The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Long and Mullins Anything But Your Everyday, Average Kickers
8/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 10, 2014
Long Video | Mullins Video
By Steve Irvine
www.uabsports.com
It didn't take much time for UAB football coach Bill Clark to learn that he had a special pair of specialists. He didn't determine this by simply watching what they did on the field.
"What's fun to watch about these guys, all our guys work but when you got specialists that don't mind working that's huge," Clark said of senior kicker Ty Long and senior punter Hunter Mullins. "They lift, they run, they do everything else, they're leaders, they're humble. It's been fun to step in to all these guys but especially those guys."
He added one more important point.
"Those guys can be some of the best in the country we think," said Clark.
No question that UAB is blessed with one of the best kicker-punter duos in the nation. Long, entering his fourth season as the Blazers' starting kicker, is third in school history in scoring by a kicker with 229 points, was a Lou Groza Award Watch List member in 2012 and 2013 and a third-team Freshman All-America in 2011. Mullins, a starter the past two seasons, earned mention on the Ray Guy Award Watch List the past two seasons and is the 2014 CUSA Preseason Special Teams Player of the Year.
No doubt they've relied on each other to have success and not just because Mullins serves as Long's holder on field goal and extra point attempts.
"You get to the point where Hunter knows whether I made it or missed it off the sound of the ball," Long said. "If you watch some of our kicks, right when I hit it, we won't even look at it. We'll do our routine after we make it and get off the field. We just know each other that well. I've been blessed with Hunter and (standout long snapper Dallas Noriega) and the other guys who have been here. It really has helped me to have them. I feel like we've all helped each other."
Sometimes the help comes disguised as friendly competition.
"Whenever I see Ty have a good day, making field goals, I'm like `I need to have a good day,'" Mullins said. "Dallas as well, when he's snapping real well. I feel like when Ty's on his game and Dallas is on his game, hitting me in the spot every time, it gives me confidence to have a perfect punt. I feel like we feed off each other."
Mullins didn't show up at UAB with lofty credentials, even though he was a two-time all-state punter at Tallassee (Ala.) High. He settled in behind accomplished senior Trey Ragland as a true freshman and began learning more about his craft.
"I had not been serious about punting until my senior year," said Mullins, who averaged 44.8 yards per punts in 2012 and 43.1 yards last season. "I knew I had so much more room to improve and knew I hadn't maxed out at all. I felt like I had the capability of being very good."
Long showed his ability earlier. He beat out classmate Colin Anderson his first summer on campus and made 16 of 19 field goal attempts during his first season. He had a game-winning 40-yard field goal in the final minute against UCF and set a UAB freshman record for field goals made. Perhaps the most important thing, though, was he learned what it was like to kick in college.
"I'll never forget when I got out there (at Florida), the ref said `Listen for the whistle,'" Long said of his first regular season game. "The crowd started going wild, the music started going and I never heard a whistle. You heard nothing (on the field). It's something you really don't understand until you're out there."
Long probably won't experience anything this season that he hasn't already faced. He has kicked big field goals, including game winners and a school record 54-yarder at Ohio State in 2012, and missed some important attempts. He's kicked in bad weather and in front of big crowds.
Mullins is facing a similar situation. He's kicked with his feet just inside the back of the end zone, faced the pressure of punting to dangerous returners and pinned opponents deep in their own territory.
When the season ends, both can look back fondly on their accomplishments on the field. But both said what might make both of them the proudest goes on out of the game spotlight.
"Our teammates know we've worked our butt off and I take pride I've never missed one thing since I've been in college," Long said. "Every time we've run or lifted in the summer I've never missed. That shows how hard I work and Hunter works the same way. That's how you have to do because sometimes during practice we're not doing all the stuff. We got to show in the summer that we're working here just like you guys and we're as serious about this as you guys are."
