Football Practice Report: Nov. 12
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Moshofsky Center
Format: Walk-through
Aidan Schneider did something in practice Thursday that’s never happened in his two seasons of games as Oregon’s kicker. The sophomore actually missed two straight attempts.
As usual, Schneider didn’t sweat the misses. The Portland native calmly rebounded by hitting from 39 and 44 yards, demonstrating yet again his uncanny cool under pressure.
Entering Saturday’s game at Stanford (4:30 p.m., FOX), Schneider is 16-of-17 this season and 27-of-29 for his career. Given all that success, the lifelong soccer player is just now starting to accept that he’s got a knack for this football thing – though his lack of experience in the game may actually be the entire key to Schneider’s success.
“I know it has been a while, but I still always kind of feel like this isn’t what I’ve been doing my whole life,” Schneider said. “It’s technically still not what I’m used to, because I played soccer up until the end of high school.”
Unlike a guy who’s been playing football his entire life, Schneider hasn’t been emotionally invested in the game as long. That emotional detachment may actually serve him well – he simply doesn’t feel pressure to make a kick.
Aided by that mindset, Schneider has made 94.1 percent of his attempts this fall, best in the nation among kickers with more than 10 attempts. His 16 conversions are tied for eighth nationally
“I’ve just been really confident the whole year,” Schneider said. “As the year’s gone on, every kick you make in a game, every time you go out there and get a successful rep, that builds on it.”
In truth, though, confidence has never been an issue – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, Schneider has never allowed doubt to creep into his mind. His first collegiate attempt was in an NFL venue, against Cal in Levi’s Stadium last fall, and afterward he brushed off the idea that he might have felt pressure in that moment.
Beginning that night against Cal, Schneider made his first seven attempts before missing. He was 3-for-3 in Oregon’s two College Football Playoff games.
Schneider’s only miss this season was at Washington, and again he rebounded in strong fashion, having made six straight attempts entering the trip to Stanford.
“It’s like a corner that gets beat deep – it’s an anomaly to them that could happen,” UO coach Mark Helfrich said. “Or like a quarterback after throwing an interception; they have to have that ‘clear’ button.”
Having made 11-of-12 attempts last season, Schneider began to accept that he had some talent for this football stuff. He stayed in Eugene this past summer to work on his kicking.
“I just really worked on changing my swing a little bit,” he said. “There was a lot of stuff to fine-tune from last year. I made a lot of kicks, but I wasn’t necessarily hitting the ball the way I wanted to.”
Given all his success, is Schneider finally beginning to view himself as a football player, rather than a soccer player dabbling in another sport?
“It’s coming,” he said. “I still miss soccer and think about it all the time. But being at football practice full-time, it’s starting to sink in.”
Other observations: As this was a walk-through, there are no other highlights to offer. … Recently, Helfrich has designated a different coach or player to address the team after Thursday practices. Last week it was Erik Chinander, today Rodney Hardrick. … Late Wednesday the program announced it had received financial-aid paperwork from a sixth recruit for 2016, linebacker Darrian Franklin, and on Thursday they announced the addition of defensive back Troy Dye.
