Justin Yoon Adding Kick To His And Notre Dame's Game

One of the last places on Notre Dame’s 2016 team that head coach Brian Kelly expected to have some concerns was placekicker.

After a shaky early start, 2015 freshman Justin Yoon — considered the top kicker recruit in that cycle — missed neither a field goal nor an extra point in his final nine contests. He earned Freshman All-America notice from three different outlets after finishing 15-of-17 (.882) on his field goal attempts, highlighted by a 52-yarder versus Navy as time expired in the first half to give Notre Dame a 24-21 lead.

Yoon’s 95 points were the third most ever tallied by a Fighting Irish kicker, trailing only Kyle Brindza’s 98 (2013) and 97 (2012).

However, Kelly didn’t get to where he is by taking anything for granted. Prior to Yoon’s sterling debut, the five single greatest kicking seasons in Notre Dame annals — Harry Oliver (1980), Mike Johnston (1982), John Carney (1984), David Ruffer (2010) and Kyle Brindza (2013) — were followed by huge struggles by the same kickers the next year in which their field-goal percentage often fell regularly by 30 points.

“You look at our special-teams situation and it’s just making sure that there’s a growth development with a freshman kicker,” said Kelly the early part of August. “That’s an area that you have to always be concerned with. … More than anything else, making sure there’s really good development from Year 1 to Year 2, especially with the placekicker.”

The Aug. 11 practice session open to the media began with special teams kicking. Yoon drilled his first two attempts from inside the 30 — but then finished by missing his final four from 35 to about 45 yards. A week later in another open practice, his lone attempt in a 25-minute scrimmage, from 31 yards, missed.

Similar problems occurred last spring after Yoon made the switch in holders from one quarterback (DeShone Kizer) to another (Montgomery VanGorder). The rhythm was off in the ensuing practice when Yoon missed three straight field goals, but he put the blame on himself for not planting properly. His trust in VanGorder and fourth-year long- and short-snapper Scott Daly is not an issue.

“I don’t even think about that,” Yoon said of changing holders. “It’s a matter of trust. If I can trust whoever is holding for me, that’s all it takes. It’s my confidence … Now that I know what they’re capable of doing after seeing them do mental reps over and over again and talking to them, I trust them, they trust me, and that’s all that matters.”

In the final open practice (Aug, 17), Yoon drilled 3-of-4 field-goal attempts, the longest from 45 yards, but also missed from 33 yards. His concentration this August was centered on finding the right form that eventually will allow him to consistently convert kicks.

“It’s gone a lot better this week,” said Yoon last Friday when preseason camp finished. “I was working a lot on my form routine, because I knew I was off somewhere. That’s all I’ve been working on. I haven’t been thinking about making or missing the kicks at all, because that’s what matters in games. … It’s been a confidence booster, just knowing that my routine is always solid and complete.

“It’s the smallest things. If I don’t hit the right sweet spot in my foot, which can be one inch off, one centimeter off, the ball is going right, the ball is going left, very quickly, just like that. It’s a matter of making sure I can hit that precise, and rhythm, and routine over and over again.”

Per Kelly, Notre Dame’s special teams were much more of an uncertainty entering last season, breaking in a new kicker (Yoon) and punter (then sophomore Tyler Newsome). Yoon acknowledged that at the start of last season there was some initial stage fright, resulting in missing field goals his first two games, and then extra points at home versus Georgia Tech and UMass in the next two.

It was in the fifth game, where he drilled a 46-yard field goal in a monsoon at Clemson, that his outlook changed, and there is no comparison now to then in terms of confidence level.

“Last year I was struggling a little,” said Yoon, a chronic tape watcher who studies the slightest movements that need improvement. “I looked at myself and said, 'Wow, this isn’t the same me as I am now.’ I had all the routine and abilities but it’s a different impact going from 100 people to 80,000. After figuring that out, since last year I feel a lot more confident. I know where I’m at, I’ve performed in front of 80,000 and I know what I can do.

“A big thing is working on each little aspect of kicking: Hit the ball properly, finishing straight through all the way to the field goal post. My body alignment is sometimes off, my rhythm is off. I work on each little detail. I’ve overcome all the hurdles.”

For all the study and technique that is worked on, kicking also involves a lot of mental work.

“If I’m confident, I’ll hit it,” Yoon summarized. “If I’m not confident, then I won’t hit it.”

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