Mike Sorensen: It's been a tough year for local placekickers

Before that was Pochman, who is the most prolific of all with 66 field goals from 1997 to 2000 for BYU. He made 72.5 percent of them.

Utah State has had its share of good placekickers, but many such as Brad Bohn, Micah Knorr and Dane Kidman played over a decade ago. But as recently as 2007-10, the Aggies had Peter Caldwell, who had a .688 percentage and is sixth all-time in field goals made.

We're not trying to beat up on placekickers here. It has to be one of the toughest jobs in sports with immense pressure every time they step on the field. Sure, you get all the glory if you make a last-second winning field goal, but you're also the guy everyone complains about when things aren't going well.

The season isn't even half over, so there's plenty of time for the kicking to get better.

It can't get much worse.

email: sor@desnews.com