Reyering shakes off debut jitters

By Whitey Reid

Published: August 30, 2008

Yannick Reyering’s home in Germany was in panic mode just hours before the USC-Virginia kickoff on Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium.

“My mom called me four or five hours before the game and they were still trying to figure out how to get ESPN on the satellite,” Reyering explained. “They called and were trying to get the cable guy over to our house to fix it.

“So I don’t know if they watched it or not, but I hope they didn’t.”

Reyering, the first-year Virginia kicker, was probably being overly hard on himself. When you consider that the former UVa soccer star was playing in his first American football game, he didn’t do too badly.

Reyering made his first kick, an extra point, and had two good kickoffs. The first wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was only returned to the 13-yard line. The second, at the start of the second half, went five yards deep into the end zone, had nice hang time and resulted in a touchback.

The only blemish on Reyering’s blotter was a missed 46-yard field goal late in the second quarter. The kick had plenty of length but veered right.

“It was a good snap. It was a good hold. I don’t know,” said Reyering, a second-round pick by FC Dallas in the most recent MLS Draft. “If I could explain a reason why I missed it, I would. I wasn’t nervous. I was excited to get out there and hit the first field goal. When I kicked it, I knew it was going to be wide, so I didn’t even look at it.

“I’m still lacking a little consistency and I think that was maybe part of it.”

Reyering did admit to a few butterflies in the first quarter — when he trotted onto the field after Mikell Simpson’s 7-yard touchdown run to attempt the extra point.

“There was a little pressure because I didn’t want to miss my first extra point in college football,” he said, “but it was good to get that one under my belt.”

Believe it or not, Reyering was also hoping to get a tackle under his belt. Previously, his only tackling has come on the soccer pitch, but the 6-foot-5, 205-pound senior said he was prepared to lay the wood on USC return man Ronald Johnson had he broken through the initial tacklers on his first kickoff.

“Obviously I was hoping they tackled him as soon as possible,” he said, smiling, “but I was absolutely ready to hit him. I was looking forward to him coming through and tackling him.”

Reyering expects things to come a little easier now that he’s gotten a taste of things.

“Now I know what kind of routine it is during the game — when I have to pay attention and when I have to kick field goals and warm up and stuff,” he said. “It helps a lot knowing how to organize yourself and knowing what to do.”

One thing is for sure — Reyering will always remember Aug. 30, 2008.

“It was very special playing my first football game in front of a record crowd at Scott Stadium,” he said. “You can’t ask for anything better, but obviously I’m very disappointed in the outcome and the one missed field goal definitely bothered me a lot.”