Syracuse is reaching across campus for answers to its kicking problem.
Head coach Fran Brown said on his weekly Thursday night radio show on TK99 that midfielder Quinn Olcott has been added to the football team as a full-time kicker. Olcott, a Fayetteville native, started working with the Orange this week, and Brown said the soccer player already showed some range in Thursday’s practice by drilling a 55-yard field goal.
Brown also made clear there’s still work to do on the operation itself.
“The operation needs to be a little faster,” Brown said. “But he’s doing a real good job.
He’s at about a [1.4-second kick time]. We want to be at least under 1.2.”
Olcott is in his third year as a soccer player and comes from the Rochester New York FC Academy. His mother, Kelly Chandler-Olcott, is the dean of Syracuse’s School of Education. Brown said he wants Olcott to stay with football for the rest of his Syracuse career.
“I’m trying to make this a lifetime thing for him,” Brown said. “He’s gonna get rid of the old football and pick up the new football.”
Syracuse has done this before. In the late 1970s, the Orange discovered former All-Pro NFL kicker Gary Anderson on the soccer team. Anderson, a South African immigrant, went on to become a First Team All-American at Syracuse in 1981 and later landed on the NFL’s All-Decade team for both the 1980s and 1990s.
The move comes after a rough season for Syracuse’s kicking game. Freshman kicker Shay Barker has made just 60% of his kicks and is 2-of-3 on extra points. Tripp Woody, who is expected back from a hamstring injury Saturday, has converted only half of his field goals and seven of his eight PATs.
As a team, Syracuse has made 56.3% of its field goals, which ranks 11th-worst in FBS. The Orange has also missed five extra points, the most in the country among 138 teams.
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Olcott is expected to sit behind Shay Barker and Tripp Woody, with Woody also dealing with injuries, giving Syracuse another body at a spot that has suddenly become a concern. At 3-4 and with SMU next on the schedule, the Orange are trying to patch one of the most unforgiving parts of the game before it costs them again. [Read more 🡒]