University of Tennessee Athletics
BIG MAN ON CAMPUS
November 24, 2006 | Football
Nov. 24, 2006
By Austin Ward, UT Sports Information
Don't call him small.
Don't even suggest it.
Even if he looks like a sapling in a forest of redwoods, Tennessee kicker James Wilhoit will be quick with a correction.
"Some people forget that I'm almost 200 pounds," he says.
It's true. At 195 pounds, the senior is most of the way there.
But he's also now at the point where his value to the Vols can hardly be properly weighed.
He's the fourth-highest scorer in school history with a few more points still in his sights, and he could very well end up as one the top-10 scorers in SEC history.
He might still be, well, slightly less large than most football players, but there's no shortchanging the effect Wilhoit can have on the field or the marks he'll soon be leaving in his wake at Rocky Top.
By most standards, Wilhoit is right.
"I'm not a small guy by any means," he said. "But I'm also not 6-5."
Nor does he have to be. Wilhoit has been more than effective playing at 5-10.
He's made more kicks for the Vols than anybody not named Jeff Hall or Fuad Reveiz, and he's converted more than his share of big kicks - both in distance and importance, and sometimes both.
There are three makes from 51 yards on his résumé and plenty of game and momentum-changing kicks.
Not to mention the long and decisive 50-yard game winner against Florida as a sophomore.
"It's amazing, since he's just a nerdy little guy," holder Casey Woods said with a smile. "But if you get a good look at his legs, he's got horse legs. They are unbelievable, and he can just crush a ball."
But what separates Woods, who stands 6-5 and checks in at 220 pounds, from the nerdy little kicker?
"I think it's always interesting, because you have those guys that are 6-5, 300 pounds that can squat a house, and then you've got somebody like me where I can probably only squat 275 or 300 or something like that," Wilhoit said. "But a lot of kicking is just leg speed, the way you can rotate your hips and flexibility. The more flexibility you have, the more you can move your leg through a range of motion, and the quicker you can kick the ball.
"That's a lot of it, and then there's also just knowing how to kick a ball. I've played soccer ever since I was young, so I've been kicking balls since I was little. I guess things like that help a lot more than just having brute strength."
Of course, Wilhoit is plenty strong.
He's only added about five pounds to his frame since arriving on campus from Hendersonville.
The senior is as close to a natural as there is at his position. He's been capable of booming kickoffs - 28 of his kickoffs had already gone for touchbacks through 10 games this season - and connecting from long range since his freshman season.
"It is amazing," coach Phillip Fulmer said. "Of course, little golfers amaze me that they can hit the ball 300 yards.
"It's a strength thing, obviously, with his leg, but it's also a mechanics thing. It's some kind of dynamics that he's able to get so much force into the ball. I've watched him since he was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school, and he was that way even then."
The result of that leg swing, the dynamics of what Woods called Wilhoit's "flat foot crushing the football," is every bit as apparent audibly as it is visually.
"I can tell by the sound if he's hit it real solid," he said. "When it makes a sound like a basketball on one of those old gym floors, it just explodes off his foot.
"That's the skill for him that was given by God and developed by him. He's got the good leg-swing speed and huge hamstrings, and he just mashes it."
"He's a great asset," Fulmer said. "The kickoffs, when he's hitting the ball well, he's going to have that ball in the end zone. It keeps you from worrying about the return and stuff like that. When you need it, he can place the ball on the bloop.
"And he has grown into a really mature guy. He's one of the leaders on this football team without question."
Now he's among the all-time leaders in the UT record books.
Right there with the guys he grew up idolizing while earning first-team All-America honors at Hendersonville High School.
"Growing up, I was always looking up to Jeff Hall, John Becksvoort and Fuad Reveiz," Wilhoit said. "Being on a list with those guys and to be closing in on some of their numbers is very gratifying to me.
"It makes me think that maybe I can just be mentioned in the same breath with those guys, and growing up I would have never dreamed of that happening. It's definitely very exciting, and I'm hoping that I can just continue to have a good career and help us win as much as possible.
"This summer I thought back and thought that even if I didn't play another game, I felt like I'd had a successful career. But that's something that I'll look back on in the next couple of years, after my time is over with."
His time is nearly over with at UT. He's putting the finishing touches on a career that's been better than good - although his legacy was largely decided on a September night more than two years ago.
"I mean, he's been very consistent, very good," Fulmer said. "But that one kick to win the game against Florida is what people are going to remember.
"If he didn't make that one, they would have remembered the extra point that he missed in the same game. That's the world of the kicker."
Looking back on Wilhoit's career in early September, praising his ability to make the big kick when the Vols need it most, Fulmer gave his kicker the most ringing endorsement a coach can provide and looked into the crystal ball.
"He will make a kick this year that will help us win a game," Fulmer said. "I don't think there's any doubt about that."
Maybe Wilhoit is just saving it, looking to go out with a bowl game bang - booting the kind of game-winner that sounds like a basketball smacking an old gym floor.
There wouldn't be anything small about that.
