Kicking game clicking for Witt football

Matt Gallatin has the Tigers’ kickers in championship form.

Wittenberg photo/Wittenberg photo Matt Gallatin, Wittenberg kicker

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer Updated 8:10 AM Thursday, October 29, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — With the winds swirling on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Edwards-Maurer Field, Matt Gallatin listened to his kickers complain. Then he decided to show them the conditions were no big deal.

“Let me kick a couple,” he said.

The former Wittenberg kicker, an All-North Coast Athletic Conference first-team selection as a senior in 2000, put their concerns to rest with a couple of boots before the 28-7 victory over Carnegie Mellon.

“It’s beneficial when they see somebody else doing it,” Gallatin said.

Gallatin returned to the Wittenberg coaching staff this year for the first time since 2005 to help coach the kickers and punters. He still has a full-time job teaching autistic and emotionally disturbed children at Dublin Coffman High School, and he also helps coach the kickers and punters for the Division I, No. 3 ranked Coffman High School football team.

He must be doing something right. Together Wittenberg and Coffman are 16-0.

“Matt’s outstanding,” Wittenberg coach Joe Fincham said. “He brings a lot of energy and obviously a lot of knowledge. Those guys trust him.”

Wittenberg currently leads NCAA Division III in net punting (38.3 yards per punt). That stat takes into account punts and punt coverage.

Punter Trevor Cochran ranks third in the NCAC with a 39.0 average.

Placekicker Zack Harris has made 29 of 31 point-after attempts and hit the game-winning field goal against Wabash.

“One thing I can say about all the special teams is they’re all very coachable,” Gallatin said. “Everyone has improved this year. You can say, ‘Hey, I want you to try this new thing,’ and they’ll try it. I tell them, ‘It might not work for you, but let’s give it a shot.’ ”

Gallatin tries to get to at least one practice a week and also the home games or close road games, like Saturday’s 7 p.m. game at Denison. When he’s not there, Mark Ewald works with the kickers, and Rob Linkhart takes the punters, Fincham said.

Gallatin said his philosophy is to make each kicker’s individual style work.

“There are hundreds of different guys who teach, ‘This is the way to kick. This is the way to punt. You do it my way, or you’re doing it wrong,’ ” Gallatin said. “But every kid has their own style. Our job is to take what the kid’s currently doing and modify it and make it work for them. No two kickers kick the ball the same, and no two punters are the same.”

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