 Media Credit: Courtesy McGill Athletics Anderson kick-started McGill's offence. [Click to enlarge]
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The McGill Redmen football team went all of last year without attempting a field goal, due to the lack of a serviceable kicker.
Think about that for a moment: a vitally important position was vacant from the start of the season until its merciful end. McGill lost three games by five points or less en route to a winless season. The outcome of those games could have easily been altered had the Redmen been able to salvage three points instead of risking a turnover on third down in opposition territory.
This season, all Head Coach Sonny Wolfe needed to do to ease the pain of suffering Redmen football fans was fill the vacant kicker position. He didn't need to land a big recruit, and he didn't need to make headlines, but in bringing Austin Anderson to McGill, that's precisely what he did.
The son of Gary Anderson, one of the most accomplished and decorated kickers in NFL history, Austin carries a pedigree that's as impressive as his right leg. But his father's reputation-23 years in the league, the second most points in NFL history, and an astonishing year as the first kicker to not miss a field goal or extra point over the course of the regular season-didn't have as much to do with Anderson's path as one would imagine.
"Growing up, I obviously spent most of my Sundays watching the NFL," said Anderson. "But I never realized until five years ago that I wanted to become a kicker. It wasn't until they implemented kicking in peewee football. I had played cornerback for a long time and never really considered kicking. But once they put kicking into the game, I got interested in it, and then I picked it up naturally. My dad never pressured me to kick, and he never pressured me into football at all... But once I did pick up kicking, he mentored me a lot-with the mental aspect and the kicking technique as well."
Anderson's family moved frequently depending on where his father played. But when Gary retired in 2004, the Andersons moved to Canmore, Alberta at the beginning of Austin's freshman year of high school. Despite Canmore's isolation, Anderson received tryout offers from football powerhouses such as the University of Southern California and the University of Texas. But Anderson chose McGill's floundering football team.
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