BOULDER — While recruiting punter-kicker Zach Grossnickle out of Denver East High during the fall of 2008, Colorado coaches were obviously impressed with the whip of his strong right leg.
And there was something else.
“Growing up, Zach played hockey as a goalie,” CU special-teams coach Kent Riddle recalled. “So we knew there was some toughness there.”
Grossnickle, 6-feet-2 and 190 pounds, struggled last fall while sitting out but has become the unquestioned favorite to be the Buffaloes’ starting punter this season as a redshirt freshman. Although he was a two-way kicker in high school, CU coaches told Grossnickle after spring drills to just work on punting. It clicked.
“It’s hard to practice both,” Grossnickle said. “I always thought I was a better punter anyway.”
Grossnickle has come a long way since a 2009 preseason scrimmage when he badly shanked two punts. Sometimes, Riddle said, it just takes time for a freshman.
“Freshmen deal with different things at different paces,” Riddle said. “He’s from Denver, not far away, but he’d be the first to tell you he was as homesick as could be last year. Some of it is just getting used to your surroundings a little bit.”
One hurdle Grossnickle had overcome last August was catching deep snaps with a cast on his lower left arm. He had fractured a bone the previous spring while being undercut by a competitor in Ultimate Frisbee.
“I struggled early with the cast, but actually it ended up helping me,” Grossnickle said, “because it taught me how to catch with the cast. So when I took it off it was easy.”
Using his feet has always come naturally. As a soccer player, Grossnickle helped lead Denver East to the state championship during his senior year. He earned second-team all-state honors.
Riddle said it’s an asset to have punters and place-kickers who also have a background in other sports. Overall athletic ability may enable them to avoid a bad situation on the field or perhaps to make an open-field tackle. “For a guy that’s never really done anything but kick, it can be tougher,” Riddle said. “Competitiveness helps.”
Grossnickle is concentrating on hang time. His formula: A 42-yard punt should have a corresponding hang time of 4.2 seconds, a 39-yarder needs to be in the air for 3.9 seconds, and so on.
“We can live with a 35-yard punt if there is no return,” Riddle said.
Footnotes.
A reporter with visited Friday’s practice and asked CU coach Dan Hawkins if this was his best preseason camp. “Yeah, not even close,” Hawkins replied. “We’re just so much deeper and experienced.” . . . As for the suddenly fortified wide receiver corps, Hawkins said senior standout Scotty McKnight would not have made the two-deep as a freshman if he had to compete with this group. As it was, McKnight led the team as a freshman with 43 catches. . . . No further injuries came out of Thursday’s scrimmage, the coach said.
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
