UTC trio just fine with quiet success
The long snapper for PATs, field goals and punts isn’t typically noticed unless he does something wrong.
The holder is almost never spoken of unless he mishandles a snap.
The kicker is only as good as the kicks he makes.
So if University of Tennessee at Chattanooga kicker Victor Ulmo, holder Colin Brewer and long snapper Jared Nash are fine with not being as well known as some of their teammates, you can understand why.
The trio have worked extensively during the offseason to perfect their craft as they enter their second season together. Although specialists are usually off to the side during football practices, doing their own thing, the three make sure to get enough work in during practices to be ready when head coach Tom Arth calls for the field-goal unit to attempt a kick.
Special teams coach Chris Hurd builds a schedule for the group to make sure his specialists get plenty of work in, noting he doesn’t want them to “have their teammates look at them in a different fashion” because they are over on the side playing around while the offensive and defensive players are working.
“We’ve got a good chemistry within our group,” Hurd said. “They all work together
very well, and starting last year, they’ve got the chemistry, which I think is big when you talk specialists. You’ve got to have a lot of trust in making sure the operation and the mechanics are the same every time.
“All three guys work with each other. They’re on the same page, and that is huge.”
Ulmo is coming off an All-Southern Conference season in which he went 9-for-12 on field-goal attempts and 22-for-23 on PATs. Two of his three field-goal misses were from 47 yards — in road games against LSU and Wofford — and he was 8-for-9 on attempts inside 40 yards, gaining the confidence of his coaches as the season went along.
“Victor has grown a lot since last year,” Nash said. “In camp he got down on himself when he missed a kick, but this year he knows when he misses one to forget about it, learn from it and go on to the next one. I think that’s huge, especially going into this season.”
Ulmo was the face of what was possibly the play of the year for the Mocs in 2017, connecting on a game-winning 39-yard field goal with 19 seconds to play in a 23-21 upset at No. 8 Samford on Oct. 28. However, it was the perfect snap by Emory Norred — who took over after Nash sustained a season-ending injury in late September — and the perfect hold by Brewer that led to the play working as it did.
With Nash healthy, the trio is back together. They spend as few as two practice periods working on their craft as a group some days, but it could be many more if any of the three believes things aren’t where they need to be.
“We tried to get together as much as we could this offseason,” Ulmo said. “It’s a connection we have. We’re really good friends off the field, so it’s easier and I trust them, so I know we’re going to get the job done. And they trust me, so when we get ready to go kick, we can do so with confidence.”