In the Masthey v. Schum thread Uffda said he will hate Schum more than any other GB player; folks, that's alot of hate. 😂 😂 Uffda also questioned Schum's upside citing Sander and Kapinos, ex-packers that truly deserve our hate. And to Uffda's credit, he set aside his predisposed bias and hate [BTW, prejudging bad from a guy cut 3 times by TB is not all that outrageous] to impartially evaluate Schum's KC play. Uffda is now more "schumfortable." [Quite funny-though it did set my computer on fire during the spell check].
But, there's a difference between William Herbert Sander [guess he got "BJ" as a description of his punting skills]/Kapinos and Schum.
Sander averaged 43.4 YPK with Ohio state; Kapinos had a career average at Penn State of 42 YPK.
These 2 guys couldn't play football but wanted to be on a team so they probably started punting from age 8. They were good enough in HS to get a scholarship to top football programs. While there they had real ST coaches to work on technique and a training staff to strengthen leg and get flexibility. Not sure how much upside they had coming into NFL.
Schum's back-story was different, before coming to NFL, I'll bet Schum learned most of his punting technique from watching youtube videos. He was a WR, who just happen to be his HS teams' best punter and only got a call from Buffalo State. He was there 2 years; but only played one to preserve 3 years of eligibility just in case a D-1 school called. D-1 Colleges are looking for punters all the time; but in 2009 he had to walk-on at U of Buffalo as a WR [his nickname was Wes Welker because he caught everything] obviously because he sucked at punting at Buffalo State. In 2010, at U of Buffalo he tried out for punter, won the job, a scholarship and had a 38.7 average as a RS-Soph.
Now did PSU or OSU or Cal or USC or 'Bama come calling; how about Akron, Kent state Ohio or Ball Sate? No, he was so bad he couldn't even keep his starting job or scholarship at Buffalo. He went to work at an athletic club and punted on his old HS field. In the winter he shoveled the field, oh he lived near Buffalo-so there was alota snow to shovel. Really pathetic actually, well except not so pathetic given where he is at.
macbob posted Schum's wiki page in the Masthey v. Schum thread pointing out that he was cut by 3 teams; but what he doesn't point out is that he was cut 5 times [from 2013 to August 2015]; so 2 teams cut him twice and TB once signed him to practice squad for 4 days. When a player is signed multiple times by a team, it means the team sees him as close to 53 or has some upside to get to 53. His sixth signing and 3rd w/ TB saw him win the starting job last year [albeit over two sucky punters].
I have to wait until Sunday afternoon to see the damn game [Pox on you NFL channel]; but here's a recap meshed from info from
Huber and game logs:
1st half:
1. Aussie-style punt that went 32 yards and resulted in a fair catch at the 9.
2. 44-yarder with 5.11 seconds of hang time FC at 9.
3. 57-yarder that "barely trickled into the end zone."
4. 51 yards with 4.61 hang time; 8 yard return.
McCarthy said at halftime Schum had 2 good kicks. [I assume he said that because kicks 3 and 4 were reminiscent of average-Masthay-like].
2nd half:
5. 37-yarder with 4.43 seconds of hang time FC at 20.
6. 45-yarder with 4.66 hang time FC at 12.
7. 46 yards with 4.25 hang time and 12 yard return- Tackle by Schum
8. 52 yards with 4.96 seconds of hang time 6 yard return.
Here's my ranking of his punts [though I didn't see them]:
Kicks #1 and #2 were great; #2 is all-pro stuff!
kick #6 was pretty good, but at 45 yards all-pro needs that hang time at 5 seconds.
kick #5 a little short but with sufficient hang time, which is not as bad as a little long.
kick #3 too long, but not the end of the world, if this kick had decent hang time and landed at the 10 and our coverage was inept in downing the ball, this kick gets moved with top two punts.
Kicks #4 was too long and #8 was a little too long for respective hang times, thus allowing returns; this is the kinda stuff causing Masthay not to stick for the competition w/ Schum.
Kick #7: these kicks get you waived!