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In the Big Ten, punting is king. We all know this. The punters at places like Iowa and, well, Iowa are treated like gods while the humble place kicker is often overlooked. Actually, the place kicker is only overlooked if he is doing his job correctly, otherwise his job is being called for on, uh, sites like this.
Let’s change that!
This is a Collin Larsh appreciation post. The Wisconsin Badgers place kicker is, quietly, having a very good season for UW. After making all three of his field goal attempts on Saturday against Purdue, including a season-long 43-yarder, Larsh is now 10-of-12 on the season.
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Larsh sits tied for third in the conference, behind Iowa’s Caleb Shudak and Ohio State’s Noah Ruggles, having made 83.3% of his kicks this year. He hasn’t missed a field goal since the disastrous fourth quarter of the Notre Dame game and he’s only missed one extra point on the season.
The senior kicker from Monona Grove has improved every year he has been Wisconsin’s kicker, going from the 2019 season where he only made two thirds of his kicks (12-of-18) to where he is this season. This sort of improvement and dedication to one’s craft should be celebrated.
Hopefully Larsh continues to boot ‘em straight and far and maybe gets a cool game-winning moment against one of the many Big Ten West rivals that are coming up on the schedule.