Ex-Cal, NFL Kicker Ryan Longwell Shares His Wisdom With Cal Kickers

Place-kicker Ryan Coe, punter Lachlan Wilson benefit from Longwell's advice that kicking is 'rhythm and routine'

Ryan Longwell (8) attempts a field goal in Super Bowl XXXII / Peter Brouillet-USA TODAY Sports

Rhythm and routine. Rhythm and routine.  Take all the variables out of the mix and concentrate on two things: rhythm and routine.

That’s what Ryan Longwell emphasizes to place-kicker Ryan Coe and punter Lachlan Wilson at Cal’s practice.  And since Longwell spent four seasons as Cal’s punter and 16 seasons as an NFL place-kicker, his words have credibility.

“I don’t know all the answers, but I was successful enough to know the way to do it,” said Longwell, who turns 50 years old on Friday.

Having Longwell on the field to coach punters and kickers is a luxury for Cal. 

College teams often assign an assistant coach who has never kicked a football in a game to coach the special teams, including the kickers.  But thanks to a new NCAA rule that allows analysts to be on the field during practice, Justin Wilcox thought it might be a good idea to add Longwell to the staff as an analyst this year.

So Longwell is sharing his knowledge as both a punter and place-kicker with Coe and Wilson.

Cal is Coe’s fourth college, and 2024 will be his sixth season as a college kicker, but he says he is still learning from Longwell.

“Something that’s really helped me, just in this fall camp, has been the focus, the mental focus on each rep and taking my steps and making sure that everything in calculated,” Coe said, “and there is an importance to everything and just dialing in what I need to do so that I can make kicks on the field.”

Coe, 23, will be Cal’s place-kicker this season after transferring from North Carolina following his injury-plagued 2023 season.

His very last kick for the Tar Heels was not a good one.  In the second game last season, he tore a groin muscle early in the contest, but continued to do the kicking the rest of the game.  He missed a 39-yard field goal on the final play of regulation, but the Tar Heels ultimately beat Appalachian State 40-34 in overtime and Cow missed the rest of the season.

Coe’s first field goal attempt for Cal will be his first since that missed kick against Appalachian State.

Wilson is a 26-year-old Australian who has been booming punts in training camp, and he wants to be able to do that on every punt during games.

“The biggest thing we work on is consistency,” Wilson said, “and how we get that is staying on my straight line and getting my drop right. And we do that and I’m fast, we see the results.”

Paraphrasing Longwell’s philosophy: Keep it simple, stupid.

“Quite frankly most colleges and college coaches add variables to that mix,” Longwell said, “and the thing we do in the NFL, better than anywhere else, is eliminate variables, so it’s kind of flipping that.”

So Longwell tries to structure practice so elements like the speed of the game, the adrenalin rush, the angles, etc., don’t affect the process.

“There is so much focus on how to do it and you forget that what you do in practice is nothing like what you do in a game,” said Longwell. “What I tell every kicker is that it’s rhythm and routine, so the rhythm and routine loses you in every situation.”

Whether it’s a first-quarter PAT or a last-second field goal, the kicker is thinking only about the rhythm and the routine, not the situation.

Longwell knows about failure.  He was recruited to Cal as a punter, and that was his only chore as a redshirt freshman in 1993.  That year, Doug Brien was the Bears’ place kicker (12 years in the NFL), Longwell was the holder (16 NFL seasons) and David Binn was the long-snapper (17 NFL seasons), a place-kicking trio that eventually played a combined 45 NFL seasons.

As a third-year sophomore, Longwell added the place-kicking chores, and he was lousy, going 8-for-22 on field goal attempts in 1994.  Obviously he was not considering a pro career as a place-kicker at that point.

“I was thinking, I better get real good at punting,” Longwell.

That’s when Brien, then with the 49ers, gave Longwell some mechanical advice about his approach that changed his life.  He was 23-for-33 on field goals his final two Cal seasons, and was able to catch on with the Packers as an undrafted free agent after he was waived by the 49ers.

His best kicking memory was his 55-yard, game-winning field goal “against the wind” on the final play of the game in the Vikings’ 34-31 road victory over the Chicago Bears in 2007.

Now his role is to help Wilson and Coe be consistently successful, which starts with acting like a professional on and off the field.

How Wilson and Coe perform will be critical to Cal’s success in 2024.  Last season Cal had four games decided by four points or fewer.  They broke even by going 2-2 in those games, helping the Bears earn a bowl berth for the first time since 2019.  The Bears need to win a higher percentage of those tight games to challenge for an ACC title, and a well placed Wilson punt or a pivotal Coe field goal could be the difference.

It’s all about rhythm and routine.

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