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Fresno State's Kicking Worries: Like Dust in the Wind

Fresno State lost longtime starting kicker Kevin Goessling to graduation last year. While Goessling wasn't perfect, he was relatively reliable. Coming into training camp, the Bulldogs had no idea who would be starting at place kicker. Redshirt freshman Quentin Breshears, junior Blake Dunn, freshman Garrett Swanson and senior Andrew Shapiro were all candidates for the job during camp. Going into the season opener against Weber State, only Garrett Swanson, who was more of a punter in any case had been eliminated from the running; none of the kickers had looked consistent, with some spectacularly ugly days in camp where the three combined made less than 30% of their attempts.

Quentin Breshears has seized the opportunity and eased the widespread worry about the kicking game. In the Bulldogs' win over Weber State he made his lone FG attempt of 39 yards and was 4/5 on PATs, one blocked because of a poor snap. He upped the ante at in the Bulldogs' game at Oregon, going 4/4 from 39, 43, 25 and 37 yards and making the one extra point attempted. He was named the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week and is a Lou Groza Award Star of the Week nominee. Not bad for a walk-on who was fighting for the spot with two other players in the first game and three in training camp. Note: Breshears is NOT doing kickoffs, Andrew Shapiro is.