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Guardian’s Kicker Matt McCrane Has Got the Leg

New York Guardians kicker Matt McCrane is an NFL professional who has brought stability to the team’s offensive attack. Back Sports Page (BSP) spoke with McCrane about his football career and kicking in the XFL.

McCrane played high school football at Brownwood High School in Texas. He holds the school record for the longest field goal at 52 yards.

In college, McCrane attended Kansas State and played football under head coach Bill Snyder. During his four years at Kansas, he broke the school record for career field goals (57), field goal percentage (86.3), and field goals longer than five yards (5).

In the 2018 NFL Draft, McCrane went unselected but later signed with the Arizona Cardinals. He spent time on their practice squad before being released in September.

Later that month, McCrane signed with the Oakland Raiders and made his NFL debut. In his first career game, McCrane kicked the game-winning field goal for the Raiders. McCrane told BSP about his amazing experience.

“It was something I dreamed about as a kid to play in the NFL, so to get to not only do that but in my first outing to get the game ball from Coach Jon Gruden, that was cool. But, everything is the same to me. Same kick, so I just kinda move on and go to the next one.”

In late October, McCrane was cut by the Raiders and he resigned with the Cardinals, who were in need of a kicker after an injury to Phil Dawson. McCrane played one game for the Cardinals in November, making all of his extra-point attempts, but was waived the following day.

In December, McCrane signed with the Pittsburg Steelers after their kicker Chris Boswell was placed on injured reserve. McCrane started for the Steelers their last game of the season and made all of his field-goal attempts.

McCrane told BSP what it was like bouncing around to different teams over the course of one season.

“The biggest lesson that I learned was to be ready, to be a pro, be ready to kick at any time because they can call at any time during the week so really it is just getting into my routine whether I am back home training or wherever I’m at just staying in my routine.”

McCrane finished the season hitting 8/12 field goals and 9/9 extra-point attempts. McCrane hit two field goals longer than 50 yards. 23.8% of McCrane’s kickoffs went for a touchback.

Even with his NFL experience, the Steelers cut McCrane in the offseason before the 2019-2020 season. Unable to sign with any NFL team, McCrane was selected in the XFL Draft by the New York Guardians.

BSP asked McCrane what was the biggest difference between kicking in the XFL compared to the NFL.

“For me personally, there is no difference for me, the posts don’t move and I’m supposed to go out there and do my job. It’s about trusting the guys who have the snap and the hold for me, Justin Vogel and Scott Daly have been doing their jobs, so really nothing changes for me. I think primarily it was adjusting to the football and trying to figure out exactly what we wanted to do with the football.”

With slightly different rules in the XFL compared to the NFL, BSP asked McCrane what his favorite changes are.

“I do like the kickoff rule. I also like the punt rule where there’s no coffin corner. Now Vogel, our punter, might not like that, but I think it keeps the game alive. It’s a new aspect of the game, something that is pretty interesting that we’ve tried and its something the XFL has been really successful with. So, we’ll see what the NFL wants to do but so far both of those are my favorite.”

McCrane gave his thoughts on the new XFL kickoff and how it’s different from the NFL.

“We’re not banging them out the back. We’re trying to keep the ball in play, do what we’re supposed to, whether we’re going directional or wherever we want to kick it. But really, it’s just about keeping the ball in play as opposed to the NFL where you have good returner back there you try to bang the ball out the back. So, that’s really one thing we’ve had to adjust to is keeping the ball in play.”

In his first season for the Guardians, McCrane has made 8 field goals over the first 5 games. He has hit 2 field goals 50+ yards and 3 field goals 40+ yards. McCrane’s contributions have been so important to the offensively challenged Guardians, who have had trouble scoring touchdowns so far this season.

During week four against the LA Wildcats, McCrane broke a 14-14 tie by hitting the eventual game-winning field goal during the 4th quarter.

During the Guardian’s week five win against the Dallas Renegades, McCrane hit three field goals contributing to the final score of 30-12.

McCrane has a message for Guardians fans leading up to their week six matchup against the talented Houston Roughnecks.

“Stick with us. Stick with us. Something as a kicker I’ve learned is you can’t ride the highs and lows, stay with it, and do my job. So I hope the fans stick with us through these ups and downs and we got plenty of ball to play left in the season.”

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