And it's good!
Former Southwest High kicker and punter Zach Matics follows through on a field goal he made in April at the team’s spring game. Matics will be the Mountaineers’ starting punter in addition to handling kickoffs.
By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer/The Jacksonville Daily News
Published: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 11:00 AM.
Former Southwest High School kicker and punter Zach Matics may be a little busy this football season at Appalachian State.
Then again, maybe not so overworked, given Matics will be the Mountaineers’ starting punter in addition to handling kickoffs for ASU, which usually sports one of the highest-scoring offenses in NCAA Division I-Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).
And because the Mountaineers’ like to score a lot, the 20-year-old Matics may see a lot of time kicking off and not punting.
“Our offense is really strong,” Matics said. “I just need to stay warm and stay ready.”
Matics, who graduated from Southwest in 2011, enters his red-shirt sophomore season as the top punter and kickoff specialist for ASU, which last year averaged 32.9 points en route to an 8-4 overall record (3-3 in the Southern Conference) and a trip to the FCS playoffs.
He secured the starting spots after an impressive spring game in April that helped his Black squad win 12-3 over the gold.
Matics, a “third-string” kicker last year, kicked field goals of 48, 27 and 31 yards and also helped his team win the field position battle by averaging 42.2 yards per punt. Conversely, the punters on the Gold team averaged just 26.4 yards per boot.
“That was the first time I actually started in front of a huge crowd,” Matics said. “That was my main worry, all the people around me. But it boosted my confidence and it’s great for me moving forward.”
Special teams coordinator Mark Ivey certainly was impressed.
“When it came to spring football, he really improved,” he said. “Performance-wise, he did well. The biggest thing in our spring football game was that he perhaps won that game for us.”
Ivey was the one who first approached Matics about focusing more on punting. He felt with the position open that Matics would be a good fit.
“We do a daily gauge on who is doing the best job,” Ivey said. “Zach didn’t consider himself as a punter, but I told him last fall that we had to be smart and that we don’t really have a punter so he might want to give it a shot. He then starting working at it.”
Matics is using the summer to prepare for the season and make sure he doesn’t lose his spots as a punter and kickoff specialist.
The Mountaineers open the 2013 season Aug. 31 at Montana.
“Waking up at 6 each morning is tough, but I have the first spot down right now,” Matics said. “It’s mine to lose and so I’m going to work hard. We also got some new punters and kickers come in, and I want to be a great role model for them like I had in punter Sam Martin, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions this year.”
Matics said that he hopes one day he will be the starting place-kicker and responsible for field goals and extra points. For now, however, he’s trying to improve as a punter, a position he called “an art.”
“Punting is all about the drop and I’ve been working on that every day. In spring practice I would spend 10 minutes walking and getting my drops right,” he said.
The 6-foot-2, 186-pound Matics also wants to improve his hang time on his punts.
“I just need to get it downfield. My release time is under two seconds, which is good, but one of the things I need to work on is hang time,” Matics said. “I can’t out-punt the coverage with line-drive punts.”
Ivey said he’s looking for Matics to continue improving his release time.
“Hang time is extremely important and kick distance is extremely important, but maybe the most important is how quick he can get it off,” Ivey said.
Kicking off is one area where Matics is most confident because he’s kicked off since he was 13 after his middle school coach recognized that he had a strong leg.
As a senior at Southwest, Matics was named to The Associated Press all-state team as a place-kicker. He graduated having been named a two-time first-team all-area kicker by The Daily News.
“Kickoffs have always been my strong point,” he said. “I have been doing that since forever.”
