Perhaps the best celebration of Idaho State’s season came from punter Kevin Ryan – the junior who looks like he stole a jersey from the equipment room and snuck onto the Holt Arena turf.
He is 6-feet, 160 pounds soaking wet and can get lost if he stands too close to an offensive lineman on the sidelines. But his left leg is like Thor’s Hammer. It’s so powerful, can inflict so much damage to the opposition. And the Mesa, Ariz. native can wield it with this sixth sense of precision.
Two weeks ago, as Idaho State clung to a two-score lead late in the first quarter against then-No. 7 UC Davis, the Bengals’ punter unleashed a 50-yard rainbow with mesmerizing backspin. It bounced near the goal line and was settled at UC Davis’ 3-yard line. The Aggies were dead in the water before their offense even touched the field.
Ryan looked towards his sideline, put his feet together and made a quick golf swing like he was knocking a 60-degree wedge within a foot of the cup. His teammates erupted.
“That came to me off the top of my head. I’m a big Pat McAfee fan,” Ryan said, referring to the former Indianapolis Colts’ punter and current media personality. “I’ve seen him do that quite a few times so I pulled that out of my back pocket. It was kind of subconscious … Maybe I’ll keep doing it.”
Aside from that UC Davis victory, Idaho State has not had much to cheer for this season. The Bengals are 1-5. Their starting quarterback is out with a shoulder injury. Their defense is allowing over 450 yards a game. Their hope for a successful season is waning.
The bright spot is Ryan. And, just looking at the stats, one could argue he’s been Idaho State’s best-performing player this year. Not bad for a guy who was a walk on until last season.
The junior ranks second in the FCS with an average punt of over 47 yards – and he’d be first if you only included guys with at least 20 punts under their belt. He leads the Big Sky with 13 kicks traveling over 50 yards. And, most importantly, Ryan has pinned 10 of his 30 punts inside the ISU red zone.
Idaho State coach Rob Phenicie calls those “Hang-10” punts, and Ryan was struggling to execute them two years ago. He kept booting the ball into the end zone and opponents kept starting drives from the 20. Phenicie gave his punter a summer challenge: Get better at dropping short-field punts inside the 10.
Ryan went home to the Grand Canyon State, back to AZKicking – basically a kicking training academy run by Alex Zendejas and his son, former University of Arizona kicker Alex Zendejas Jr. Ryan began training there as a scrawny freshman in high school. Now, he was a DI special teamer on a mission to perfect the meticulous rugby-style punt.
“I could get the rotation but I couldn’t get the yards,” Ryan said. “I couldn’t hit the 40-yard punt that I needed to put it on the 5-yard line or the 10-yard line.”
“Kevin is just one of those guys that whatever you ask him to do,” Zendejas Jr. said, “he’s going to try it and it’ll only be a matter of time before he gets comfortable doing it.”
This season, Ryan has looked mighty comfortable pinning opposing offenses deep. Even after the Bengals decided to have David Allish kick field goals over Ryan midseason, the lefty has found a way to make himself exceedingly valuable.
“Kevin went from being our No. 1 kicker to our No. 1 holder,” Phenicie said, “and he said, ‘I’m going to be the best holder in the conference.’”
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Ryan didn’t practice once his senior year of high school. The pain was too much. Every kick and every punt sent a tsunami of agony through his body, which makes life tough when you’re, you know, a kicker and punter.
So Ryan sat out Mountain View’s practices, not wanting to further aggravate his rectus femoris … err, the biggest muscle in your quad, which Ryan tore in half.
But Ryan still insisted on kicking and punting in games, which hardly worried Mountain View coach Mike Fell. The longtime head coach was rarely concerned about anything his special teams superstar did. Ryan was too good to doubt.
The only major problem Ryan’s injury caused Mountain View was how to practice punts and kickoffs without a real punter or kicker. The Toros did not have a sufficient backup, at least not one who could even come close to matching the distances Ryan could generate with his booming left leg.
So Fell got creative.
“When you have a guy who can kick it in the end zone and can kick 50-yard field goals and can punt it 40-plus yards, you have to just throw the ball (to replicate him),” Fell said with no sarcasm. “We didn’t have anyone who could kick it that far. So we just had to simulate it by throwing it down there and moving it up a few yards.”
Practices were awkward, yet Ryan covered it all up during games. The senior still found a way to make an impact for the Toros, this time just with a straining discomfort after every kick. In his final campaign in the desert, Ryan’s punting average dipped less than three yards, he still hit all four of his field-goal attempts and converted on 40 of 42 extra points.
Zendejas Jr. remembers standing on the sidelines of Mountain View’s game against Mountain Pointe. He remembers watching Ryan go out for kickoffs and field goals and punts knowing his quad was shredded in half, remembers hearing the pain in his voice after each one and being in awe of the mental strength of this teenager.
“As far as kicking with something like that, it’s pretty painful,” Zendejas Jr. said. “It’s almost impossible.”
It was an early indicator to Ryan’s future success.
“You just knew he was going to be good in college,” Fell said.