AU Has Nothing to Kick About With Wellock
September 23, 2003

The bar’s been raised for Ashland University kicker Austin Wellock (North Canton, OH/Green). Not the crossbar, just the bar of excellence. Of course the way the sophomore has been playing this season, elevating the crossbar or moving the goalposts in a couple of inches probably wouldn’t set Wellock’s stats back at all.

In late July and early August Wellock was getting more ink than a Lexmark Z52. Four different publications tabbed the sophomore as a preseason All-America. Grand Valley State, Saginaw Valley State and Wellock were the names most associated with the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Heading into the last weekend of September, Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley are still winning and Wellock is still kicking effectively. This coming Saturday (Sept. 27), Wellock will kick against the Cardinals as AU visits SVSU for a noon game.

“I think it’s really neat, it’s a great honor,” said Wellock of the preseason laurels. “But it’s also something that I have to fulfill. The preseason stuff is a guess that I’m going to do well. Now I have to go out and do it.”

Through the season’s first four games Wellock has done that. He’s 3-for-5 on field goal tries and 8-for-8 on extra points. That’s good for 17 points. When the AU offense was struggling in the season’s first few weeks, he was the one sure thing the coaches could count on. He accounted for all of AU’s points (two field goals) in a 12-6 loss against Edinboro (Sept. 6). That pretty much dispels the theory that the preseason publicity would put more pressure on him.

“No matter how you look at it, preseason All-America or not, I still have to go out and make my kicks,” explained Wellock.

“He’s a student of the game,” said AU assistant coach Tim Seder, who works with the kickers and punters. “He’s been around a lot of other kickers. He’s always looking for ways to improve.”

A year ago, Wellock was an honorable mention All-America and a first team all-region pick. He led the GLIAC in field goals (15-19/1.36 fpg.) and was fifth in kick scoring (61/5.5 ppg.).

That was a good freshman season, but Wellock knew more would be expected in 2003. He spent the summer getting ready to meet the increased demands.

“I worked the Dick Pierce kicking camp,” Wellock said. “Mike Nugent (Ohio State), Billy Sullivan (Akron) and Sean McNicholas (former Edinboro punter) were there. I just worked out with them. We’ve all gone to the camp since high school. We take film of each other and dissect those.”

As his field goal numbers indicate, Wellock has been extremely accurate, especially inside of 40 yards where he’s 18-for-20 (90 percent) in his career. But his job description includes more than just kicking field goals.

“I definitely want to improve my kickoffs,” said Wellock. “Last year they weren’t where I wanted them to be. They’re getting better. I also want to be as consistent as possible on my field goals.”

“A week ago in practice, we got back to some directional kicking and he did well with it,” said Seder of the kickoff workouts. “Sometimes you have a tendency to aim the ball and when you aim the ball, you lose movement. It’s like a pitcher who shortarms the ball. What we did last week was say, ‘Let it Go.’” You can’t try to be perfect with it.”

Adding Seder to the AU staff looks to be a perfect move. In addition to long-time special teams coach Carl White, head coach Gary Keller brought Seder on board to work specifically with the kickers and special teams. Seder was an all-conference kicker at AU who went on to kick professionally with the Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“He’s really helped with my confidence,” said Wellock. “Without a coach you can’t see yourself kicking the ball. He tells me what I’m doing wrong, what I’m doing right.”

“It’s just being understanding,” said Seder of his role. “I know what it’s like to approach each kick. I can tell him it’s not easy. I think a big thing is just being confident. We can talk. If he can talk about it, I can tell him how I approached it. We keep an open line of communication. We can talk about the snap, the hold, the timing. There’s a lot I’ve learned professionally, that was my job.”

Wellock has done his job very well during his AU stint. He hasn’t fallen prey to a prolonged slump or mangled his technique.

“All kickers go through that,” Wellock warned. “It’s like a pitcher or golfer. That’s why you have to film yourself. It’s great having Tim Seder.”

“The less you think about the kick the easier it is,” said Seder, when asked what advice he’s given Wellock. “You want muscle memory.”

Wellock, who tries to kick just under 40 times a day, got plenty of action on game days in 2002. At Wayne State, he tied an NCAA Division II record with six field goals (in six attempts). That’s also a family record – but not by much. Wellock’s younger brother, Andrew, set a school record at Eastern Michigan earlier this year when he kicked four field goals in a game.

Austin Wellock would prefer not to get that many attempts per game. He’d rather spend his time lining up for extra points than long-range field goals.

“I would so much rather score touchdowns every game,” said the Eagle kicker. “To me, last year wasn’t any fun. I had a good year, but I didn’t have fun not winning games. I’d sacrifice kicking field goals for winning games in a heartbeat.”