Courtesy BYU Photo

Ask BYU junior kicker Will Ferrin about his personal goals for the 2024 season and you might be a little surprised by his answer — at least until he clarifies his meaning.

“I want to be a kicker that is boring to watch almost,” Ferrin said. “Every time you see the kicker run on the field, it’s three points, he runs off the field, and that’s it. That’s my goal right there to just get the job done every time my name’s called.”

His placekicking position was a concern for Cougar fans heading into the 2023 season but he turned it into a strength, making 32-of-33 extra points and 11-of-14 field goals with a long of 49 yards. Two of his three misses were from 50 yards.

But he feels like he can be even better, according to BYU special teams coordinator Kelly Poppinga.

“He’s been awesome but I think he’s just scratching the surface and his expectations are a lot higher than anybody else’s expectations for him,” Poppinga said. “I know he’s worked his butt off in the offseason. He’s gone to a lot of different places and kicked with a lot of really good kickers in the NFL and around the country. I think he’s on a great track. He’s kicking the ball as well as I’ve seen him kick it. The leg speed and the power and the pop that he has off the ball right now is really good to see.”

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

Part of it is just that Ferrin is passionate about his position.

“I think I’m just obsessed with kicking footballs,” Ferrin said. “There’s always times where it feels more like a job, but I’ve never really felt burnt out with kicking. I’m kind of different that way.”

He said this is something he’s felt ever since he was playing football as a kid.

“I grew up here, and I became obsessed with kickers and kicking pretty young,” Ferrin said. “I remember being in fifth grade and playing on a youth football team where I was punting and kicking off. And I had pictures on my wall of kickers, guys like Matt Prater (currently with the Arizona Cardinals) and any BYU kickers. I had photos of Rhett Almond and Justin Sorensen. If I could find a Google image of a kicker, it was probably on my wall.”

Now he’s the one out there in the Cougar uniform, looking to do his kicking job as well as he can for BYU.

Ferrin said the question of range is something kickers work on, looking to be more accurate from longer distances.

“Our strength and conditioning staff has been phenomenal, probably the best I’ve ever seen,” Ferrin said. “Our workouts are completely different than anyone else, although they’re probably the most similar to the quarterbacks. I think it’s helped so much with this explosiveness.”

Having that strength has allowed Ferrin and the field-goal kicking unit to play around with distances as they work to ensure success on every kick.

“I’m confident they won’t be able to put me out there out of range,” Ferrin said. “I feel like on any given day in a game I can hit anything inside of 60 yards. And maybe with the right conditions we can go beyond that.”

He did note, however, that he can’t just go out and place the ball where he wants it.

“Hopefully we’ll get some opportunities to do that but that’s not something I can control,” Ferrin said. “That’s the hard part of being a kicker. But wherever they have it when they put me out there, I’ll go and do it.”

He said the key for the specialists in the rest of camp is to make sure they are mentally prepared.

“It’s fun having the rush and the operation everything in camp, but right now it’s more about the mental simulation,” Ferrin said. “It’s visualizing that we’re in a game, we’re on the sideline, we’re running on the field. If you do that, I think it kind of diminishes the need to transition to football and get ready for the season. I want to be feeling like we’re already playing in the games so when Week 1 comes, it feels like it’s already Week 4.”