In 2018 James Stefanou made 5-of-8 attempted field goals during a season which saw him routinely playing injured and kicking through pain. Needless to say last year's campaign contained a variety of ongoing frustrations for the Buffs' kicker.
But thus far in 2019, Stefanou is a perfect 6-of-6, a testament to his tweaked practice regimen and 100 percent healthiness.
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Stefanou summarized the issues that plagued him last season: “I had a lot of inflammation in my hip, where the joint and cartilage is," he said. "It was just from overtraining and overkicking — kicking too many balls. That led to groin issues and hamstring issues — I had to keep kicking for the team and the coaches so I pushed myself to keep kicking when I probably should have taken time off, even through fall camp to get myself right for the first game. But I didn’t, and then it just escalated."
But here and now, as Colorado is a month into the season, there has been nothing but positive signs for Stefanou, who has benefitted from a more agreeable routine at practice in addition to oversight from the coaching staff.
"(Coaches) ask me every day ‘how are you feeling? Do you want to kick? Do you not want to kick?,'" Stefanou said. "It is up to me but at the same time if we need to get reps in, we get reps in.
“I don’t kick as much, warm up as much and stay after practice and keep kicking. I think you can get into a false sense of belief that working harder is always working more and kicking more and not stopping, but sometimes it’s harder to actually stop and say ‘no, this is the better thing for me right now, let’s call it a day.”
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