the 8 misses are kind of a lot considering it was a PAT, but I'd be willing to guess he had some PATs blocked in his day. I wasn't following the program pre-2002, so when I saw the W-L record from those early years, and heard Rhoads talked about how few legit Big 12 players there were on the roster when he was an assistant during those days, I didn't figure we'd have a good kicker like we did.
Also for the young bucks out there like me, it's good to know the guys that came before. When I first game to Iowa State, I was so conditioned to there being a shaky kicking game, that it's interesting to see a former Cyclone kicker on the forefront of developing talent and running all these camps across the nation. Pretty cool, I think.
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