Back in the late 70s, punters going in the first round was commonplace. Bryan Anger was selected by the Jaguars with the 70th overall pick in 2012. Never underestimate the number of decision-makers in sport whose main goal is not to get fired. Take a punter or kicker that high, however, and it shines a light on the organization. But if you take one in the first or second round and he flames out, the player draws the bulk of the attention. Few want to be the first off the ledge.Ĭornerbacks and receivers bust all the time. It can take a decade or more for the conventional wisdom to shift. Still: the NFL is a conservative league by nature. Conservative, fuddy-duddy coaches love nothing more than to harp on about the field position battle young, innovative coaches understand the unique advantage of having a singular player who can work as a get-out-of-jail-free card on offense, and who can shift the odds at a position that rarely features a true difference-maker. Were Al Davis still alive, we could have a real, honest discussion about whether the Raiders would take Arazia in the first round (the team have drafted a punter in the first-round before: they took future hall of famer Ray Guy with the 23rd pick in 1973). Listen hard enough, and you will hear the sound of 32 NFL head coaches cajoling their team’s chief decision-maker to take Araiza as early as possible. How high will he go in the 2022 draft? That’s the question Araiza-oligists continue to debate. There have only been two punts that have traveled 80 or more yards in the NFL over the last eight years.Īraiza has become such a potent weapon, with returners struggling to track the ball so far downfield, that opponents have taken to sticking two returners on the play: One for where the ball would typically land from a punter with a big leg one for when Araiza decides to do some Dumbledore stuff.
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He has hit two 80-plus yard punts this season. He has 15(!) punts this season of 60-yards or more, breaking the all-time record with weeks to spare. At the time of writing, Araiza leads the country in average punt yards. It’s that he’s charting a new course for punters altogether. It’s not that Araiza is the best at what he does, although he is. “What he does in terms of field position. Asked who was the team’s Most Valuable Player through an unbeaten seven-game stretch in late October, Brady Hoke, the Aztecs’ head coach, didn’t miss a beat.
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In reality, he is an offensive weapon, the kind that ra-ra football coaches have been waiting for their entire coaching lives. There are also power-ups that can be used which give the game a kind of Mario Strikers feel to it which is pretty cool.Enter: Matt Araiza, the Elvis of punters, and college football’s most intriguing one-man show.Īraiza is a punter by positional designation only – he also kicks field goals and takes San Diego State’s kickoffs. So you do have a lot of say in how the game is actually played. You also have different difficulty options and you can adjust the rules such as offside, how long the game lasts and so on. You can play with a keyboard, controller or even the mouse. The actual gameplay of Backyard Soccer is a bit more slow paced than you would expect.
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This is kind of cool as this is a kids game, it teaches kids to think about positioning. You can pick what positions the kids play in so it is important to pay attention to their stats you play them in the right position so that they can best benefit your team. You will pick eight kids to make up your team and then you have to decide who your 6 staring players are and who your 2 substitutes are. You and the AI (or another player) take turns picking players until you each have a team. They have individual stats for kicking, ball control, defense and running. When you click on one of the kids you can see their stats. All of the kids are sitting on the bleachers and you can select your dream team of players. One thing that is really fun in Backyard Soccer is the way that you put your team together. The Hall of Fame mode is cool as you can track how well you have done as you have played the games. Two other options at the menu screen are, first of all, learn about the different players that you can select for your team and also the Hall of Fame mode.
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You can also play a single match and practice your penalty kicks. B Division Championship, A Division Championship, Premier Division, Indoor Soccer Tournament and the awesomely named, Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cup’s Cup are there for you to win. This is where you set out to win different leagues. Backyard Soccer actually has quite a lot of game modes.