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Every season each team has a position battle between two players. Whether it’s the starting quarterback or the starting long snapper, there is at least one position where a new starter is going to emerge, and, usually, it’s a battle between two guys, sometimes three.
Michigan had a quarterback battle between quarterbacks Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffrey. Milton won and McCaffrey is transferring. While that was the most talked-about battle heading into the 2020 season, you wanna know the least talked-about battle?
The kicker battle between Quinn Nordin and Jake Moody.
Near the end of the 2018 season, Moody, then a freshman, came in against Indiana with Nordin missing the game due to an illness. Moody made a Michigan record six field goals and led the Wolverines to victory 31-20. Moody remained the starter the rest of the season.
2019 came and neither kicker pulled away, so head coach Jim Harbaugh decided to do a rotation between the two. In Week 1, Nordin made all four extra points, while Moody made two field goals. This rotation continued until Michigan took on Maryland.
Before the Maryland game, neither kicker had missed an extra point, but Nordin was 0 for 3 on field goals while Moody was 6 for 8. Moody missed his third field goal against Maryland, and Nordin took over. Moody didn’t kick the rest of the season.
Nordin finished 28 of 29 on extra points and 10 of 13 on field goals, while Moody was 18 of 18 on extra points while going 6 of 9 on field goals. Both kickers missed three field goals, and Nordin was the only kicker to miss an extra point.
With how the 2019 season ended for Nordin, this is his job to lose. Moody was in the rotation and was getting the nod for most field goals early while Nordin was mostly seeing the extra point attempts. Once Moody missed his third attempt, Nordin saw his chance to take over the job and he did.
Just because Nordin finished the season as the starting kicker, doesn’t mean that he is going to start Week 1 this season. Moody finished the 2018 season as the kicker, yet he split time with Nordin in the 2019 season opener. While Nordin finished the 2019 season as the starting kicker, this job isn’t going to be handed to him.
Nordin has more experience than Moody and has made some huge kicks for the Wolverines during his three seasons. Entering his senior season, Nordin should have the nod over Moody, and Harbaugh shouldn’t have to deal with another season of rotating kickers.
Running with the hot leg makes sense, but neither kicker can get hot if they are in constant rotation for the entire game. Nordin should have this job to start against Minnesota and if he starts missing kicks early in the season, then bringing in Moody has to be the move. Nordin has had his chances during his three years in Ann Arbor, and if he still isn’t able to lock down the starting gig maybe he just isn’t the guy after all.