The most difficult position on a football team is kicker.

In tightly contested matches, the kicker can be the difference between a win and a loss. He can be the guy everything hangs on, the guy with endless potential to be hero or goat.

In blowout games, meanwhile, no matter which team is on the losing end, the kicker is given little credit for his contributions of PATs, field goals and kickoffs.

BYU kickers Mitch Payne and Justin Sorensen know their positions offer few rewards. Nevertheless, between the two of them, the Cougar special teams attack power should see few problems in its 2008 "Quest for Perfection."

Sorensen, a 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound freshman from South Jordan who prepped at Bingham High, brings power to the kicking game.

"The ball just jumps off his leg," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said of Sorensen. "He's been consistent ... I think he is responding well to the internal pressure of the program, as well as the pressure of the situation. He and Mitch [Payne] are working to become our starting kicker."

The freshman wonder kicker feels the pressure to be better, but knows he has accomplished a lot at his young age. In high school, Sorenson averaged 70 yards per kickoff, racking up 81 touchbacks in 88 kicks. As a scorer, he only missed one PAT all season, going 54-for-55, and holds the Utah high school record for PAT's, field goals (28) and longest field goal in state history (62 yards).

But adjusting to college provides Sorensen with a different challenge.

"I'm hitting the ball well, distance-wise, but my accuracy is really lacking right now," Sorensen said. "I think it's just a result of not taking as much time as I should have during the off-season. But right now, I'm just trying to learn from our coaches, Mitch [Payne] and the other kickers and pick up how they do things. It's been fun, though."

Sorensen went up against Payne in Saturday's scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium and blasted a 48-yard field goal shortly after knotting a 39-yarder.

The job of starting kicker currently belongs to Payne, a 6-foot-2-inch native of North Ogden. Payne is the younger brother of former BYU punter/kicker Matt Payne and looks to follow in his sibling's footsteps.

Last year, Payne converted 43-of-45 PATs. Added to his 10 field goals, Payne's foot scored 73 points for the Mountain West Conference champions. He also averaged 60 yards per kickoff.

While Mendenhall has been impressed with his freshman kicker, Payne's experience and knowledge of the system may be his greatest advantage in earning the starting spot.

"With any freshman, learning is crucial," Mendenhall said. "The key to our program is consistency and most freshmen go up and down when expectations are made very clear. Sorensen responded to our expectations, so I think he might be the right guy. But it's when they don't respond when corrected that you start to wonder whether this is the right fit."

Payne's accuracy on field-goal attempts could also give him the upper hand.

"I'd say the competition [for starting kicker] will last into the season," Mendenhall predicted. "Sorensen's leg is so strong, I would assume he will be the kickoff man, but the field goal may be a different story. That hasn't been proven yet, but it's my assumption. It will take time and it might be an entire season, week to week, to know where we need to be."

Copyright Brigham Young University 11 Aug 2008