The closest thing to automatic...

We recently published a feature on Andrew Ireland, Texas State's kicker. Check it out. Thanks for the suggestions on who to profile next week. Either it will be Karrington Bush or Mishak Rivas.

Here's an except for the story about Ireland.

San Marcos — When Andrew Ireland stepped on the field following Texas State’s first touchdown against Southern Methodist, he was just following directions.

Football kickers are creatures of habit.

Every day, it’s three steps back, two to the side. Keep your head down and drive through the ball. Look up after you’ve followed through.

Kickers love to hear nothing as the ball leaves their foot. Ireland wasn’t as lucky against the Mustangs.

“You might feel a little pressure, but all you do is hear it kick and then you either hear nothing or you hear it hit something else,” Ireland said. “It happened to hit (the SMU player) dead in the chest. I looked up to see where the ball was and it happened to be behind me.”