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ROUND 5: Bengals take Kevin Huber (P)

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VonBlade Hall Of Fame

VonBlade

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[quote]When the Bengals selected the nation's top punter in the fifth round Sunday, the University of Cincinnati's Kevin Huber became one of the select few to play his high school and college ball in Cincinnati before getting drafted by the hometown Bengals.

[b]Bengals special teams coach Darrin Simmons admitted it also sent a message to the struggling Kyle Larson [/b] after his 34.1-yard net average placed him near the bottom of the league.

"We're trying to get better and this is a chance to bring in a guy who is going to compete," Simmons said.

Huber, a lefty who grew up in Anderson Township on Cincinnati's east side, figures to do more than that after an All-American season he had 21 punts downed inside the 20 and 18 of least 50 yards. That culminated a career at UC in which he earned the rep of a guy that can change the field position in an instant.

But what has really impressed Simmons and head coach Marvin Lewis is Huber's demeanor. They coached him at the Senior Bowl, where he surived Lewis' needling ("We came all this way to watch you punt?") and Simmons' demands. When Simmons asked him if he wanted to punt like he did at UC or punt according to game situations, Huber told him, "I want to play it like a game like you would," even though it would be new and probably affect his performance.

"I thought that spoke a lot about his mental toughness," Simmons said. "Not that it was a big thing, but he went out on a little bit of a limb...Marvin said it. It's not too big for him."

As if to personify the icy composure, Lewis caught him on the links when he called him and told him he was drafted. It turns out that California Golf Course is about 20 minutes from Paul Brown Stadium and he was expected soon for a news conference instead of the usual out-of-town conference call.

Huber becomes the first specialist drafted in Lewis' and Simmons' seven seasons, and the first for the Bengals since punter-kicker Travis Dorsch went in the fourth round in 2002. The Bengals also coached Larson in the Senior Bowl before signing him as a free agent after the 2004 draft.[/quote]

And the message is, pack your shit up and find another team.
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Bengals1181 Hall Of Fame

Bengals1181

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ctrent update:

[quote]Bengals take UC punter Kevin Huber.

Huber is the first local high school kid, from McNicholas High School, since Jerry Reynolds in 1994.

Marvin Lewis: "Other than Andre, I think this is the draft pick we spent the most time with. I think he stayed at (special teams coach) Darrin (Simmons') house a probably every other day for a while. ... We're really excited. We feel Kevin has great potential, a strong leg, all the things that we're looking for and he'll have a chance to come in here and compete for a job. It's an area we want to improve in. I said here at the end of last year I was upset at where we were at that phase of our football. We need to get better there and we're really taking some steps today to fix that and get better in that area."

Darrin Simmons: "I like his mentality. The familiarity with kicking in this city helps, he spent his career here, he's spent his whole life here. I feel very comfortable with him mentally. I think that's so important for these young guys, being able to handle situations. I was really impressed with the way he handled himself in the game at the Senior Bowl. That's one thing as a coach that you never get to see or be around is how a guy handles himself in the game and being on the sideline there really gave me a feel for that."[/quote]
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Rumble In the Jungle Hall Of Fame

Rumble In the Jungle

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[quote name='VonBlade' post='769706' date='Apr 26 2009, 04:34 PM']And the message is, pack your shit up and find another team.[/quote]

i just wanted to say that i met kyle larson before and he is a really really very nice person.
very polite and classy. not flashy at all, still drives an old pick up truck. we should make him
the long snapper lol and get rid of St. Louis!
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joshua Pro Bowler

joshua

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[center][size=7][font="Arial Black"]PUNTER!!![/font][/size]

[size=7]FUCK YEAH[/size][/center][center]

:049: :049: :049:
:rockon: :rockon: :rockon:
[img]http://drjon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/20/angus1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.photoshopessentials.com/images/photo-effects/fireworks/fireworks.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.shinyshiny.tv/assets_c/2009/02/BeavisandButtHead-banging-thumb-240x205-76670.gif[/img][img]http://www.shinyshiny.tv/assets_c/2009/02/BeavisandButtHead-banging-thumb-240x205-76670.gif[/img][img]http://www.shinyshiny.tv/assets_c/2009/02/BeavisandButtHead-banging-thumb-240x205-76670.gif[/img]
[/center]

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eva4ben-gal Hall Of Fame

eva4ben-gal

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[quote name='JC' post='769701' date='Apr 26 2009, 03:31 PM']Are we filling needs today or what?


I think every single pick so far makes the roster. Damn we are drafting well. We might as well just sign him to a fifteen year deal.[/quote]
I think we've found five starters in the first five rounds. all these guys should start by their second or third years and three or four may end up being perrennial pro bowlers. this draft gets an A+
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VonBlade Hall Of Fame

VonBlade

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[quote name='Rumble In the Jungle' post='769754' date='Apr 26 2009, 09:06 PM']i just wanted to say that i met kyle larson before and he is a really really very nice person.
very polite and classy. not flashy at all, still drives an old pick up truck. we should make him
the long snapper lol and get rid of St. Louis![/quote]

Hey I'm not knocking him. I'm just saying I can't imagine we picked up the best punter in the draft with a 5th to only come in and compete. So I was reading between the lines :)

Not sure if long-snapper would be his best position. I reckon he might get blown up by a few rushing teamers. Although St Louis could do with moving on somewhere. All that roster spot just for that.

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Tigris Hall Of Fame

Tigris

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[quote name='Rumble In the Jungle' post='769754' date='Apr 26 2009, 05:06 PM']i just wanted to say that i met kyle larson before and he is a really really very nice person.
very polite and classy. not flashy at all, still drives an old pick up truck. we should make him
the long snapper lol and get rid of St. Louis![/quote]

Some tend to forget that the long snapper is a huge guy in coverage too.

I couldn't imagine Larson sprinting down field to tackle someone.
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]Huber aces home hole[/b][/size]

GEOFF HOBSON

Posted Apr 26, 2009

[img]http://www.bengals.com/assets/clubimages/articles/2009/huber090426_440.jpg[/img]

Updated: 5:20 p.m.

The phone call came when Kevin Huber's foursome drove up to the tee box of California Golf Course's long par-4 17th and Jeremy Huber got a little excited when his brother walked away to take the call.

After about five minutes Kevin came back and asked him if he wanted to be his roommate in Cincinnati. Jeremy started screaming and everybody else started screaming when they realized that meant the Bengals had taken the hometown kid in the fifth round of Sunday's NFL Draft. His dad was playing about two groups back and the woods suddenly sounded like the back nine at Augusta with Tiger and Phil.

"The other golfers probably weren't very happy," Kevin Huber said. "Jeremy has always been saying he wants to be my roommate, so when I asked him that he knew what I meant."

After Huber became one of the select few to play his high school and college ball in Cincinnati before getting drafted by the hometown Bengals as the nation's No. 1 punter, special teams coach Darrin Simmons admitted it also sent a message to the struggling Kyle Larson after his 34.1-yard net average placed him near the bottom of the league.

"We're trying to get better and this is a chance to bring in a guy who is going to compete," Simmons said.

Huber, a lefty who grew up in Anderson Township on Cincinnati's east side, figures to do more than that after an All-American season at the University of Cincinnati he had 21 punts downed inside the 20 and 18 of least 50 yards. That culminated a career at UC in which he earned the rep of a guy that can change the field position in an instant.

The 6-1, 220-pound Huber went to McNicholas High where he was his league's Punter of the Year in his last two seasons. Back in the day, he does remember wearing one bit of Bengaldom.

"A Starter's jacket," he said. "That was sweet."

The transition won't be much of a transition off the field and maybe even on because it almost seems like he's been the Bengals 1-A punter since the end of the season. He spent the first day of the draft at the Reds game before going to UC's intrasquad scrimmage to receive the Bearcats Big East championship rings. Then on Sunday, Huber capped off the Cincy Sports Three-Way by wearing a Bengals hat at a press conference introducing him instead of the old out-of-town conference call.

"My brother," he said, "must have called 200 people in 20 minutes."

This just wasn't a spur of the moment golf game. Huber got plenty of advice to get out of the house and not stay glued to the set. Former UC defensive back Haruki Nakamura was among those after the Ravens took him in the sixth round last season. So the foursome included Kevin, Jeremy, their brother-law Rich Strausbaugh, and former UC long snapper Mike Windt.

But he never teed it up on 17 even though he was headed to a score in the high 80s.

"I would like to have seen how far that drive would have gone. I was pretty excited," Huber said.

The Bengals are pretty excited, too. They finally got the guy who always seems to be on the other side changing games with one swift kick.

He was always the kid with the big foot. He was the goalie in soccer because he was the slowest guy who could kick it the farthest. Which figures. Back when Xavier had a team, his father was a kicker-tight end who "kicked with his toe." His brother played some college football locally at Mount St. Joseph and his sister played college soccer.

"And my mother was a kickball champion," Huber said. "My grandma wanted me to say that. She was a kickball champion. So I guess kicking runs in the family.”

What has really impressed Simmons and head coach Marvin Lewis is Huber's demeanor as much as his foot. They coached him at the Senior Bowl, where he surived Lewis' needling ("We came all this way to watch you punt?") and Simmons' demands. When Simmons asked Huber if he wanted to punt like he did at UC or punt according to game situations, Huber told him, "I want to play it like a game like you would," even though it would be new and probably affect his performance.

"I thought that spoke a lot about his mental toughness," Simmons said. "Not that it was a big thing, but he went out on a little bit of a limb ... Marvin said it. It's not too big for him."

Huber thought it was the only way to go.

"I'm pretty comfortable with directional punting. If I felt it was new to me, I probably would have shied away from it," Huber said. "To play in this league there is directional punting (because) every game you're playing agaist the best returners and you've got to kick it away from them."

Huber figures the Bengals are sick of seeing him and talking to him. "Now they're stuck with me," he joked. After the Senior Bowl there was the NFL scouting combine and then there was UC's Pro Day and then the Bengals day for local prospects. But that day at Paul Brown Stadium was scratched because of bad weather and he came back two days later.

It was worth the wait for a kid that had gone to games at Riverfront Stadium and PBS earlier than most because he liked to watch the punters warm up.

"You can tell by how they're walking around what their mental (state) is. How focused they are," he said. "It was a different perspective. Instead of looking down from the stands, now I'm finally looking up. It's a cool thing."

And it will be cool. And it will be cold and it will be hot. If Huber knows Cincy sports, he knows the fickle winds of the weather, particularly down by the river. He was in the stands last Sept. 14 during what had to be the windiest game in club history.

"I was up in the upper deck. I thought the wind was going to tear it off. Then I went into the lower deck," he said.

Huber admits he doesn't have a favorite Bengals memory, but he thinks he's going to be starting a collection. He's not sure if his sister and brother still have season tickets, "but they will now if they don't."

Huber becomes the first specialist drafted in Lewis' and Simmons' seven seasons, and the first for the Bengals since punter-kicker Travis Dorsch went in the fourth round in 2002. The Bengals also coached Larson in the Senior Bowl before signing him as a free agent after the 2004 draft.

"I think it's cool," said Lewis of the local connection. "Obviously he knows we really like him. We've spent a lot of time with Kevin. I think it's pretty cool for him to grow up here, go to school at UC, go through the football season they had and come here and help us win games. That's pretty neat thing for him and his family and it's exciting for us, but I know it means a lot for them."[/quote]



[url="http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/huber-aces-home-hole/a6dea183-1e1b-4431-afef-1016d57a22ca"]http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/hube...ef-1016d57a22ca[/url]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]Bengals make Huber's day[/b][/size]
By Dustin Dow • ddow@enquirer.com • April 26, 2009


On the 17th tee box at California Golf Course, Kevin Huber’s cell phone rang again.
All day Sunday, his friends and family had been calling. Sometimes it was his mom just checking in to say hello. Other times, it was friends, playing a joke, knowing that Huber might be thinking about his NFL Draft status with every phone ring.


But this time on the 17th tee it wasn’t a prank. It was Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, calling to inform Huber that the Bengals had selected him in the fifth round.

“He asked me how my golf game was going, told me he was excited to have me, and then told me to get back to my golf game, which I didn’t do,” Huber said.

In fact, the former University of Cincinnati and McNicholas High School punter called over his brother Jeremy, who was part of the foursome. Jeremy Huber had often kidded Kevin that the two could be roommates in whatever NFL city Kevin moved to after the draft.

“I asked him, ‘Do you want to be my roommate in Cincinnati?'” Huber said. “He just started screaming.”

And with that, the golf game ended. Less than two hours later, Huber sat on a podium at Paul Brown Stadium, conducting a news conference as a member of his favorite team.

“It’s a dream come true,” Huber said, “to be able to stay home and play. I was brought up a Bengals fan.”

Indeed, his lifelong status as a Cincinnati resident made him more attractive to the Bengals.

“His familiarity with the weather and the field conditions here was a big factor,” special teams coach Darrin Simmons said.

Perhaps most important, though, was Huber’s proven ability as a directional punter. He led the country in net punting average three straight years at UC, including this season when he averaged 40.21 yards per punt. He developed directional punting skills after he arrived at UC.

“I’m comfortable with directional punting,” Huber said, “and I know that is what it takes if you want to punt in the NFL. You have to directional punt.”

Huber was the first player with local high school ties drafted by the Bengals since former Highlands player Jerry Reynolds was selected in 1994. The pick marked the 15th UC player ever selected by the Bengals.

HAPPY COACH: Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer was happy to be able to select defensive end Michael Johnson of Georgia Tech with the sixth pick in the third round. But Zimmer tempered that enthusiasm with a candid look at Johnson’s main flaw.

“He’s a tremendous athlete, he just doesn’t play hard all the time. Some plays, you say, ‘Oh, wow, I can’t believe that.’ Others plays, you say, ‘Oh, heck.' ”

Nevertheless, Zimmer hoped Johnson would still be available when the Bengals pick came up, in part because it enabled the team to choose defensive players twice among the its first three selections.

“I’m excited,” Zimmer said. “We’re going to make sure he’s doing what we want on every single play. That’s our job – to get him to do it consistently.”

BIG TRANSITION: Center Jonathan Luigs, whom the Bengals drafted in the fourth round out of Arkansas, figured he would have to adjust to bigger players in the NFL.
“If you look at the AFC North Division and the talent level in the NFL, there are grown mean playing,” Luigs said. “I hope the SEC prepared me.”

WYOMING GRAD PICKED: Former Wyoming High School tackle Robert Brewster went to the Cowboys with the 75th overall pick. Brewster, who is expected to play guard for the Cowboys, was an effective tackle at Ball State, earning consideration for the Lombardi and Outland trophies.[/quote]



[url="http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090426/SPT02/304260052/"]http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...PT02/304260052/[/url]
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oldschooler Hall Of Fame

oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]Kevin Huber gets to play for another hometown team[/b][/size]
By JOE KAY, AP Sports Writer
3 hours, 34 minutes ago

CINCINNATI (AP)—Kevin Huber was steering his golf cart toward the 17th hole— a 369-yard, par-4 on a gently winding course along the Ohio River—when his cell phone buzzed.

Who was it this time?

Was his mother calling again to ask if the University of Cincinnati punter had finally been drafted? Was it another friend playing a joke, pretending to be an NFL head coach? He couldn’t tell. Huber saw the local “513” area code displayed and hit the button to accept the call.

He heard the voice of Bengals coach Marvin Lewis.

“It was pretty surreal at first,” Huber said.

The Bengals drafted a hometown kid in the fifth round on Sunday, looking to fix one of their many glaring problems after a 4-11-1 season. Huber will get a chance to win the job from Kyle Larson, who was inconsistent last season and had problems in the city’s fickle weather.

Huber knows the local winds as well as anyone. He also knows firsthand how important a good punter can be to this always-challenged franchise—he’s seen it struggle from the cheap seats. The 22-year-old grew up attending games and wearing a Bengals jacket.

“Those were sweet,” he said.

Sweeter than the team, of course. The Bengals have had only four winning records in Huber’s lifetime. Last year, their offense crashed to last in the league, and Larson wound up punting 100 times.

Huber always wanted to be that guy.

The left-footed kicker grew up in a family of them. It takes a while to run down the list of Huber kicking accomplishments: His father was a punter at Xavier, back when the college had a team; his brothers and sisters played soccer.

“I’ve got to keep my mom in there: She was the kickball champion in grade school,” Huber said. “My grandma wanted me to say that. So I guess kicking just runs in the family.”

So does the city’s sports history. He went to a local high school and chose to stay home for college, developing into one of the nation’s top punters for the Bearcats.

He led the nation in gross and net yards as a junior. Last season, he was one of the Bearcats’ most valuable players after their top two quarterbacks got hurt. The coaches leaned on him to pin opponents and let their defense win a few games.

During a 13-10 win over Rutgers on Oct. 11, Huber pinned the Scarlet Knights at the 12-yard line or deeper on six of his nine kicks. Over the course of Cincinnati’s first Big East championship season, he had 24 punts downed inside the 20, including 15 inside the 10-yard line. Seven of them came to a stop inside the 5.

That got the attention of the city’s other football team.

“He had a couple of games where he held them in the game,” Lewis said. “He’s played in big games. He’s reacted well. That’s what impressed me most about Kevin.”

Before the draft, the Bengals brought him in for a tryout at Paul Brown Stadium, where he’d watched a lot of games from the upper deck but had never been on the artificial turf. Imagine how that felt.

“That was pretty cool,” Huber said. “I’m used to being up in the stands looking down, and now you’re looking up.”

He didn’t want to get his hopes up. Only one punter was drafted last year and Huber was the first of only three taken this year.

On Sunday, he was two holes away from completing his round when he got the call. After a few screaming congratulations from the rest of his foursome, he skipped the last two holes and headed for Paul Brown Stadium to spend some time with his new coaches.

“I’d have never dreamed that I’d play for my hometown team,” he said.[/quote]



[url="http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-bengals-huber&prov=ap&type=lgns"]http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-b...p&type=lgns[/url]
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Squirrlnutz Hall Of Fame

Squirrlnutz

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I love how all the articles mention "winning the job" and "brought it for competition" etc. We drafted a freaking punter... sure there is going to be pseudo "competition" going on at camp because I'm sure you need more than one punter for the drills, but make no mistake this kid will be punting after our first three and out next year...

















....probably in week 4 or 5
:ninja:

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