FAMU kickers under microscope

Head coach Joe Taylor was only joking when he suggested to special-teams coach Juan Vasquez that he might have to make arrangements for three kickers to travel with the FAMU football team this season. The race to find a do-all kicker is really that close, though. The contenders are Troy Walker, Trevor Scott and Will Platt. None of them seem to be able to get a leg up on the other since practice began earlier this week.

"Right now we can't make a decision by looking at them," Vasquez said Friday. "To separate them, we actually have to record everything they do on film; watch the hang time on punts. It's the small things that are separating them right now." FAMU has not had such a battle in at least 15 years to find its starting kicker.

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All-American Vasquez hired as FAMU's special-teams coach

What was just an idea for former FAMU kicker Juan Vasquez is now a reality after several years of volunteering as a special-teams coach. "After a while of being successful, I started thinking, 'Wow, I could really do this for a living,'" Vasquez said Tuesday. "What a better way to do something that you like to do as a livelihood."

He got his opportunity to do nothing but coach for a living when head coach Joe Taylor hired him as kicking coach. An official announcement of his hire was delayed until the process was recently completed. "This is a dream come true," he said. "I didn't know this would really happen, and I want to thank coach Taylor for giving me the opportunity. I've put in a lot of hard work, but you never know when the opportunity is going to come."

Coach Vasquez has been successful in mentoring former Rattlers All-American kicker, Wesley Taylor, #20.

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