Field goal kicking in college football is usually a shaky endeavor, at best.
Any time 40-plus yard field goals are attempted by young adults majoring in Microbiology, the outcome is usually a roll of the dice. College teams with reliable field goal kickers have a massive advantage over opponents with kickers who spray balls all over creation.
BYU came into the 2025 season with one of those rare, reliable college field goal kickers in redshirt senior Will Ferrin.
Or at least they thought.
After all, in 2024 Ferrin was outstanding for the Cougars. He was both reliable and clutch during his junior campaign. He made 24 of 27 field goals last year, connecting on 88.9% of his attempts, while drilling a perfect 41 of 41 extra points. Understandably, Ferrin was named Big 12 Co-Special Teams Player of the Year last year and a Lou Groza Award Semifinalist.
Ferrin understandably entered his 2025 campaign feted with preseason honors. He was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team and was a Preseason All-America. BYU thought its kicking game would be a one of the biggest strengths on a strong team. But, unfortunately, it didn't quite play out that way.
Happiness is often a function of expectations. Given last year's exceptional performance many BYU fans were expecting something close to perfection from Ferrin's senior season. What they got instead was what most college teams have -- a generally good but often shaky kicker.
On the season Ferrin went 22 of 30, hitting 73.3% of this attempts.
In last week's Big 12 conference championship game against Texas Tech he missed an important 46-yard attempt in the third quarter that would have cut the Cougars deficit to 13-10. It was his only attempt of the game.
The week before he went 2-of-4 against UCF, missing from 40 and 48 yards.
He missed from 51 yards in the first Texas Tech matchup, pulled a 41-yarder wide in a double overtime win against Arizona, and missed from 48 on the Cougars first drive against West Virginia.
Now, that's not all that unusual for college field goal kicking, but Ferrin's inconsistency has been a shocker to BYU fans who felt like last year their exceptional kicker would make just about every kick he attempted. Last year was a luxury. This year has been an adventure.
BYU still has one game left, which will undoubtedly be a prominent bowl game in the national spotlight. And if that bowl game comes down to the wire, Cougar fans will be hoping the 2025 version of Will Ferrin will look more like his 2024 self.