BYU kicker Will Ferrin talks game-winner over Utah, Jay Hill's tactics, his 'obsession' with kicking, and more

Down 21-19 with less than two minutes remaining, BYU had only one chance left to keep its perfect season alive and do something it hadn’t done since 2006: win on the road against its Holy War rival.

After a key timeout by Kalani Sitake and a subsequent holding penalty on Utah gave BYU a fresh set of downs and a second chance, one that frustrated Utah fans and athletic director Mark Harlan alike, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff and the offense capitalized, driving to Utah’s 26 yard line with three seconds left.

With the season on the line, all eyes turned to BYU’s electric kicker, eventual Big 12 Kicker of the Year Will Ferrin.

Photo by BYU Photo

Lining up, Ferrin faced immense pressure as thousands of hostile fans created as much noise as possible to distract him.

Adding to the pressure was the memory of the last time BYU faced a last second field goal in Rice-Eccles — a 24-21 loss in 2012 that saw BYU get two field goal opportunities in the final second because of fans rushing prematurely rushing the field.

While BYU missed both field goals in 2012, this time the Cougars were left hoping it would be Utah’s turn for heartbreak as the kick left Ferrin’s foot.

Lo and behold, BYU avoided the tragedy of 2012 as No. 44 drilled the game winning 44 yard field goal to give BYU a 22-21 win over Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Arguably no kick Ferrin made during his record setting season, in which he set BYU’s single season mark for field goals made, was more important than this one.

But for Ferrin, the moment was simply a testament to the hard work and preparation he had put in.

“In the Utah kick, in that moment, I think the reason I was able to succeed was because I'd prepared so well,” said Ferrin. “Every offseason it's kind of like that idea of developing the skill of mental imagery. I've done a lot of stuff previously, like watching a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium and putting myself in the shoes of the kicker that's on the away team. I'm just watching the drives play out.”

It’s only fitting to hear Ferrin emphasize how important his offseason preparation was in helping him make that kick during a recent offseason interview he had with The Daily Universe.

Along with reflecting on his experience with the big kick against Utah, Ferrin discussed the high pressure moments that prepared him, his offseason training habits, the chemistry he developed with his teammates and much more in this exclusive interview.

So without further ado, here is the interview The Daily Universe had with the hometown hero:

Daily Universe: Okay, just a simple starting point, what is the off season training looking like for you?

Will Ferrin: Yeah, so the off season for everyone, it's kind of just like building up your bodies, [you] recover, or you build up strength. You develop as much as you can. 
With everyone, there's a mental aspect that you need to develop, but with us, it's even bigger with kickers. So, I spend a lot of time [on that]. I have a coach that I meet with to just develop the mental game, and then we have our strength staff that has workouts for us. We have a lot of kicker-specific type stuff that's really cool. We're working rotation and all of that stuff, just trying to build up strength and build up quickness, because those are the things that turn into kicking a ball far. So it's a lot of that, and a lot of just building up, and then some rest too, so that we're ready to go and get a little bit of a mental break right now.

DU: When you say working the mental side, does that mean they're assigning you books to read, or does that mean you go talk to a sports psychologist to kind of gear you in the right mind?

WF: So there's a sports psychologist that I work with who is independent from BYU. But he's been really good. It’s a little bit of everything. When I meet with him, we talk about my last two seasons and how I can improve on what I did mentally for this next season. 
And then from there, it's like, this is what I want to develop. So right now, it's trying to develop the skill, the mental imagery, so that I can prepare for next season more. I go meet with him, and we work on that. There's also some books that I'm reading. It's just a big learning time of the year, but it's been fun.

DU: Well, what are you reading right now? What's your favorite right now?

WF: I finished one called Mind Gym, which is a really good one. It's really like entry-level sports psychology, but really applicable. And then, right now, I'm reading one called How Champions Think, by Bob Rotella.

DU: 
Did you immediately, when you read the first page, be like: ‘Oh, this is exactly how I think?’

WF: Um, no. [laughs] It's an interesting book, though, ‘cause it talks a lot about sports. The author has a golf background, which there is some similarities with kicking, but he talks about sports specifically, and then he talks about life. 
It's like outside of athletics and how the principles are the same. So I've really enjoyed diving into that stuff, but just trying to continue to develop.

DU: Is there any film studying that you do? Do you just watch old tape of your past kicks or do you have to go out and study other kickers and their techniques?

WF: A little bit of both. It really is a lot like golf, actually — the more that you dive into it, where it's like everyone swings a little bit different. And you see it, too, with body types. There are kickers in the NFL that are like six foot, 240 [pounds], and then there are kickers in the NFL that are six four, 180 pounds. You get so many different things, and different kickers get power from different places, and you see a lot of different types of techniques. I'll watch other guys and pick out things I can learn from them, but also I recognize that what I do is different than other people. So, I'll go back and watch my past stuff. I'll only really dive into that stuff if I feel like I need a boost or need to change something. Other than that for the most part, I'll go and kick out in the practice field and record my kicks there and just see what's kind of going wrong. Diving into film of my old stuff and NFL guys and that kind of stuff is more if I feel like there's a change I wanna make, which right now, I'm feeling pretty good. So it's a lot of self critique and evaluation.

DU: You're pretty confident with your kicking form and you haven't been experimenting with anything?

WF: Not really. 
Just refining. With kicking, the way it works is I have my swing and it really doesn't look that much different than when I was in ninth grade or high school. My body's different, but the technique is actually pretty similar.

DU: Probably taller, too, right?

WF: Definitely taller, yeah. But it's being able to take that swing and just refine it so that I can repeat it over and over and over again — [that's] the big piece. Every so often, you'll have kind of this bad habit sneak in, and it's like, ‘Well, I'm pulling a lot of balls to the left right now,’ and then I watch the film and I see what's causing that, and then I work to get that fixed. I'm not making any real changes, it's just the cleanup of the swing that I've been having.

DU: Is that repetition something that you find joy in? Or was it something that's a little bit tricky for you to just keep doing over and over again?

WF: I'm obsessed with it. 
I love it. That's one of the things that I think a lot of people struggle with when they get into kicking. It's so many tiny movements, like talking about foot position, talking about plant foot. It can be tedious to work on that stuff, but I find so much satisfaction in spending a couple hours on kicking, watching film, making little tweaks or doing some drill work. I've been that way since ninth grade just about. Like in high school, I would go out to the field in the morning and spend so long [on it]. I'd watch the film and see my foot's kind of coming up and I need to keep that extended and just like little pieces like that. With kickers, punters, snappers and even holding, you have to be obsessed with the little details like that to be successful. And our group right now is very obsessed with it. It’s good.

DU: You get any close up camera views just looking at your feet? 
Do you get that luxury with film study?

WF: I have before. The film study is not super high tech. Most of our group has bought tripods off Amazon to use with our phones. So I've progressed from the old ‘propping the phone on the tee’ that I did in high school and now I've got a little Amazon tripod. So, yeah, it's just whatever angle we’re looking for.

DU: That's how you know you've matured…

WF: Yeah [laughs].

DU: When you're willing to buy something off Amazon instead of just dealing with it.

WF: Yeah, that's what we do and it's been fun. A lot of the off season is just like working through that kind of stuff and working through our snap, hold, and kick, making sure everything is clean so we don't have to worry about it, come fall. But it's fine, it's a good time.

DU: You feel pretty connected with that group? 
If you had to, I don't know, all of a sudden play this random summer game, you and your long snapper would be tight and ready to go?

WF: Yeah. So we got a new snapper this year, Garrison Grimes… we got two actually Grimes and Ty Smith. The second they get here, it's like we're going. 
So you can only kick so much. It’s kind of like pitching a baseball where you have to kind of keep count so that you're healthy and you're maximizing your leg. But snapping and holding you can do every day. So we do just about every day. We'll go out and Sam [Vander Haar] is the holder and he'll catch anywhere from 20 to 50 snaps. The snapper's job is to put the laces up so they know how many times the ball spins, so the holder catches it with the laces on top of the ball and you can set it down, and that takes work. It has to do with how the holder catches the ball…

DU: More minute details?

WF: Yeah, all of that stuff. So, ever since January, we've been hitting that hard, and right now, we feel good, and we could play a game if we needed to. And hopefully by fall, we feel even better. The hope is that it just becomes second nature, and in games, we just have to worry about putting the ball through [the posts] instead of all the details that we're worrying about now.

DU: It's all just automatic at that point.

WF: 
Yeah, for sure.

DU: You guys run any trick plays? I know that you had a trick play against UCF, when I was just reviewing all the footage. 
I feel like there were more special teams moments, but I know for sure that against UCF, you had your special moment. Any plays like that you guys [have] been cooking up?

WF: Uh, yes and no. Like we're always thinking about getting creative with trick plays and stuff. Right now, this time of year, Coach [Kelly] Poppinga is doing most of that thinking and we're just kicking and refining that. Trick plays were fun because it's like you have the kicker and the punter running and throwing footballs. It's different and it's not our skill, but we can do it and Coach ‘Pop,’ Sam and I like to have a good time with that so we do. 


DU: I imagine it's fun, for anyone it's probably fun. Whenever you see the random, I don't know, quarterback takes the punt … oh, sorry…

WF: Yeah. [laughs]

DU: Too soon, too soon. But I bet that's fun for any skill position or like the big guy that's 300 plus pounds running a pick six [back].

WF: For sure.

DU: But I guess, when it comes to this next upcoming season, how do you actually progress? I mean, technically, you weren't perfect; you missed like one, two, maybe three out of a good amount. So, how do you actually improve? When it comes to the stat sheet, after the 2024 season, you could actually have the same kind of stats, same percentage. So, what does improvement look like for you?

WF: For me, I have a hard time looking [at that]. Some kickers set a goal for their season: ‘This year, I'm gonna be 80%.’ That feels weird to me, cause that means you're planning on missing a few. Like, if you're good planning on 80%, you're planning on missing two of every ten kicks. I don't really like to think like that. My big thing is being one for one every time. The guys in my room probably hate hearing me say that now because I say it so much. But [it’s] being one for one every time, for me. It's important to stay present. So, going into a game, you don't know if you're gonna kick zero field goals or if you're gonna have to hit five.

DU: Or like eight extra points.

WF: Or a bunch of extra points, or a game-winning field goal, or anything like that. So, it's hard to think about overall percentages or to get too broad in your perspective. So, for me, it's like if I can go and keep a mindset where I can stay present and just have that 'one for one every time' kind of mentality, then I'm confident that things will go well and it sets a high ceiling, and it's something that just staying present helps you do. That's what I think about, and that's how I approach it, and if I can go one for one every time, then we'll be doing all right.

DU: That's a good perspective. 
I don't know why that's surprising, ‘cause it's good just staying in the present. But I guess when it comes to kicks, I just never thought you could apply that, but that makes a lot of sense when you say that.

WF: And like in high school, before I had really developed as much as I have now, it was like I'd go into a game and I'd either miss a field goal in the first half, and I'd be like, 'Oh yeah, I gotta come back from that,' or like I'd make a field goal and be all excited about it.In fact, I remember there was one game, it was my sophomore year of high school, where it was pouring rain and we were against a rival school, and I had to make a field goal to take it into overtime. It was this big moment for me, and I was like 15 at the time. I hit this field goal and took it to overtime, and it was like this big moment. And then, like, three minutes later probably, I needed to go kick another field goal to take the lead in overtime, and I was already on this high of taking the game to overtime that I had a hard time focusing on that one. It’s being able to just have a kick, focus on it like it’s the most important thing in the world, and then after it's gone, no matter what happens, just letting it go and being onto the next. And so that's how I like to think about it. 


DU: Did you miss the second?

WF: I missed the one in overtime. But then their kicker missed too, and then we won the game, so it ended up being okay.

DU: You mentioned the really amped up kicks, so it's hard not to think about the Utah game. When you experienced that, do you feel like, in this off season, you need to simulate similar experiences? Or has living it given you all the experience you need with it?

WF: It’s both. Like you need to keep working it for sure. 
In the Utah kick, in that moment, I think the reason I was able to succeed was because I'd prepared so well. Every offseason it's kind of like that idea of developing the skill of mental imagery. I've done a lot of stuff previously, like watching a game at Rice Eccles Stadium and putting myself in the shoes of the kicker that's on the away team. I'm just watching the drives play out.

DU: A lot of good kickers coming out of Utah, too.

WF: So it's like you try and put yourself in those shoes. It's like you're watching what would be your offense driving down the field, and you can feel the nerves piling up, you can feel the butterflies, or you're doing visualization of you going out on the field and kicking a field goal. And that kind of stuff we do in the offseason so that when that moment comes up, we're more comfortable, which is an important thing, and it's something that I'll do every year so I'm ready for moments like that. But also, having some experience in those moments is really big too. I think that Utah kick was a lot easier because the previous season we had the Oklahoma State kick, which was at the end of the game, 47 or 48 yards.

DU: Was that the last game of that season too?

WF: Yeah, two years ago to take it to overtime. And that was very foreign. I mean, that season was my first season kicking field goals in college, and just being able to succeed in that moment propelled me into the offseason to prepare and that makes you feel even better going into the next season. 
So I think it's a little bit of both, where it's like having past experience is really good, but also continuing the mental preparation to go into the next season. So both of them work together.

DU: Do you have any of your coaches yell at you extensively when you're kicking to emulate [those scenarios]? 
Because I know you can't get thousands of voices onto the practice field.

WF: We got about 100 players on the team that are yelling all of the time. [Coach] Jay Hill likes to give me and Sam a hard time when we're kicking and try and get in our heads a little bit, so that's fun. We have a good time with that. 
Nothing feels better than making a kick while Jay Hill is in my ears.

DU: That's funny. It's almost like your friends are your biggest haters, but he only helps you right?

WF: Jay Hill wants me to make every kick even in practice, but he likes to pretend that he doesn't when he's trying to get in my ear.

DU: I just have one more question left. I know it's not spring training anymore. I'm not exactly sure when you're gonna get back at it, but when you're not on the field, would you say that your daily life is gonna make you successful when it comes to game time? 
Do you have to focus on being who you wanna be every day and succeeding in your own life?

WF: Yeah, I would say so. You always hear the phrase being thrown around in football facilities: “How you do small things is how you do all things.” There is a big aspect of that where it's like making sure we're doing well in school, making sure we're taking our lifts seriously, making sure we're investing into our personal lives or our families, or doing that stuff. Kalani [Sitake] is also really big on that. Kalani is a leader far outside of just football.

DU: 
I watched his devotional just a couple of weeks ago, and he really exemplified that.

WF: For sure. He really pushes being the best man you can be. One of the speeches that I've heard him give was after a loss, where he was like: “once you go out of this locker room, you should be the same man you would be if we won the game.” You're treating your family the same, you're doing things you're supposed to do. I believe that doing that kind of stuff helps you succeed on the field too and they work hand in hand. It’s being the best person that you can. Be the best friend, be the best husband, be the best father, if you have kids, [you can be]. And doing that in every aspect of your life, it carries over [to the field]. That's what I believe.