Houston Football: Cougars take icing the kicker to new level

Houston football led the Memphis Tigers 17-0 with one second remaining in the first half. Then Cougar head coach Major Applewhite took icing the kicker to the extreme.

A 52-yard field goal is everything but a gimme. It’s challenging enough for the pros to bomb it between the uprights from that far out, let alone for college kids to convert from that distance. That was the task given to Memphis place kicker Riley Patterson with time running out in the first half against Houston on Thursday night.

Patterson entered the game relatively unproven. The freshman placekicker had converted four of his five field goals on the season, the longest one from 42 yards. A 52-yarder would be a career long, a plateau that many college kickers won’t reach in four years, let alone their first season.

Except Patterson wasn’t asked to make that kick once. He was asked to make it four times. When he trotted out to take the kick Houston head coach Major Applewhite still had his full complement of timeouts, three. Memphis snapped the ball, Patterson drilled the ball towards the goalpost, but it didn’t count.

It didn’t count the second time, or the third time. That’s because Applewhite “iced the kicker” three times. Overkill, you say? Maybe not. On Patterson’s fourth and final attempt at the long field goal he missed. Whether that was a result of nerves or just bad odds of converting from such a distance, the strategy seems to have paid off.

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On one hand, calling three times outs on a seemingly inconsequential field goal is a bit excessive. But points are points, and Applewhite kept the Tigers off the board, even if it took every tool (and timeout) at his disposal. Fair or foul? What do you think of Applewhite’s time out usage?