Listen, I need to raise my hand on something. I was very loud and vocal about how I thought the Wisconsin Badgers would struggle in the kicking game this season. Even to go so far as to suggest that bringing Nathaniel Vakos back with an extra year of eligibility was an option. Yikes.
I love that I have to eat my words on this, as Gavin Lahm has been incredible so far. His stats are blowing me away, and he's been light-years better than Nathanial Vakos. I know that Luke Fickell was saving him for this season, but man, we could have used his big leg last year. But first, let me defend my stance and then apologize to Lahm for thinking he stunk.
First, Lahm was struggling in camp. The reports coming out of Fall Camp were that he was missing at a decent rate; some even said around a 50% hit/miss ratio. That's pretty bad. Second, Fickell didn't actually give a glowing review when asked why there was only one kicker on the roster back in January. He basically said they were still looking at the portal.
Third, and maybe most importantly. Wisconsin's offense has been terrible the last few years and getting into field goal range and making those kicks is typically a win or lose scenario. The Badgers need a good kicker. So, the alarm was sounded. And so far, through the bye-week, I'm very pleased to be SUPER wrong. Sorry, Gavin Lahm, you've proven me an idiot.
Wisconsin's Gavin Lahm has been one of the most consistent kickers in the nation
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Lahm has only missed one kick all season, and it was an extra point. And honestly, it appears that could have been on the holder and not the kicker. He's 17/18 on extra point attempts. He's 9/9 on field goals, making one from 20-29 yards, five from 30-39 yards, two from 40-49 yards, and one from 50-59 yards. That's incredibly impressive.
Lahm has accounted for 44 points for the Wisconsin offense. Vakos only had 40 total points all of last season, and he was 19/19 on extra points and 7/11 on field goals, missing one each from 30-39, 40-49, and 50-59. He was 0-1 beyond 50 yards. So Lahm has already passed 2025 Vakos; we don't even need to get into 2024 Vakos, who was miserable.
Now, it's still early, and the devil's advocate on this article may be like, " Don't jinx it. But I need to give Lahm his flowers during this bye week, as he's already surpassed what I thought he was going to do. He went from being a potential weakness to a huge strength. Luke Fickell has to feel somewhat confident that Lahm and his big leg are going to go out there and knock it through; he hasn't had that confidence before.
It's yet to really matter, but at some point, Lahm is going to need to win us a game, so we need to see this continue and see it in crunch time. But for now, hats off to Lahm; he's been fantastic.
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