Sakoda helping walk-on put his best foot forward

They stood just a few feet, yet worlds apart, at Utah's practice this week: Louie Sakoda, the former consensus All-America kicker, and Joe Phillips, his walk-on replacement.

One a volunteer coach, trying to pass along his Kreskinlike concentration; the other so unknown he doesn't have a bio in the media guide.

If this sounds dramatic, that's because it is. With a game Saturday at Oregon, the Utes don't need their kicking concern to become a kicking crisis.

"Last thing I want is to have the coaches send me in there and be scared to have me go in there and kick," said Phillips. "Louie really set a high standard, and I really want to live up to that and keep it going."

Phillips was a soccer player until the last two years of high school at Lone Peak. After an LDS mission to Brazil, he returned to win the placekicking duties at Snow College, where he once toed a 50-yarder. Still, it took a call to Utah coaches last winter to persuade them to allow him to walk on.

It's not like he arrived with a lot of fanfare. He's not on scholarship and wasn't listed on the preseason depth chart. But after starter Ben Vroman missed three field goals against San Jose State, the job became Phillips'.

Remember the days when placekickers made former coach Ron McBride cover his eyes? The Ute kicking game was like an amusement ride.

Last Saturday, it seemed those days had returned.

This is a major adjustment for Utah football. For the past two years, kicking wasn't a worry. Sakoda was as reliable as a Big Mac — in a good way. He made the short ones and the long ones, too. And he rarely, if ever, got rattled.

If you looked up the word "imperturbable" in the dictionary, you'd find Sakoda's face. His kicks provided the game-winning points twice last year, in victories over Michigan and Oregon State. In two other games, his scoring made the difference between winning and losing.

That doesn't even include his precision punting.

Now the Utes face Oregon, in a game with far-reaching implications. Win and they'll climb in the rankings and keep alive hopes of another BCS bowl. Lose and they'll be written off as a lightweight.

Thus, the placekicking duties rest on the shoulders of a guy who has one field goal of Division I experience — a 25-yarder Phillips made against San Jose State.

To understand the apprehension, you have to know the history of Utah kickers. There have been good ones (Andre Guardi and Scott Lieber, to name two), but all too often the Utes have suffered at their kickers' hands — or feet.

In 1992, Chris Yergensen missed a 20-yard try in the Copper Bowl and was fingered for the loss. But he recovered the next year when his last-minute kick beat BYU — after he had already missed tries of 35 and 37 yards.