Louisville Has 'Great Confidence' in Kicker Brock Travelstead
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When looking at the list of transfer portal defections this offseason for the Louisville football program, one of the most impactful departures for the Cardinals was that of James Turner.
In 2022, Turner put together one of the best seasons in school history by a placekicker, going 20-for-22 on field goal attempts with 38 point-after attempts to earn an All-ACC honorable mention. His 20 made field goals was good for second-most in a single season at Louisville (21 - Art Carmody, 2006) while his 90.9 field goal percentage set the new UofL single-season record.
Turner's transfer to Michigan was undoubtedly a big loss for Louisville. But if you ask special teams coach Karl Maslowski, Turner might have won the starting job by default.
Maslowski - who spent the 2022 season with Purdue after leaving the Cardinals just after that spring, then later returned to UofL after Jeff Brohm was hired to be their head coach - believes that if returning kicker Brock Travelstead had not suffered a lower leg injury last spring, he might have made a run at the starting job in 2022.
"I will say this, Brock Travelstead, when I left, was pushing to be the starter," Maslowski said. "He ended up having a an injury that held him out. I don't know if James Turner starts last season if Brock was healthy the whole time. We have great confidence in him."
Travelstead eventually made a full recovery, but was relegated to kickoff duties by the time the 2022 season rolled around. That year, he played in all 13 games, averaging 61.5 yards per kickoff on 70 attempts with 40 touchbacks.
With Turner opting to transfer to the Wolverines, that paved the way for Travelstead to slide right into the starting placekicker position for the upcoming 2023 season. But even with the starting gig right there for the taking, Travelstead still got to work over the offseason to improve his conditioning and kicking technique.
"I worked a lot of running to condition myself, I did a lot of that over the offseason," Travelstead said. "Running helped me work on gaining a little bit distance too, gaining leg speed. That's really helped a lot. Accuracy, I've been a lot more accurate than I have in the past, and I truly believe I'm ready this year."
In fact, the Ackworth, Ga. native believes that, on a perfect weather day with no wind, his maximum field goal range could be as much as 60 yards out. For context, the NFL record for longest field goal is 66 yards, made by Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker in 2021.
Maslowski has no doubts about Travelstead's purported range.
"Brock's got a huge leg," he said. "He had been nicknamed 'Legatron' coming out of high school. It's real. He had 45 touchbacks last year, and he's just gotten stronger and stronger. He's overcome a lot of adversity. When he first got here, he got hurt. He was probably the starter last season, and he got hurt.
"He's overcome those things and he continues to be consistently hard working. I think everybody on the team respects him, coaching staff and players, as if he's a regular player, which is hard to do as a specialist."
While Travelstead is the odds-on favorite to be Louisville's starting kicker in 2023, the competition at the position is also fierce. Travelstead himself said "it's a battle" between him and Nick Lopez for the job, who transferred in from Cal earlier this offseason. Nick Keller and Cole Hussung have also performed well in fall camp for the Cardinals.
"We bring in Nick Lopez from Cal, and he's pushed the room," Maslowski said. "Then Nick Keller is a local kid, he's from up in Northern Kentucky and he has one of the biggest legs I've ever seen. The competition's crazy. Then across the river you got Cole Hussung, who's coming from Michigan, and he's like the smartest kicker I've ever been around. He's got ideas, and he's been a real mature and grown voice in the room. We've got a really good mix of kickers."
Louisville is currently in the homestretch of their third week and final week of fall camp. The Cardinals will kick off their 2023 season against Georgia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. on Friday, Sept. 1.
(Photo via University of Louisville Athletics)
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