September 30, 2025 • 11 mins
the place kicker with Mike Crispino on the state of kicking in college & the pros, his arrival in Storrs and the Ryder Cup
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back on the yukun Football Coaches Show, talk with
Jim Moore about the Huskies and their win at Buffalo,
and now we move on to the man who made
it happen. It was on his foot with six seconds left,
Chris Freeman from forty four yards out. Let's start there, Chris,
because I mean, that's not a chip shot, and it
was breezy there. It was windy there. Tell me about
(00:23):
your thinking as you ran on the field, and maybe
even before you got on the field. What were you
thinking in terms of what you needed to do to
get that ball through the uprights and potentially give your
team a win.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, first off, appreciate you guys having me on and
answer that question. I was just going through my same
mental preparation that I always go through before every kick,
just thinking about the things that I need to do
to be successful. And at the end of the day,
once I put my foot on the foot on the ball,
the rest the rest is out of my control. So
(00:56):
just trying to control the controllables and then the result
ended up being a good one.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, you're a former high school soccer player and a
really good one in Indiana. First team All American as
a matter of fact, player of the year at your
high school, Zionsville. When did you think about, maybe I'm
going to play football because you were a pretty darn
good soccer player all those years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I love playing soccer. But after my sophomore year football season,
I had a really good year, two game winners in
that season, and I felt like that was the avenue
for me to go and play college sports, which was
always my end goal, and the recruiting kind of took off,
So I put soccer second to football and stopped playing
club soccer and kind of went all in on just
(01:42):
playing high school football and high school soccer and ended
up working out for me.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, Chris Freeman with us, you can't place kicker. You
started at Indiana the Hoosiers right in your backyard as
a kickoff guy, and then in twenty twenty three became
a field goal guy. It's a little unusual, isn't it
these days? At the the place kickers are now kickoff guys,
Cause it's really two different jobs, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. I have seen it become a little less common
for kids to be doing both, but I've always taken
great pride and what I can do on kickoff and
how I can help the team. And I also love
just the adrenaline that gets going when you get out
there for a kickoff to open the game or open
the second half, because you do set the tone of
that half or or just set the defense up for
(02:27):
that drive. So it gets me going a little bit
and gets the competitive juices kind of flowing from back
in those soccer in high school days. So I love
that aspect of the game and just being able to
be out there and be one of those eleven flying
down the field and trying to make a play and
help this defense out.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah. You know, touchbacks are big for kickoff guys, and
you have a bundle of them. I mean the numbers
are staggering. Really, that is a great, great thing because
if you keep the other team from even having an
opportunity to run something back, that's an advantage your team,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, And we've faced some very explosive guys coming out
from the end zone. I know the Syracuse kid, he's
a track guy, and obviously you give him a little
bit of space and give him the ball in his hands,
he could do special things with it. So keeping the
ball out of his hands, whether it be kicking directional left,
directional right, or just hitting all touchbacks. It helps our
team a lot, and it also saves a little bit
(03:23):
of the defense from having to get down there make
a play and then a lot of those guys are
starters on the defense, so then they have to hop
back up for first down coming the other way. So yeah,
touchbacks are a big help for the team, and that's
the goal.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
The pros now have a different kickoff situation. I've been
watching that this year, and what do you make of that?
Because it's very odd to have the kicker kick the
ball nobody move, and then the receiving player when he
catches it, everyone moves. It's a really totally different play, isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It It is. I'm super excited to start working on
that after the season because I feel like I could
get really creative with how I'm hitting the ball and
just knowing how the ball is gonna fly and being
able to hit it in different ways from my soccer background,
like we talked about earlier. But yeah, I think that
some of those guys. I was watching Aubrey last night
and I think they put up a stat that he
(04:19):
was like five or fifteen on touchbacks, but he's hitting
that dirty ball that's knuckling and balancing and it's hard
for them to bring it past the twenty five. So yeah,
it's it's really fun to watch, and I think I
can get really creative with that at the next level
if I'll be training for that. So yeah, it's fun
to watch and interesting how they're doing it now.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that might be something that happens in
college eventually, who knows. Usually, you know, one side of
either the college or the pro people do something and
the other folks take a look and they say, hey,
that's pretty creative. May people try that. Zionsville, Indiana suburb
of Indianapolis, I'm imagining growing up, you had to be
a Colts fan, you had to be a Peyton Manning fan.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Absolutely loved going to the RCA Dome a little
bit before they tore that one down, and then obviously
Lucas Oil. It's pretty fun place to go and watch
a football game, and I got the privilege to go
play in it when I was back at IU one
time against Louisville. Didn't win the game, but it was
awesome to be in that stadium.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, leaving Indiana that I wanted to ask you about that,
because Indiana now under Kurtz Signetti, is really, you know,
catapulted to the highest levels of college football, whereas it
wasn't a real football school in a lot of ways.
You know why you were growing up there. What do
you make of that? I mean, that has got to
be a really spectacular development for Indiana football fans.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's super exciting to see the buzz around around
that team. I never really had much of a relationship
with coach Signetti or coach Kane, the especial names coordinated,
but they're obviously doing a great thing. So I'm just
cheering on those guys that I still know that are
on the team. I'm close with their kicker. He was
my backup for a year, but a really good kid
and he's he's very talented at what he does. So yeah,
(06:03):
it's super fun to watch them win and just continue
to kind of bring football in Indiana to the next
level and bring it relevant again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, and you've done that in your own right with
Yukon as the Huskies won nine last year. I don't
think I've asked you about this, and a few guys
have told me the experience of the Penway Bowl a
special kind of a you know, situation where you're play
in a postseason game in a baseball stadium on a
kind of a wintery day. That had to be a
(06:32):
unique experience for you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, it was special getting to go to Fenway. I remember,
so I'm a big San Francisco Giants fan, and because
my dad grew up in California, so he kind of
brainwashed me when I was growing up ten early twenty
ten is great ton of be a Giants fan. But
I remember going to a Red Sox game back when
the NL and ALE teams will kind of alternate. I
think it was every six years they would play each other.
(06:55):
So that was a pretty big deal for us to
get to go to Boston and see see and then
just getting to play on that field with a lot
of history and going the Monster I think two days before,
just really special and it was a full circle moment
for me, which, yeah, just a blessing to get to
play in that game in that environment.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, you're never going to forget that, I can tell
you that. And what's happening with Yukon football, I mean,
these last few years under Jim Moore, this was a
program that was deeply buried when Jim came to the
Huskies and you know, had an opportunity to come there,
what was your thinking, I mean, you didn't. I don't
know what were you saying to yourself when you were
(07:38):
thinking about, well, maybe I can go to Yukon and
do some things because they didn't have a great history
in recent memory in terms of success. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I remember when I got in the transfer portal. The
first call I got, probably ten minutes after my name
officially was entered in the portal, was coach Shear. And
Coach Hear and I had that previous relationship when he
was at Miami Ohio. It's funny. I've told him the story.
But when he called me named the phone high school
me trying to keep track of everything. He said, coach here,
(08:09):
Miami Ohio. So we have this conversation and then probably
five minutes into the call, he says, we're doing something
very special at Yukon. I was like, oh, I thought
I was talking about Miami Ohio for a while, but
then just that relationship. And then coach Fia Cable was
at IU with me for a little bit, so I
had that prior relationship when he was a grad grad
assistant there. So just knowing both of them and I
(08:31):
trust trusted both of them through that process and knowing
them so it made it super easy. And then I
came to my visit, met with coach Moore, saw all
the things he's doing, saw his vision, and I was like,
that could that could be home for me for the
next two years. And it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That, Yeah, this is it is a relationship business, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I think that from the outside looking in, fans might say, well,
it's all transactional now, but I don't think so. What
I hear from from players like you is that the
relationships you have previously with coaches or other players really
means something.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, I know a lot of my friends who
have entered the portal and hearing from maybe a previous
teammate that went to that school and give insight on
that school helps them. I actually knew a kid I
played football with who worked in the training room here,
and I saw him out in Zionsville when I was
home trying to figure out this whole process, and I
(09:29):
talked to him. I was like, so youkn like you've
been there what do you think, how do they treat
their players? How do they go about their business? And
he was like, it's first class NFL style run school.
And I was like, that's what I need right now
because that's where I'm working and that's where I believe
I can get to. So yeah, just trusting in what
coach Moore is doing and building those relationships is a
(09:51):
big deal.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah it is. And finally for we lets you go.
I guy talk little golf because I know you're a
golf guy. So my Bob Joyce, our partner who hosts
and does all our play by play for the women
and all kinds of things. We're always talking golf. But anyway,
Ryder Cup Sunday, come on the US, put on a show.
Almost got to the to the promised Land. I mean,
(10:14):
what did you make a ball lap? Because you're a
competitor and you play the game of golf.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, I mean it was awesome to watch. I don't
know if I've ever been that excited, maybe outside of
Tiger winning his last Masters, but I was on my
feet here and jumping around, facetiming my buddies and I
was like, is this really happening? Is this really happening.
And yeah, I actually watched the post game post match
(10:39):
interview with us and I also watched the europe side,
But I think it was Cam Young was saying he
has never felt that way playing, watching being around a
golf round, and I completely agree, like that was just
unreal to watch and it did show like that's what
it means to be an American. So yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to be in a sporting
environment at where there's that much interest and the crowds
are all riled up and the Americans almost pulled off
a miracle. But anyway, all right, Chris, we appreciate it.
Oh by the way, nice kick against Buffalo. That was
a nice one. I liked it, and Husky fans did too.
We appreciate you. All right, we'll be back. We'll have
more to go here on the Yukon Football Coaches Show.
(11:20):
Stay with us on Learfield
We're back on the yukun Football Coaches Show, talk with
Jim Moore about the Huskies and their win at Buffalo,
and now we move on to the man who made
it happen. It was on his foot with six seconds left,
Chris Freeman from forty four yards out. Let's start there, Chris,
because I mean, that's not a chip shot, and it
was breezy there. It was windy there. Tell me about
(00:23):
your thinking as you ran on the field, and maybe
even before you got on the field. What were you
thinking in terms of what you needed to do to
get that ball through the uprights and potentially give your
team a win.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, first off, appreciate you guys having me on and
answer that question. I was just going through my same
mental preparation that I always go through before every kick,
just thinking about the things that I need to do
to be successful. And at the end of the day,
once I put my foot on the foot on the ball,
the rest the rest is out of my control. So
(00:56):
just trying to control the controllables and then the result
ended up being a good one.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, you're a former high school soccer player and a
really good one in Indiana. First team All American as
a matter of fact, player of the year at your
high school, Zionsville. When did you think about, maybe I'm
going to play football because you were a pretty darn
good soccer player all those years. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I love playing soccer. But after my sophomore year football season,
I had a really good year, two game winners in
that season, and I felt like that was the avenue
for me to go and play college sports, which was
always my end goal, and the recruiting kind of took off,
So I put soccer second to football and stopped playing
club soccer and kind of went all in on just
(01:42):
playing high school football and high school soccer and ended
up working out for me.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, Chris Freeman with us, you can't place kicker. You
started at Indiana the Hoosiers right in your backyard as
a kickoff guy, and then in twenty twenty three became
a field goal guy. It's a little unusual, isn't it
these days? At the the place kickers are now kickoff guys,
Cause it's really two different jobs, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah. I have seen it become a little less common
for kids to be doing both, but I've always taken
great pride and what I can do on kickoff and
how I can help the team. And I also love
just the adrenaline that gets going when you get out
there for a kickoff to open the game or open
the second half, because you do set the tone of
that half or or just set the defense up for
(02:27):
that drive. So it gets me going a little bit
and gets the competitive juices kind of flowing from back
in those soccer in high school days. So I love
that aspect of the game and just being able to
be out there and be one of those eleven flying
down the field and trying to make a play and
help this defense out.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah. You know, touchbacks are big for kickoff guys, and
you have a bundle of them. I mean the numbers
are staggering. Really, that is a great, great thing because
if you keep the other team from even having an
opportunity to run something back, that's an advantage your team,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, And we've faced some very explosive guys coming out
from the end zone. I know the Syracuse kid, he's
a track guy, and obviously you give him a little
bit of space and give him the ball in his hands,
he could do special things with it. So keeping the
ball out of his hands, whether it be kicking directional left,
directional right, or just hitting all touchbacks. It helps our
team a lot, and it also saves a little bit
(03:23):
of the defense from having to get down there make
a play and then a lot of those guys are
starters on the defense, so then they have to hop
back up for first down coming the other way. So yeah,
touchbacks are a big help for the team, and that's
the goal.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
The pros now have a different kickoff situation. I've been
watching that this year, and what do you make of that?
Because it's very odd to have the kicker kick the
ball nobody move, and then the receiving player when he
catches it, everyone moves. It's a really totally different play, isn't.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
It It is. I'm super excited to start working on
that after the season because I feel like I could
get really creative with how I'm hitting the ball and
just knowing how the ball is gonna fly and being
able to hit it in different ways from my soccer background,
like we talked about earlier. But yeah, I think that
some of those guys. I was watching Aubrey last night
and I think they put up a stat that he
(04:19):
was like five or fifteen on touchbacks, but he's hitting
that dirty ball that's knuckling and balancing and it's hard
for them to bring it past the twenty five. So yeah,
it's it's really fun to watch, and I think I
can get really creative with that at the next level
if I'll be training for that. So yeah, it's fun
to watch and interesting how they're doing it now.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I think that might be something that happens in
college eventually, who knows. Usually, you know, one side of
either the college or the pro people do something and
the other folks take a look and they say, hey,
that's pretty creative. May people try that. Zionsville, Indiana suburb
of Indianapolis, I'm imagining growing up, you had to be
a Colts fan, you had to be a Peyton Manning fan.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Absolutely loved going to the RCA Dome a little
bit before they tore that one down, and then obviously
Lucas Oil. It's pretty fun place to go and watch
a football game, and I got the privilege to go
play in it when I was back at IU one
time against Louisville. Didn't win the game, but it was
awesome to be in that stadium.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah, leaving Indiana that I wanted to ask you about that,
because Indiana now under Kurtz Signetti, is really, you know,
catapulted to the highest levels of college football, whereas it
wasn't a real football school in a lot of ways.
You know why you were growing up there. What do
you make of that? I mean, that has got to
be a really spectacular development for Indiana football fans.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, it's super exciting to see the buzz around around
that team. I never really had much of a relationship
with coach Signetti or coach Kane, the especial names coordinated,
but they're obviously doing a great thing. So I'm just
cheering on those guys that I still know that are
on the team. I'm close with their kicker. He was
my backup for a year, but a really good kid
and he's he's very talented at what he does. So yeah,
(06:03):
it's super fun to watch them win and just continue
to kind of bring football in Indiana to the next
level and bring it relevant again.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, and you've done that in your own right with
Yukon as the Huskies won nine last year. I don't
think I've asked you about this, and a few guys
have told me the experience of the Penway Bowl a
special kind of a you know, situation where you're play
in a postseason game in a baseball stadium on a
kind of a wintery day. That had to be a
(06:32):
unique experience for you.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, it was special getting to go to Fenway. I remember,
so I'm a big San Francisco Giants fan, and because
my dad grew up in California, so he kind of
brainwashed me when I was growing up ten early twenty
ten is great ton of be a Giants fan. But
I remember going to a Red Sox game back when
the NL and ALE teams will kind of alternate. I
think it was every six years they would play each other.
(06:55):
So that was a pretty big deal for us to
get to go to Boston and see see and then
just getting to play on that field with a lot
of history and going the Monster I think two days before,
just really special and it was a full circle moment
for me, which, yeah, just a blessing to get to
play in that game in that environment.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, you're never going to forget that, I can tell
you that. And what's happening with Yukon football, I mean,
these last few years under Jim Moore, this was a
program that was deeply buried when Jim came to the
Huskies and you know, had an opportunity to come there,
what was your thinking, I mean, you didn't. I don't
know what were you saying to yourself when you were
(07:38):
thinking about, well, maybe I can go to Yukon and
do some things because they didn't have a great history
in recent memory in terms of success. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I remember when I got in the transfer portal. The
first call I got, probably ten minutes after my name
officially was entered in the portal, was coach Shear. And
Coach Hear and I had that previous relationship when he
was at Miami Ohio. It's funny. I've told him the story.
But when he called me named the phone high school
me trying to keep track of everything. He said, coach here,
(08:09):
Miami Ohio. So we have this conversation and then probably
five minutes into the call, he says, we're doing something
very special at Yukon. I was like, oh, I thought
I was talking about Miami Ohio for a while, but
then just that relationship. And then coach Fia Cable was
at IU with me for a little bit, so I
had that prior relationship when he was a grad grad
assistant there. So just knowing both of them and I
(08:31):
trust trusted both of them through that process and knowing
them so it made it super easy. And then I
came to my visit, met with coach Moore, saw all
the things he's doing, saw his vision, and I was like,
that could that could be home for me for the
next two years. And it ended up being.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That, Yeah, this is it is a relationship business, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I think that from the outside looking in, fans might say, well,
it's all transactional now, but I don't think so. What
I hear from from players like you is that the
relationships you have previously with coaches or other players really
means something.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, I know a lot of my friends who
have entered the portal and hearing from maybe a previous
teammate that went to that school and give insight on
that school helps them. I actually knew a kid I
played football with who worked in the training room here,
and I saw him out in Zionsville when I was
home trying to figure out this whole process, and I
(09:29):
talked to him. I was like, so youkn like you've
been there what do you think, how do they treat
their players? How do they go about their business? And
he was like, it's first class NFL style run school.
And I was like, that's what I need right now
because that's where I'm working and that's where I believe
I can get to. So yeah, just trusting in what
coach Moore is doing and building those relationships is a
(09:51):
big deal.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah it is. And finally for we lets you go.
I guy talk little golf because I know you're a
golf guy. So my Bob Joyce, our partner who hosts
and does all our play by play for the women
and all kinds of things. We're always talking golf. But anyway,
Ryder Cup Sunday, come on the US, put on a show.
Almost got to the to the promised Land. I mean,
(10:14):
what did you make a ball lap? Because you're a
competitor and you play the game of golf.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, I mean it was awesome to watch. I don't
know if I've ever been that excited, maybe outside of
Tiger winning his last Masters, but I was on my
feet here and jumping around, facetiming my buddies and I
was like, is this really happening? Is this really happening.
And yeah, I actually watched the post game post match
(10:39):
interview with us and I also watched the europe side,
But I think it was Cam Young was saying he
has never felt that way playing, watching being around a
golf round, and I completely agree, like that was just
unreal to watch and it did show like that's what
it means to be an American. So yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to be in a sporting
environment at where there's that much interest and the crowds
are all riled up and the Americans almost pulled off
a miracle. But anyway, all right, Chris, we appreciate it.
Oh by the way, nice kick against Buffalo. That was
a nice one. I liked it, and Husky fans did too.
We appreciate you. All right, we'll be back. We'll have
more to go here on the Yukon Football Coaches Show.
(11:20):
Stay with us on Learfield
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