NC State Football
Doeren Has Confidence in Kyle Bambard Early
True Freshman Kyle Bambard has big shoes to fill this season as the place kicker at NC State, but the shoes are his to fill. The shoes were worn the past four years by Niklas Sade, who had the responsibility of taking on the role as the teams place kicker as a true freshman as well. Sade went on to become NC State’s all-time career leader in field goals made (55), PAT’s (167), and total points scored (332).
After Saturday’s scrimmage, Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren said that Bambard had established himself as the starter in that role.
“You kind of expect some hiccups along the way, because he’s young. In the Spring he struggled, and I told our staff not to be concerned about it yet. I told them to give him the summer to get used to kicking in the conditions that he will be in during the Fall, and then evaluate how he’s doing in the Fall,” said Doeren. “He’s been outstanding in camp. We’ve just got to let him progress, and remind ourselves constantly that he hasn’t played college football yet. That doesn’t mean that we have low expectations. He’s a really good kicker. We’re excited about his future.”
Bambard was the #9 kicker nationally coming out of high school according to Chris Kohl, and ESPN ranked him 12th, but he is far from a cookie cutter place kicker. He was also an All-State quarterback in Michigan at Walled Lake Western High School. As a Senior, Bambard completed 112-of 188 passes (60%) for 1,721 yards with 21 touchdowns, and only 5 interceptions. He also rushed for 1,458 yards (9.7 yards per carry) and 14 touchdowns. The fact that Bambard was more than a kicker was very attractive to Doeren and his staff.
“We saw him at a national kicking camp a couple of years ago. There were 20-30 Division-1 type kickers there. He was one of the best ones that day, and we just liked his demeanor,” said Doeren. “You could tell with him being a quarterback that he was pretty savvy. Sometimes kickers can get caught up in the pressure. The fact that was more than a kicker, and an all-around athlete was appealing. He runs around a 4.65 40-yard dash. He’s a really good athlete. He’s an extremely strong kid in the weight room. We had to back him off on the weights, because he loves lifting.”
Bambard signed his letter of intent back in 2014, but enrolled in classes this past January. He took this route because NC State signed him as a “grayshirt.” Basically a “grayshirt” is when an athlete delays his enrollment at his future college so that his eligibility/scholarship clock will not start ticking until he arrives on campus during the second semester of the year. Technically, Bambard picked up his scholarship in 2015, and actually counts to the 2015 recruiting class number.
In NC State’s two scrimmages the past two Saturdays, Bambard connected on two 53-yard field goals, a 46-yarder, and a 43-yarder. The Wolfpack are depending on Bambard to fill some awfully big shoes, but his head coach has shown confidence in him early.