2015 One On One Kicking Adidas Invitational Recap
Kickers & Punters
A month ago we had our One On One Kicking Adidas Invitational. A huge hit for everyone involved, we had the opportunity to see many stand-out specialists from the Class of 2016 to 2018 attend the event. The weekend provided several different avenues for the specialists to showcase all their skills, as our players participated in a charting session along with various other competitions.
The charting portion of the invitational contained outstanding performances from many specialists, with the top 16 participants moving on to the #Xceptional8 Bracket Competition for both kicking and punting. The new format provided an opportunity for specialists to go head to head with the eyes of the entire camp upon them; in the event of a tie breaker on points, the tie breaker was determined by longest field goal made in the charting. If a tie remained, the winner was determined based on the “accuracy points” from the made field goal. And several specialists did not fail to disappoint in their performances.
The charting session provided a glimpse of many standout Class of 2016 kickers looking more than ready to attack a Division 1 future. Both Alex Barbir and Colin Douglas had standout performances, charting with the most points. Barbir, in particular, is already getting a lot of serious attention from FBS schools and is only increasing his level of exposure to top tier programs. Along with Barbir, we got to see three of the Top 10 Kickers in the country chart as well. AJ Reed, Mitchell Wasson, and Sage Ledbetter all did very well at the Invitational, showing why they can compete at the highest of levels. We will be seeing plenty of FBS Offers coming their way this year. Additionally, one of the top kickers in the Northeast, Josh Wood came down to Atlanta to showcase his skills and did not disappoint, showing why he has the ability to play football at the Division 1 level. We also had the opportunity to watch two extremely smooth kickers, Matt Mosquera and Nick Null, showcase why they are some of the most consistent field goal specialists in the country. Both showed excellent form and were extremely accurate during the competition. Larry Eimer and Brendan Feehan looked great and performed exceptionally well in our charting session. Both showing great consistency and great height on the ball—yet another group of kickers who showed Division 1 potential. Other notable Class of 2016 Kickers who showed the ability to perform at the Division 1 level were Trey Simon, Julius Duarte, Chris Saunier, Asa Alexander, Barry Brown, Nick Maldarella, and Parker Holland. We had three Class of 2017 kickers who are already showing signs of a Division 1 leg. Josh Grant, Mason Dillard, and Kenny Doak all did a phenomenal job in our charting session and showed why they can be one of the best in the country in their class. We look forward to seeing their progression over the next year. The Class of 2018 specialists showed a handful of future Division 1 talent. Jake Camarda, Even McPherson, Bryant DeFelice, & Steven Martinez showed us they have a very bright future and are a group of specialists you may get to watch on Saturdays.
After tremendous performances from many players during the charting session, we then tallied up the scores and had our #Xceptional8 Bracket Competition. Again, we picked the top 16 in the charting and organized our head to head showcase. The first rounds of winners determined who would make the #Xceptional8 group. The #Xceptional8, after a competitive and thrilling competition, consisted of AJ Reed, Alex Barbir, Nick Null, Josh Wood, Larry Eimer, Parker Holland, Josh Grant, and Julius Duarte. Finally, our winner of the competition was Larry Eimer from New Jersey. Eimer performed very well the whole competition, showing us his accuracy as well as strength. He put on a very impressive performance, winning a hard fought battle in the final round against Nick Null (who would also have been a worthy winner due to his consistency and power).
Moving on from the field goal competition, kickoff charting allowed for some of the most powerful legs in the country to go to work. Mitchell Wasson, and Alex Barbir separated themselves from the pack in the kickoff charting. We had the opportunity to watch both kickers consistently put the ball over 70 yards with over 4.0 hang time, with both showing why they have some of the strongest legs in the country. Other notable kickoff specialist that showed Division 1 kickoff talent were Parker Holland, Mason Dillard, Asa Alexander, Barry Brown, Justin Johnson, Colin Douglas, Brendan Feehan, Chris Saunier, Julius Duarte, Grant McKinnis, Sage Ledbetter, Nick Null, and Kenny Doak.
In addition to our bracket competition, all of the kickers could compete in a variety of different competitions. Our BIG BALL competition saw three winners from each class: Class of 2016 Alex Barbir, Class of 2017 Kenny Doak, and Class of 2018 Evan McPherson. Our BIG BALL kickoff competition also provided another way for our specialist to challenge each other. Alex Barbir won that competition, showing his big time leg and putting majority of his kickoffs out of the back of the endzone. Last and not least was the accuracy competition. In what was hands down one of the best accuracy competition performances any of our staff had seen from a kicker in a long time, AJ Reed absolutely dominated this competition starting from the 15 going all the way down to the -8 (8 Deep In Endzone) without a miss.
The punting side of our Invitational also allowed for talented players to showcase their skills, with a handful of punters showcasing Division 1 talent in Atlanta. We saw very good results from many during our charting session for punting, and we were also fortunate enough to watch a very impressive performance all weekend from one of the best combo specialists in the country, Grant McKinniss. McKinniss performed brilliantly, showing consistency of punts over 40 yards and hang times of 4.4 plus. Our staff was left with the impression that Grant has a very bright Division 1 future. Some other top performers: We saw some big punting legs from both Preston Knight and Jake Bovard. Each punter performed well during charting, and both have a strong future to play at a Division 1 University. Larry Eimer and Colin Douglas not only stood out in the field goal sessions, but also performed very well in the punting sessions. They both showed very good consistency and demonstrated collegiate level ability. Other Class of 2016 punters like Josh Wood, Paul Mokrzycki, Asa Alexander, Justin Johnson, & Jack O’Hanlon also gave fantastic performances in our punting competitions. O’Hanlon, who has been getting a lot of Ivy League attention, only reinforced his ability to go into the Ivy League and perform very well as a punter. We did see two Class of 2018 standout punters who will have a very bright future. Jake Camarda, and Evan McPherson were hanging with the older punters the whole time during the charting session, showing shocking strength and consistency for specialists their age.
In the same way as the kicking, after the charting session punters were able to compete in the #Xceptional8 Punting Bracket Competition and the Coffin Corner Competition. The Top 16 competed to make it to the #Xceptional8. The #Xceptional8 Punters were, Jake Camarda, Asa Alexander, Preston Knight, Austin Johnson, Mason Dillard, Larry Eimer, Jake Bovard, and Grant McKinniss. We saw a very competitive battle amongst everyone, with very small point margins between those who moved on and those who did not. Our winner of the #Xceptional8 Bracket Competition for punting was the aforementioned Grant McKinniss, who was impressive throughout the whole competition. He made it to the final round, just beating out Asa Alexander who, it should be noted, performed exceptionally well the whole time.
Overall, our staff walked away from the One On One Kicking Adidas Invitational feeling incredibly privileged to have been able to work with so many young kickers and punters who were able to put their talent on display. As a staff, we are optimistic about the futures of so many of these specialists and look forward to helping them in their journeys to become the best players they can be.