Auburn’s Wes Byrum improved this year

Less is more for kicker Wes Byrum.

Less work on kickoffs throughout the offseason allowed him to focus more on his real role with the Tigers, putting points on the board by putting it through the uprights.

Byrum’s been able to kick less in practice during the season because there’s no need to “over-kick” when things are going as well as they have gone.
And less stress when he lines up for kicks has allowed his confidence to continuously build throughout this comeback season of sorts for Auburn’s once-maligned kicker.

“When I go out there, it’s just like the attitude I have now is just like practice. Just go out there and kick the ball,” Byrum said. “If I’m thinking about anything technique-wise or anything like that, mechanics, then that’s probably not a good thing.”

Byrum sits atop the SEC field-goal kicker rankings, tied with South Carolina’s Spencer Lanning for best in the league with a 10-of-11 start to the 2009 season. Five of those have come from 40 yards or deeper, and he needs just one more make from any distance to match his entire 2008 total.

Byrum was just 11-of-19 in 2008, a drastic drop-off from his strong freshman campaign, where he Gator-chomped his way into the hearts of Auburn fans with a number of clutch kicks.

As with seemingly every facet of Auburn’s football team last season, Byrum simply couldn’t put it together at the start and had his woes compounded when the pressure grew more and more intense.

Unlike 2007, when he nailed consecutive 43-yard field goals to beat Florida in Gainesville (the first was overruled because of a Gator timeout), there wasn’t a defining moment to Byrum’s 2008 season.

It was just a series of missed kicks that made the confidence surrounding him — and the confidence within him — dwindle with every loss.

“After missing a couple, it just got tough,” Byrum said. “Overall the team wasn’t doing well, and I wasn’t helping at all on my end of it by putting points up on the board when we were struggling.

“I just got in a funk where it was like a ‘What’s going on?’ type deal.”

Upon his arrival as Auburn’s new special teams coordinator, Jay Boulware watched video of Byrum’s wayward kicks. He immediately noticed what many fans could pick up from the upper deck: flawed form that put Byrum in an awkward position, kept his kicks low and put a funky spin on the ball.

Byrum’s project after an uninspiring spring, which left his status as Auburn’s kicker ambiguous, was to fix it. Kickoffs, which Byrum handled in his first two years, would have to wait, and, eventually, be taken off his list of responsibilities.

Morgan Hull has since taken over those duties while Byrum has certainly handled his.

“When I first got here, I wasn’t pleased with his production — or lack thereof — in the spring,” Boulware said. “He’s really worked hard at it. All the credit goes to Wes.”

The credit went that way after Auburn’s 26-22 victory, when Byrum hit four of his five attempts to help a Tiger offense that, after four games of offensive fireworks, met a defense capable of clamping down in the red zone. He was recognized as the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week — the first time he’s picked up the honor since that career-defining night in Gainesville.

“Everything he has been doing so far has been right on,” coach Gene Chizik said. “We say you carry over to the game what you do in practice, and he is a case in point of that.”

His time away from the practice field has also been beneficial.

Byrum meets with former Auburn kicker John Vaughn, the program’s all-time leading scorer, at least once a week to eat. The two, who met when Vaughn hosted Byrum on a recruiting visit, share a similar history with the Tigers.

While Vaughn made 50 field goals in his Auburn career, he may be more remembered for his five misses in a loss to LSU in 2005.

“He came in, played all four years. He’s missed before; he’s made,” Byrum said. “He’s been in the situations as well, so it’s really easy to talk to him about it because I know he knows where I’m coming from.”