ISU’s Netten getting his kicks

Editor's note: Fifth in an eight-part series looking at the Iowa State football team, position by position. Next: Offensive line

By Dylan Montz, correspondent

AMES - As soon as the ball leaves his foot, Cole Netten knows if he'll split the uprights or if the kick will drift off target.

'Sometimes it will sneak in and sometimes it won't, but for the most part you can feel,” Netten said. 'It's kind of like a golf swing. You know if you hit it wrong.”

Netten's miscues, ironically, are what makes him feel better going into his third season as the primary Iowa State kicker. The mistakes he's made, combined with analyzing film, have made the red-shirt junior ultra aware of any imperfections in his technique.

Netten began last season with 11 straight made field goals - including a 42-yard game-winner at Iowa - and made all 35 PATs, but missed his final three attempts of the year. Through the off-season, Netten had to regain the form he enjoyed and started to find his rhythm in spring practice.

'Usually the first three or four days of camp are really good,” Netten said. 'Then I think it's just the repeatability of all the other camps, too, and your body knows it's camp and you kick the same as you did the other two years.”

When one of Netten's field goal attempts misfired during fall camp, there was no need for a discussion with Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads. The Ankeny native returned a look of understanding to Rhoads about why he missed the kick, and knew what was needed to correct it.

Rhoads said he is trying to use Netten as an example for sophomore punter Colin Downing on how to recognize his own mistakes and how to correct them.

'(Downing) can't always tell you why a punt went where it went where Cole can tell you every kick, ‘I was jammed. My foot locked down,'” Rhoads said.

'(Netten) knows exactly what happened where maybe in the past he might have not known,” said red-shirt senior and kick holder Austin Fischer. 'He's coming in every day mentally and physically prepared and is ready regardless of whether his leg is lagging a little bit.”

Part of Netten's growth is his physical and mental maturity, but he gives a lot of the credit to the way he studies practice film.

The special teams unit uses a Go-Pro camera to capture more angles than just the side and rear views. Now Netten has a camera angle above, to the sides, rear and sometimes in front, which he began using last season.

Added familiarity with how he likes the camera angles has added to Netten's understanding of why certain kicks look better than others. And with the competition happening at starting long snapper, having the extra angles is as important as ever for Netten to work on his timing.

'You can look at everything,” Netten said. 'It takes a lot longer in the meeting room because there's more critique, but it helps out a lot. There are angles you can see some things at and some angles where you can see other things.”

A CLOSER LOOK AT SPECIAL TEAMS

Depth chart

P - 1. Colin Downing, 5-11, 187, sophomore; 2. Holden Kramer, 6-3, 181, sophomore

LS - 1. Jake Rhoads, 6-2, 210, sophomore; 2. Tanner Tusha, 5-11, 195, junior

H - 1. Austin Fischer, 6-2, 215, senior

K - 1. Cole Netten, 6-1, 224, junior

KR - TBD

PR – TBD

The starters

Iowa State will have a seasoned veteran in Netten, who was 13-for-18 on field goals as a red-shirt freshman and 11-for-14 last season. His 11 straight made kicks a year ago tied the ISU record for longest streak of consecutive made field goals.

Downing is back as the starting punter with 69 punts under his belt. The sophomore averaged 39.4 yards per punt last season with a career-long 64-yard kick against Baylor.

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