Clemson Football: The Mark Buchholz Dilemma

A friend of mine once asked what I thought was the most stressful position to play in college football.

I responded off-handedly that it was quarterback, what with reading defenses, anticipating blitzes, calling the play, and putting the ball where the receiver can get it, all while avoiding taking a sack, and with about 30 seconds of prep time in between plays to boot.

He respectfully disagreed, suggesting that placekickers are under greater pressure during their comparatively short stints on the playing surface.

If that particular kicker is Mark Buchholz, the sometimes brilliant, sometimes maddeningly frustrating soccer star turned kicker for the Clemson Tigers, I'd call that a good argument.

Time and again in the 2007 football season, Mark Buchholz was given the (perhaps unfair) responsibility of keeping the Tigers competitive in close games, and occasionally winning them outright.  

The results were mixed at best.

Tigers fans remember with agony Buchholz's last-second miss against Boston College that would have sent the game into overtime. Perhaps equally frustrating are the memories of his one-for-five effort against Georgia Tech and two-for-four against Auburn.

Clemson lost the Chick-Fil-A Bowl by a field goal.

Mixed in with those performances were a three-for-three outing against Wake Forest, a clutch game-winner against South Carolina, and a perfect PAT record, something the great Jad Dean failed to accomplish the year before, which incidentally also cost the Tigers a win over Boston College. 

To blame all these losses on Buchholz would be irresponsible. Many of his missed kicks were from nearly 50 yards out, a tough distance for most college kickers.

A good portion of the blame ought to fall on the offense-if you convert on third and short, you don't have to go for 50-yard field goals.

Or you could blame head coach Tommy Bowden for trying for long field goal after long field goal against Tech and Auburn, by which time it was abundantly clear that, while Buchholz has the power to make a field goal far longer, he simply doesn't possess the accuracy.

All of this makes the relative silence coming out the Tiger spring practices somewhat baffling. The major story lines have been the offensive line and linebacker, important areas, to be sure. A good O-line turns field goal attempts into touchdowns, and a good linebacker corps stuffs the run and gets you field position.

But when you can point to instances where even one made field goal could have changed the Tigers' season, it's frustrating not to hear that the position received a spring overhaul.

One made field goal against BC would have sent the game into overtime. Another against Auburn would have given Clemson the win in regulation. Give Buchholz 100-percent accuracy, and Clemson's only loss would have been to Virginia Tech.

It could have been Clemson embarrassing Ohio State in Louisiana in January.

Maybe complete accuracy is a bit of a high expectation. But it would still be nice to hear that there has been work on the position.

Richard Jackson is supposed to be the future; how is he doing? Has there been any competition at all? Does Buchholz still intend to play both sports? What is happening at placekicker? 

To the average fan, the position isn't as "sexy" as quarterback, or even linebacker and offensive lineman, the positions that dominated the spring headlines. But when you're a Clemson fan, and you can imagine a 9-3 regular season as 10-2, with the ACC title game to look forward to, that position becomes an unquestionably high-pressure one.

Maybe even more so than quarterback.