MSNSportsNET Wrote:McAfee Musings
By Christopher Marshall for MSNsportsNET.com
July 23, 2007

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you sit down to talk to Pat McAfee you know you are usually in for a treat. The phrase never a dull moment comes to mind. The junior kicker has an engaging and often hilarious personality that gives media personalities a bevy of entertaining material to work with.


Junior Pat McAfee is heading into this season expecting to handle both the punting and kicking for the Mountaineers.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

The Plum, Pa., native is trudging through his first full summer of workouts with Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Barwis. McAfee missed a lot of last summer’s off-season working at kicking camps. He’s enjoying being in Morgantown with his teammates, but ask him about the workouts at Barwis Beach and he has a different response altogether.

“There hasn’t been a lot of sunshine the past couple of days. There has been a lot of rain on Barwis Beach. It’s been terrible,” McAfee said. “The past couple workouts have been pushing us really hard. Hopefully I gained a lot of strength out of it because my legs feel like they are being ripped in half. I feel good other than that.”

Some people might think that kickers have it easier when it comes to conditioning and workouts. All they need is some leg-specific exercises and then they can go practice kicking. After all, why would a kicker need to go through the grueling lifting regimen that lineman endure? All they do is kick right?

Not with Barwis -- not a chance.

“I would love to say there is a big difference but there is absolutely none. I don’t specialize in my legs or anything. I do the same workouts as everybody else. Running is the same. I think we should have a word with Barwis and try to change that,” McAfee joked.

McAfee explains that while he is working harder than ever in the weight room he is attempting to take it easier this summer in terms of actual kicking practice.

“I’m not kicking too much. I’m limiting myself because last summer I kicked a lot and bad things happened in the preseason,” McAfee said. “I kick a couple times a week but not anything crazy.

“It was my quad,” he continued. “I kicked all summer at those camps and then I came up here and did a little workout. I was overusing it I guess and whenever preseason came it showed,” McAfee said.

McAfee, who connected on 17 of 22 field goal attempts last year and made all 62 PATs, says he is preparing to start this year just as he ended last season: in the dual role of punter and kicker. He averaged 43.2 yards on 18 punts last season with a long of 75.

“I’m going into training camp ready to do both. I alternate punting and kicking every practice. I do game situation type of stuff so I’m going in with the mindset of having both jobs all year,” McAfee said.

McAfee is using the summer to get used to his third holder in as many years. This season that responsibility falls to redshirt freshman Jeremy Kash.

“Little Kash (Jeremy Kash) is one of my close friends so I drag him around every time I want to kick. I get him out of bed. He’s a hilarious kid and a great guy,” McAfee said. “Kash is like a little pit bull. He’s just a laid back guy that likes to have a good time. He and I are like the same person.”

McAfee admits it has been a bit of a challenge trying to adjust to a new holder practically every time he turns around.

“They just retire,” McAfee joked. “Every time I go through the year with them they just quit. Hopefully Kash will stick around.”

On a serious note, McAfee explains the bond of trust that a holder and a kicker must develop to be successful.

“George and I (Shehl) my freshman year were tight. T-Mac and I (Travis McClintic) were tight and Kash and I are tight. I have to trust them just like they have to trust me too,” McAfee said.

One thing to take notice of whenever you are around McAfee is the status of his ever-changing hair. It changes colors about as often as most people change their socks.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with the hair. Right now I kind of have a Mohawk going. It’s kind of all just growing into one now,” McAfee said. “I’m going to say it’s been at least a good seven or eight colors.”

As often as the color of the hair on his head may change, Mountaineer fans are hoping his steadying influence as a kicker and a punter remains exactly the same in 2007.