Troy kicker fights inconsistency

TROY — Sam Glusman’s streaky right foot is starting to go in the wrong direction.

The junior from Mobile, who won the placekicking job in preseason camp, hadn’t missed a kick until the sixth game, when he pushed an extra point left moments after being roughed on a field goal attempt. It got worse last week against North Texas, when Glusman couldn’t overcome a fundmental error that plagued him in the preseason.

He missed two extra points, had another one blocked and missed his first field goal of the year.

“It looked like to me he wasn’t following through on his kicks and keeping his head down,” special teams coach Shayne Wasden said. “Sam has shown that he can do it, so that tells me it’s between his ears.”

The life of a kicker is such that he’s remembered for his last kick. Glusman wasn’t overly giddy after Troy’s 45-17 win.

“It was bad enough missing one,” Glusman said. “Missing two and having one blocked was rough. It got to me and made me mad a little bit.”

One of the makes bounced off the left upright and went through, so the gods were on his side.

“I was praying,” he said. “I was so lucky that went in.”

Glusman said from pregame warmups he didn’t feel right, but was told his kicks in the net were good. During the game, he knew something was wrong.

“My form just wasn’t there,” Glusman said. “I didn’t have it for some reason. I’ll watch film and get better from it. I was upset with myself after the game, but it’s one kick at a time. That’s our motto — one kick.”

Head coach Larry Blakeney took light of the situation earlier this week. Troy plays at Louisiana-Monroe Saturday at 6 p.m., and Glusman will obviously still be the Trojans’ kicker.

“I’m gonna kill me a damn kicker is what I’m going to do,” Blakeney said. “I talked way too much of Glus last week. (His form was) outside in, like my golf swing.”

The blocked kick, Blakeney said, wasn’t on Glusman.

“They jumped the gap between right guard and center,” Blakeney said. “When somebody blocks it up the middle, it’s not on Sam. He’s always had good trajectory on the ball.”

Campaign resumes: Troy lineman Micah Grimes said the faux Heisman Trophy campaign for right guard Wes Potter would resume. On his blog on Troy’s official site earlier this year, Grimes prided Potter’s potential for zero total yards. Against UNT, Potter caught a tipped pass and was tackled for a loss of two yards.

Don’t expect him to step in for any injured receivers, though.

“That’s the last time I need to see him with the ball,” Brown said of the 320-pound Potter. “He came to junior college as a tight end. Obviously, he ate his way out of it.”

A highlight of the play is available on the Dothan Eagle’s Troy blog on dothaneagle.com

Former Geneva standout to play at Troy: Riley Flowers, a 6-foot, 295-pound defensive tackle who graduated from Geneva in 2006, committed to Troy coaches Thursday. He played the last two years at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss.

Flowers picked Troy over scholarship offers from North Carolina State, UAB and Middle Tennessee. He is scheduled to enroll in time for 2009 spring practice.