No More Dueling Kickers

Make one, miss one. Miss one, make one.

Kicker David Newbury looks like one of USC’s new standouts as the Trojans head into their second game, Saturday against San Diego State.

But before the season, the duel between Newbury and David Bell was such a hit-and-miss affair, you couldn’t help but laugh when an exasperated Coach Paul Hackett said he simply wanted to name a kicker before the team got on the plane for the first game.

Who knew how serious he was?

“We told him in the lobby of Hawaiian Airlines,” Hackett said. “You know how tough that decision was. It could have gone either way.”

The way it went, it turns out, was straight through the uprights.

Newbury got the good news two days before the game, and the yes-sir, yes-ma’am Texan came through with a perfect night against Hawaii: eight extra points and two field goals, including the longest of his life--a 48-yarder--on his first Division I kick.

He was sky-high before the Trojans even flew to Honolulu.

“Dave Bell and I were about to get on the plane, and [special teams coach Shawn] Slocum said, ‘Hold on, I want to talk to you for a second,’ ” said Newbury, a sophomore transfer from Navarro Junior College in Texas. “They sat us down right outside the plane and told us he was going to do the kickoffs and I was going to do the field goals.

“The whole way over there, I was just thinking about it. It was exciting, but I was anxious. Very, very anxious. I kept my mind off the game for the most part, but I kept picturing plays over and over in my head, what I would do in certain situations.”

When the team got to Hawaii, Newbury called his brother with the news, and even he sounded nervous.

“He was like, well, ‘I hope your first kick’s an extra point,’ Newbury said with a laugh. “Never did I expect 48 yards.”

Newbury’s leg figures to get another workout Saturday at the Coliseum, with the Trojans heavily favored against San Diego State.

The question is whether consistency will be a problem, especially with memories of former starter Adam Abrams’ streakiness still fresh in people’s minds.

But both Newbury and Slocum say Newbury has kicked more consistently since the decision was made.

“Yes, he has,” Slocum said. “Because when he got here, fundamentally, we changed some things. He has now gotten to the technique we want him to use, and he should continue to get better and better.

“Now, he’s not going to be 100% for the year, or he’d be the first guy to do that, probably. There are going to be times when he’s going to miss a kick.”

Slocum worked with Newbury to adjust his setup steps.

“We shortened that down, and we had to do some things with his footwork on his approach to the football to take the get-off time down to where we wanted it,” Slocum said.

Newbury said he has settled in, but thinks he’s the better for what he went through.

“Inconsistency really plagued me in training camp,” he said. “I hated not being able to do the job every day. It was like every practice, ‘Which David is going to show up today?’

“During training camp, I was always looking over my shoulder in a way. We pushed each other, and we pushed each other so hard. Now that that’s all behind, I feel like a totally different kicker. But I’m so glad it was like that. I could never take a day off. I had to try every time just like in every game. It really was like game situations, because I was nervous before a lot of kicks, like I would be in a game. So it prepared me mentally. Made me mentally stronger. And now I feel like a different kicker. I feel way more relaxed.”

Even so, he and Bell still go at it before practice.

“I love the guy to death,” Newbury said. “We’re really good friends. It hasn’t changed anything between us. He still helps me, I help him. And he knows, at any given time, Coach could call his number. We’re just continually trying to make each other better. I mean, he and I come out here before practice and we’re always competing with each other.”

Bell knows how close he was to winning the job, but he knows his role now is to concentrate on kickoffs.

“If they need me, I’ll be ready,” he said. “But Dave is going to get most everything now. Even if we have a big lead, they’ll stay with Dave because he needs the reps.”

Slocum doesn’t rule out Bell getting a shot.

“David Bell is still in the mix there,” he said. “The way I feel, we’ve got two starting kickers, that kind of quality. David Newbury is the starter, and David Bell is a tremendous kickoff guy, with the hang time he’s producing on the kicks.”

“In my mind, both have strong legs,” Slocum said. “They both have the ability to kick the ball over 50 yards.

“But the thing we emphasize is to try to make every kick under 40 yards. Particularly, 42 yards is our standard, because that’s where the overtime game is won, with the ball being on the 25.”

No Trojan has kicked a field goal of more than 50 yards since Quin Rodriguez made a 54-yarder in 1990.

The Trojans just hope they see Newbury early and often again Saturday.

“I just want to kick extra points. That’s best for us,” Newbury said. “If I’m kicking extra points, we’re doing something right on offense.”