Kaylor, Mark will give CSU a new look in kicking game with Babcock out of picture.
FORT COLLINS - They don't block. They don't tackle. They don't run. They don't throw. They don't catch.
All they do is win and lose football games.
Sonny Lubick of Colorado State is an old- school coach - some would say he's the principal of the old school - and he winces at the mere mention of the word "kicker." But Lubick has been around enough to know the game-pivoting importance of the guys who kick footballs through uprights or punt them to the opposition.
Which brings us to CSU's kickers this season, and if you haven't heard of them, join the line. With the graduation of the ultrareliable Jeff Babcock, who handled all placements and punts last season, the Rams are left with a couple of guys they hope can get the job done.
Emphasis on "hope."
"I feel comfortable with these guys," CSU special-teams coach Dave Arnold said Wednesday of kicker Kevin Mark and punter Jimmie Kaylor. "I've got complete confidence in both of them because I've been with them since the first day I walked on this campus two springs ago. They can get it done."
They don't lack confidence, that's for sure. Mark, a fifth-year senior from Coral Springs, Fla., and Kaylor, a strong-legged sophomore from Northglenn High School, feel good about themselves as the Rams' opening game at Colorado on Sept. 3 creeps closer.
Mark has been biding his time behind Babcock seemingly forever. He never has tried a field-goal or extra-point attempt in a game for the Rams, but he does have game experience. After redshirting in 2001 and sitting and watching in 2002, he handled kickoff duties the past two seasons.
Last season, he kicked off 56 times and recorded 30 touchbacks.
"It's been a long time coming," said Mark, a lanky 6-foot-2, 186-pounder. "I've been messing around with these guys in practice for five years now, so it'll be nice to get a chance to actually get out there with the game on the line and score some points."
So is Mark shaking in his kicking cleats? No. The butterflies, he said, have long since flown away because of his kickoff job the past two years.
"I think I'd be a lot more nervous if I hadn't been kicking off in games," he said. "After you see yourself a few times up on the Jumbotron and you've played on national TV, it's not such a big deal the next time. Kicking field goals is a different role, but I'm confident I can do it. I feel I've been preparing myself for this for five years now."
Kaylor has far less game experience. He punted four times last season, averaging 43 yards, but he knows all four came during trash time at the end of games. Two came in CSU's blowout loss at Southern California, two in the Rams' blowout win against Nevada-Las Vegas.
Still, he believes he's ready to catch some snaps and boom some footballs.
"I'm not nervous at all at this point," he said. "I'm more stoked than anything. I'm excited. I'm ready to get out there. The night before (the CU game), I might have some butterflies, but I'm a pretty laid-back guy, so I think I'll be fine."
Despite his idle time during games the past two years, the redshirt sophomore has been much better than all right during his athletic career.
At Northglenn, he played quarterback and tight end in addition to punting for four years and averaging 45.2 yards a kick. When it wasn't football season, Kaylor was a forward on the basketball team and twice made the all-state baseball team as a pitcher and infielder.
Kaylor's skills fly in the face of the notion that punters aren't athletes. During a bowling class at CSU, he once rolled a 300 game.
Kaylor's coach figures if he can handle the pressure of the 10th inning with a perfect game on the line, punting in a major-college football game should be a snap.
"I think getting in for those four kicks last year will help him out a lot once Sept. 3 comes," Arnold said. "Even though they were mop-up kicks, he had a chance to get out there in front of a couple of big crowds. The kid's got a great leg, and I think he'll do fine."
Kaylor's ability to boom the ball never has been questioned, but he said he still needs work on his accuracy. Babcock was known for his ability to pin opponents inside their 20-yard line. Kaylor hopes that skill develops for him, too.
Mark, meanwhile, has withstood the competition of Durrell Chamorro, a heralded freshman from Chino, Calif., who is regarded as the Rams' kicker of the future.
"I've always said I don't want to go into a season using a true freshman kicker," Arnold said. "Durrell is going to be very good, but it's a big transition, especially since they use tees on placements in high school and we don't in college.
"I just really feel Kevin will do a great job. He's been out there (on kickoffs). He knows how to prepare himself for a game. He's been waiting in the wings a long time, and we know he can do it."
Mark knows, too.
"From spring practice on, when you look at the depth chart and you know you're the guy, that was the moment of truth for me," said Mark, whom former CSU special-teams coach Brian Schneider discovered at a kicking camp in Texas.
"I had a really good spring and I've had no problems at all in summer practice. I'm confident I can go out there and hit the key field goals."
Kaylor, like Mark, is confident. Confident enough that Lubick hopes he doesn't have to spend his autumn fretting about kickers.
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