With Henrique Ribeiro gone, UTC's place-kickers work on consistency

Victor Ulmo kicks from the hold of Colin Brewer in UTC's football practice Thursday at Finley Stadium.
Victor Ulmo kicks from the hold of Colin Brewer in UTC's football practice Thursday at Finley Stadium.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program lost five All-Americans after the 2016 season.

Yet the hardest person the Mocs coaches have had to replace has been the kicker, three-year starter Henrique Ribeiro.

The 6-foot, 220-pounder from Baylor School left as UTC's all-time leading scorer with 307 points, making 76 percent of his 63 field-goal attempts and 163 extra-point attempts in 168 tries.

The task of replacing him has landed on the shoulders of head coach Tom Arth and special teams coach Chris Hurd. Redshirt freshman Victor Ulmo - also from Baylor - was the backup last season and has had his ups and downs through practice so far, as has freshman walk-on Austin Slifko from Hixson, who was a second-team Times Free Press Best of Preps member as a senior.

photo Victor Ulmo (60) watches the path of his kick. Former Baylor School teammate Colin Brewer (41) was the holder. The UTC football team practiced at Finley Stadium on August 10, 2017.

True freshman Jacob Bailey from Mount Juliet, who was expected to compete for the job, has been out with an injury and may not play this season.

"We've still got an open competition," Hurd said recently. "We have several guys vying for that position; right now they're competing for that daily and the depth chart changes by how consistent the guys are being, but they're working. They've got good operation and we've just got to get more consistent.

"We've got to find a guy who can consistently put them through, 39 yards and in, and put us in the best position that if we drive that ball down there, they can put three points on the board when it comes to a field goal."

That wasn't much of an issue the past few seasons. Ribeiro, a two-time first-team All-Southern Conference selection, kicked a 47-yard field goal as time expired to beat Wofford in the 2015 season. His best asset was his consistency, making 101 consecutive extra points and leaving with the second-best field-goal percentage in school history as well as the most field goals and extra points.

Now, at a time when the kicking game can be the difference between a win and a loss, the Mocs are unsure of where they stand.

"Overall, our special-teams units are outstanding," Arth said, "but from a kicking aspect, we've got to get better. We're not as effective as we're capable of being in the punt game, PATs, field goals, and we've got to improve there, but we're working hard at it."

Both Ulmo and Slifko have shown the ability to hit field goals beyond 40 yards in practice, but according to Hurd it's going to be a while before the winner of the job gets an opportunity to attempt kicks from that distance in a game.

"If you can get 39, 40 yards and in, you know where your offense needs to get to if it ends up where we can get in field-goal position," Hurd said. "If you've got a guy that can consistently make it from 40 yards and in, you're good. We'd love to get past it, but once they meet and exceed the consistency level, we'll up their standard and make it a little bit tougher on them."

Bennifield on watch list

UTC senior quarterback Alejandro Bennifield was included on the College Football Performance Awards watch list for FCS national performer of the year. The trophy for that honor is a 22-inch K-9 optic crystal tower topped with an 8-inch crystal football, and the winner will be announced on Jan. 10. There are 42 players on the watch list.

Bennifield was second in the Southern Conference and 12th nationally last year with a 152.6 pass efficiency rating, and he was second in the league and 11th in the FCS with 26 passing touchdowns.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.

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