SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Bryce McFerson wasn’t sure when special teams coordinator Marty Biagi would name a starting punter ahead of Notre Dame’s season opener against Navy on Aug. 26 in Dublin, Ireland.
Minutes later when Biagi spoke to reporters Thursday following Notre Dame’s 13th preseason practice, he didn’t attempt to keep people guessing.
“Right now, Bryce is going to be our starting punter going in,” Biagi said. “He’s earned that. He’s competed in camp. He’s done really well.”
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The offseason competition, which added Penn graduate transfer kicker Ben Krimm in June, should have always ended with McFerson, a sophomore with a big leg, winning the job. But McFerson already knew what it felt like to lose the punter competition after Jon Sot pushed ahead of him last preseason. So McFerson didn’t want to take anything for granted.
“It’s just whoever punts better will be the guy come Ireland,” McFerson said. “But it’s been going really well. I’ve been hitting the ball well. I’m really kind of just working on my mental game.”
The 6-foot-2, 197-pound McFerson won a competition for the kickoff specialist role last preseason, but a groin injury forced him to give up the job before the season opener at Ohio State. He didn’t fully recover until the spring.
That’s when Biagi challenged McFerson to be more consistent. He put together good practices throughout the spring then fell flat in the Blue-Gold Game. His four punts averaged just 39 yards on a cold and wet April day in South Bend.
“We used it as a learning experience,” Biagi said. “These are elements that you’re going to have to deal with. No excuses and practice those things.
“He’s come out and done really well from a consistency standpoint. Everybody wants to see the high, long ball. But what we care about is our operation time and our hang time. If you can consistently have a low op time and then get that hang time to where we want, we feel like that unit can also be an aggressive unit. An attacking, flip-the-field-type unit.”
McFerson can boot punts of 50-plus yards with regularity, but he hasn’t faced many pressure-filled moments since his days at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail, N.C.. That’s why he need to take any punting opportunity in practice seriously.
“In warmups, I’m pretty much the same,” McFerson said in comparing his consistency from last year to this year. “Last year, I would just go hit ball after ball really well, and then I would just be out of it mentally in team period. But I feel miles ahead in team period.”
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McFerson took advantage of the opportunity to learn from Sot, who averaged 43.8 yards per punt last season, despite spending less than a year with him.
“I took from him the mentality of being able to have fun,” McFerson said. “And some of the mental side where he would say after hitting a bad ball during warmups, ‘I’m just getting it out for the game.’ Just kind of being nonchalant and being able to mentally be in the zone.”
Graduate transfer kicker Spencer Shrader, who joined the Irish in June from South Florida, and McFerson share a past of excelling at other spots. Shrader initially pursued a professional soccer career in Brazil and Canada following high school in Lithia, Fla. McFerson was a two-time state champion wrestler and school-record holder in the long jump (23-feet-4.5) and triple jump (44-4.5).
“I’ve also gotten some good advice from Spencer, who was saying mentally, you need to be able to see your good balls as just normal and see a bad ball as just an anomaly,” McFerson said. “That’s a mental thing that’s really helped confidence-wise.”
McFerson’s athleticism, particularly his experience as a jumper, makes him capable of tinkering with small technique flaws with the help of Biagi. That’s where Biagi’s own experience as a college punter/kicker makes him more valuable. He can diagnose those issues on a punt-by-punt basis.
"It’s definitely just the fast twitch because punting is all about leg speed, explosiveness, so it’s going to be a big factor,” McFerson said. “Most of the time, if you find a really athletic punter, they’re going to be able to explode on a ball more consistently.”
If McFerson executes what Biagi asks of him, the hang time and distance will follow. And the opportunities will last long beyond the season opener in Ireland.
“When you get a hold of one, that’s not going to change a whole lot with strength,” McFerson said. “It’s more just mechanics and putting my body in a perfect position to explode on the football.”
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