The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Kicker Tarbutt finding the range for Huskies
STORRS — The world is full of stories of college athletes who got their start in their sport of choice by emulating their childhood sports heroes.
Who knows how many quarterbacks in South Florida dreamed of being the next Dan Marino, how many baseball players in the tri-state area wanted to be the next Derek Jeter or how many basketball prodigies in Chicago yearned to “Be Like Mike” after the Michael Jordan Gatorade commercial hit the airwaves.
UConn kicker Michael Tarbutt’s father was an unabashed Buffalo Bills backer and a onetime Bills season-ticket holder, so when it came time to pretend to be a professional athlete, his choice was the man who delivered the most infamous missed field goal in Super Bowl history.
Yes, Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood was the inspiration for Tarbutt’s desire to get his kicks on the gridiron.
“That whole wide right in the Super Bowl, that was the big thing that always got us into it,” Tarbutt said. “We would always be in the backyard pretending it was an upright. I’ve seen the ‘30 for 30,’ seeing him talk and the city surrounding him. He killed it the year after, making a couple of big playoff kicks and helping them get back to the Super Bowl again.”
Tarbutt wasn’t even born when Norwood pushed a 47-yard field goal wide right in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XXV. He’s never met the former NFL kicker but when it comes to sports, the teams drawing the support in the Tarbutt household are the Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.
Tarbutt, who grew up in Grimsby, Ontario, decided if he were to realize his dream of kicking at the college level he would have to head to the United States, so he drove an hour back and forth to Buffalo where he attended Canisius High School as a junior and senior. Tarbutt had 13 field goals in two seasons, none more memorable than a 60-yard field goal in the state championship, which was 2 yards shy of the New York record set by future NFL punter Todd Sauerbrun.
“I think it was one of the few times we were losing in a game and it happened on a punt I messed up on that they got a safety on,” Tarbutt said. “They sent me to do a 60-yard field goal in warmups and felt like 65 was
pretty comfortable (range). On the other side, they’re thinking ‘What’s going on here, it’s high school and why are they even attempting this?’ I had a good snapper, a good holder, the line was good, we had guys at our school who could block and do all the right things.”
Canisius would win the inaugural Catholic High School Football League of Metropolitan New York championship with a 23-10 win over Archbishop Stepinec.
Tarbutt’s first field goal attempt at UConn came in a 2015 game at Missouri, which happens to be the Huskies’ opponent Saturday (6:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network).
Tarbutt missed that kick and three of his first seven this season. His first miss cost UConn a chance to force overtime against East Carolina, and another one prevented the Huskies from taking a late 7-point lead against Temple.
Tarbutt heard from countless people, including Bobby Puyol and Justin Wain, who were UConn’s kicker and punter for the previous seasons. Like Norwood — who would come back in 1991 and make all five of his field goal attempts in the playoffs to get the Bills back to the Super Bowl — Tarbutt learned how to cope with failure.
“I’d go by myself into the kicking room, I’d have one of the lights on and really analyze the film as much as possible,” Tarbutt said. “Whether it’s a really good kick or a really bad kick, look at them side by side and look at every single aspect because kicking, it truly is centimeters, inches away from having a shank or having one of the best field goals or kickoffs that you’ve ever hit, so I’ll get into my zone, analyze everything to a T.”
In UConn’s win over Tulsa last week, Tarbutt connected on field goals of 35 and 28 yards, while all five of his kickoffs went for touchbacks. UConn kicked off or punted 12 times and Tulsa returned only one of them for no yardage.
“In high school I did kickoffs really well but I wasn’t as consistent as I should have been,” Tarbutt said. “A big thing I worked on last year was consistency, really hitting good contact every time on these kickoffs and field goals. That just helped with calming down, not worrying about everything that’s going on around me, whether it’s the No. 1 returner in the nation like we played against Memphis or anybody we play against. If you do your thing then the kickoff returner can’t do anything.”
Tarbutt joins starting receiver Hergy Mayala, starting offensive guard Trey Rutherford and reserve defensive linemen Sheriden Lawley and Philippe Okounam as five Canadians on the roster, more than any other Football Bowl Subdivision team.
“It’s pretty cool, you just have this connection,” Tarbutt said. “I’ve been to Montreal so I can talk to Herg or Phil, Trey being from Markham and me being from Grimsby, we’re not very far from each other. Sheriden is from BC (British Columbia) and we all know our lifestyle even though it’s not that different. Sheriden and I get talking about NHL a lot because that’s our game.”
The other four Canadians went the prep school route, a different path from what Tarbutt chose.
“I am proud of where I’m from,” Mayala said. “Those two years I spent in prep school (at Trinity Pawling) really helped me Americanize myself. I’m thankful I had those two years to prepare for college.”