College kickers are notorious for being some of the most inconsistent, frustrating athletes in all of sports. Georgia State freshman Isaac Kone was baptized into the fraternity in what was the worst way possible.
His first-ever field goal attempt could not have gone much worse.
Kone, a local product from nearby Decatur, Ga. joined the Panthers as part of the 2023 recruiting class. He was a First-Team All-State placekicker throughout his high school career and earned Special Teams Player of the Year honors in the Class 5A-Region 4 as a senior.
This all goes to say that Kone has kicked a few field goals in his day. Thursday night just so happened to be the worst-case scenario for a young specialist.
He had played in five games prior to the nationally-televised game at Georgia Southern but his work came entirely on 16 kickoffs and three PAT attempts. Kone made all three extra points.
The 6-foot-1, 155-pound kicker had not attempted a field goal through the first 30 quarters of his college football career at Georgia State. And then he was called upon during the third quarter of a 20-point game.
The Panthers had 4th-and-goal from about the 7-yard-line. Head coach Shawn Elliott decided to kick, to go down by 17, instead of trying to get within two scores.
Georgia State’s kicker missed badly.
Kone trotted out for a 32-yard attempt from just inside of the left hashmark. It should have be easy. He had made that kick so many times before.
However, it was his first-career field goal attempt in college. There were some nerves and it couldn’t have gone any worse.
Kone shanked the kick and send it floundering outside of the left upright.
Fortunately, three points was not the difference in a 44-27 loss. Unfortunately, Elliott decided to call out his young kicker during postgame.
The head coach was not pleased, and according to Brady Weiler, mentioned “what he perceived as a lack of focus pre-kick.” Yikes!