Kicking Competition Isn’t Finished

After watching senior kicker Adam Abrams miss five field goals in the past two weeks (and eight of 18 this season), Coach Paul Hackett on Tuesday continued to turn up the verbal heat.

“He’s accomplished, he’s a veteran kicker and he’s in a slump,” said Hackett, who has been holding a kicking competition between Abrams and sophomore David Bell the last two practices.

“And it’s a slump at a bad time.”

Abrams, who made 10 of 11 field-goal tries last season, was wide right on attempts from 41 and 26 yards Saturday in USC’s 33-10 victory over Washington.

Bell had an extra-point attempt blocked by the Huskies.

“Oregon was terribly disappointing because it swung the game,” Hackett said of Abrams’ three misses on Oct. 24 in the 17-13 Duck victory. “But this one last Saturday was totally unacceptable. We’re talking about chip shots. We’re talking about good protection, good snaps.

“We’ve got to go back to square one. We’ve got to open up the competition, compete every day. We’ve got to focus and pick the guy who can do the best job to win at the time and go from there.”

Receiver Mike Bastianelli, the holder on kicks this season, also was a kicker in high school and tried some kicks in Sunday’s practice--but not on Tuesday.

“We’ll let him see what he can do,” Hackett said. “But I think it’s pretty unrealistic to ask him to come in and kick some game-winners.

“It’s a matter of Adam or David has to get it together and between the two we have to find a way to win. The pressure is on them, but that’s the way the game is. It’s time to stand up and perform and we haven’t done that the last two weeks.”

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Running back Chad Morton and Hackett agreed: Saturday’s victory was the Trojans’ most complete game.

“I think that was the first game that everything clicked,” Morton said. “Of course, the defense is always playing good. But as far as the offense, we had a great passing game and had a pretty good running game too, and everything was very balanced.”