It's a win-win situation. Payne is healthy and better this year. Sorensen has a cannon leg and will hopefully send all kickoffs deep into the endzone. Sorensen goes on a mission after this season, so it's good that Payne has shown improvement. I'm hoping they both have banner years. Go Cougs!!!!

outstanding. Payne carries most of the field goal duties, Sorenson kicks off for a year then goes on a mission. comes back in two when payne graduates and Sorenson has 3 years after that. cougs look good right now for the next 6 years. of course next year and the year after we are back to not having deep endzone kickoffs.

Wow, this goes to show how over-rated Sorenson really is. People need to remember he's not kicking off from the 40 yard line, and college goal-posts are more narrow than high school posts.

Anonymous. Sorensenis not over-rated. He is a freshman, and the game is a whole lot different from high school. Obviously the young man has talent. As does Payne. It's a good "problem" to have.

I hate BYU and I hate Bingham, but Sorenson is not over-rated. I was there when he hit the 62 yarder against Jordan. I can only hope he comes home from his mission and is not the same.

Anonymous, High school and college goal posts are the same width, 18'6"; and even with moving the kick-off back 5 yards, he is still getting his kicks into the endzone. In my book, that's pretty good for a kid who couldn't do much kicking for six months.

That's what I read on Sorensen. So much hype, I thought he was the best ever from the articles earlier this year.

"Wow, this goes to show how over-rated Sorenson really is. People need to remember he's not kicking off from the 40 yard line, and college goal-posts are more narrow than high school posts."

"Sorensen hit field goals from 30 and 56 yards and missed from 40 and 49...He drilled a kickoff eight yards deep into the end zone during Wednesday's scrimmage,..."

I'm pretty sure Sorensen was kicking off from the 35 yard line and that the goal posts in LaVell Edwards Stadium are the standard college width.

No worries, Justin will have plenty of time to get acclimated to kicking in college stadium before BYU visits RES in November.

@ I'm not a mouse,

Please let us all know what your best kickoff and field goal distances are. I would guess right about the 5 yard mark, arm chair girlie.

Anonymous - just because Sorenson and Payne are in a tight race it suddenly means to you and others that Sorensen was overrated? That is literally idiotic. So any hyped freshman that does not come in and blow away those experienced players ahead of him is overrated right? If Chambers does not take Collie's starting role I say we ship his sorry self back to Florida!! Come on - think before posting.

If the Yewts want to try to rip on Sorensen we should let them, cause when he hits a 60 yard field goal against them they will be left with their mouths wide open and we will be laughing at them.

Too bad your life is filled with hate. You must lead a miserable existance. Maybe it would impress someone if you burned a cross at LES.

You're right some of these comments from Utah fans are a bit outlandish, but you have to admit BYU fans did their part to warrant such posts. After Sorensen kicked that 62-yarder, all Utah, USU, Weber St., heard was how amazing of a kicker Sorensen was going to be. We heard BYU fans claim he would step right in and blast 50+ yarders with regularity.

He may end up being a great kicker. Maybe he'll even play on Sundays one day. But there's no doubt in my mind he was overhyped by the BYU fan base. The expectations were established so high, you'd be a fool as a rival fan not to point out when he's not living up to those expectations. Even in practice.

I absolutely love that people make fun of kickers, I would like to see any of you that are ripping on sorensen stand there and kick a pressure packed field goal. My be is you would end up with some lineman chasing you after you hit him in the back side with your line drive. Bronco realizes how important kickers are, that is why he put such an effort into recruiting him unlike the boys on the hill. Tell me Yewt fans how good are you guys without louie, and how good was he as a freshman? that is what I thought so keep your posts for the MUSS message boards where all the idiots think you are wise

The standard upright dimensions are:

NFL, CFL, and NCAA (since 1991): height 10 feet (3.0 meters), width 18 feet 6 inches (5.64 meters)
High school: height 10 feet (3.0 meters), width 23 feet 4 inches (7.11 meters) (games may be played on fields with uprights by state adoption)
Arena Football: height 15 feet (4.57 meters), width 9 feet (2.74 meters)

Why recruit kickers so heavily when you can find a Sakoda as walk-on, who turns out to be a pre-season All-American? If Mitch Payne is what I'd get recruiting kickers so heavily, then I'll take my chances with the walk-on route.

And to be honest I don't get your argument. Is it that kicking is more difficult than we realize? Is it that Bronco's recruitment of kickers is innovative, not to forget ingenious? Is it that Utah fans don't realize how important Louie is to their team (which I highly doubt)? Or is it making a superfluous comparison between Louie's freshman year and Sorensen's freshman year. You're all over the map, buddy. Condense that argument so us MUSS message boards idiots can understand it.

Sorensen wasn't overhyped, as you say. If you read the story it says he suffered an ankle injury in Juanuary and wasn't able to start kicking again until June. That's affected his accuracy for now, but he'll get it back. Don't worry Cougar fans, he's the real deal.

I thought Sorensen was the best kicker ever recruited by any Division 1 college in NCAA history and that Payne was the cause of all of BYU's kicking ills last year. Sounds like Cougar fans have been taking too many Dick Harmon columns to heart. In reality, something Mr Harmon knows nothing of, Payne is a pretty good D 1 kicker and I am sure Sorensen will be too - SOMEDAY.

Matt Payne never made a big kick...

They are kickers....who cares?

cant wait for sorenson to go on that mission to mess up his kicking. played against the kid in high school, he is a head case waiting to explode

The fact that he has missed some kicks is no big deal. When he was in high school he was the big man on campus. At 6'2" he was literally one of the bigger guys on a high school campus. Now he is just another little freshman.

If you read the article he is still in the wow stage. He seems slightly intimidated by the environment and kindof a 'pinch me I'm dreaming' moment for him. Kind of like how Payne seemed to be last year. Maturity and experience cannot be over stated.

Throw in competition as well. Payne saw the writing on the wall that everyone was counting him out. He took it personal and got serious about his game. Between the two of kickers BYU should have a better year than last year. They may not equal Sakota but then who will in the US.

I'm just happy the kicking game should be better than last year. Imagine having almost no kickreturns. And hitting almost 100% from 40 yards or less, with a better shot at hitting longer field goals.

These two should add 3-6 points a game just by being more consistent.

Go BYU!

What? I didn't follow your comment, it makes an unsupported conclusion not based on fact or examples.

It'll be great having a dependable kicking game once again. Combine that with a great, and now, experience offense and a solid defense, and this will be a great year for BYU football.

Now that he's healthy and motivated, Payne is playing up to the form BYU fans expected of Matt's little brother.

Justin is like a kid in a candy store, so booting kickoffs into the endzone will be great experience for him to get acclimated to playing in front of 65,000 screaming fans.

BOTH kickers booting 56-yarders bodes well for an impressive one-two punch from the kickers.

If we can get some distance on punts this season, our kicking game will be solid.

Sorenson is still the greatest kicker ever....and they're just saying it's still a competition so that Payne doesn't feel like a total loser. I suggest you all find Adam Sandler's The Lonely Kicker song and sing it to yourselves while wondering if your kicker is as good as the coogs are.

Oh my, oh my!

Could someone please use their Urim and Thummin to explain this quote:

"Said Mendenhall: "When you consider Justin, even watching him kick the ball off, knowing that if you kick the ball out of bounds, where the ball is going to start in terms of scoring and for every yard of field position that an opponent gains on a return their chances of scoring goes up, that part of it, even if he's not the field goal kicker, is a huge asset to our team."

It sounds like Bronco doesn't care if it gets kicked OB.

Before its over Sorenson will be the best kicker BYU has ever had. Payne just has the experience right now and besides Sorenson wil get to try some long ones you watch. The fact he can kick them 8 yds deep into the endzone is a plus. The special teams just got alot better. Utah sorry but he will live to haunt you.

Jimmy,
He's talking about kicking it out of the back of the end zone, in which case it comes out at the 20. That's great field position for a defense. With recent rule changes, kickoffs are being returned more and more often to around the 30.

Utah is goint to have a dumpy year!

I saw Sorenson kick a 72 yarder in practice before his injury. He is the real deal.

I saw him kick a 272 yarder in the Super Bowl backwards. So who's your daddy now?

So with this kid, does it mean BYU will go for field goals now? It was pretty embarassing that Bronco would never have the team kick them. It made BYU look like my high school team.

So you BYU fans think that Bronco is going to let Sorenson start kicking 60+ yarders in an actual game? Stop dreaming. Bronco even said that "where the ball is going to start in terms of scoring and for every yard of field position that an opponent gains on a return their chances of scoring goes up." This thinking applies also to turning the ball over. You think Bronco is going to regularly risk the possibility of giving the ball to the opponent around the 50 yard line?? Almost always it will be more beneficial to try and pin a team inside the 20.

BYU fans don't really understand football. Many decisions made by the coach are based on PROBABILITY. Have you ever considered why coaches regularly choose to punt/kick a field goal on 4th and 1? I'm sure Sorenson can kick that far. But the longer the attempt the lower a kicker has to kick it and the greater the likelihood is that it will be blocked. This kid will probably be a huge asset to the team but (as far as field goals go) he won't have a HUGE impact.

The Cougars have depth and talent with their kickers other schools wish they had. The thing Sorenson has going for him is that he's a football player as well as a kicker (weightlifting and riding a unicycle). I would love to see him launch kickoffs through the uprights and should get a standing ovation every time he does this. The bottom line: BYU should be a field goal threat every time it gets inside the opponent's 40, provided the field is in good shape, and Cougar fans should not tolerate any kickoffs going out of bounds before reaching the goal line.

Another note on Sorensen, something that for one reason or another was ignored by the media last season: Sorensen kicked 72 consecutive extra points while at Bingham. The string started in the Hunter game when he was a junior and ended in the Hunter game the next season. I'm sure the BYU coaching staff was aware of this streak. There were some unsuccessful two-point tries there, but they don't count as Sorensen misses.

What others say is true: Missions will help resolve competition for the BYU kicking job.

It's hard to believe that grown men can make such childish comments about each other and their college sports programs. I realize there is a rivalry between the schools but come on! GROW UP and act like MEN, not immature teeny boppers.

RE: "So with this kid, does it mean BYU will go for field goals now? It was pretty embarassing that Bronco would never have the team kick them. It made BYU look like my high school team."

Ummm...I wouldn't say that Bronco "never" had the team kick field goals. As I recall, BYU kicked 4 field goals in the game against Utah and Payne hit 3. Also, don't forget about the Cougs going for it on 4th and 5 in the 4th quarter, instead of attempting a fifth field goal.

RE: "BYU fans don't really understand football."
Wow! Cougar fans, did you get that? NONE of us really understand football. Guess we better give up now.
Way to take the credibility scale up a notch with such a sweet blanket statement.

The BYU coaches had me kick for them last Spring and I regularly made field goals from 90+ yds out. The only problem is I do my kicking with a bionic leg built at a local research lab that is decades ahead of the times, and the NCAA rules won't allow for a kicker with a bionic leg. When coach found out he couldn't have me as a Cougar he came to me with tears in his eyes and said, "well, I guess I have to go with Payne or Sorensen now".

This is starting to sound dangerously familiar. I just hope Bronco doesn't come right out and say "We have the best kicker situation in the country."