Every kicker at some point of his football career experiences a rough 60 minutes.
For Tennessee redshirt sophomore Max Gilbert, the dreadful outing occurred in last November’s 28-18 downing of Kentucky inside Neyland Stadium. The 6-foot, 200-pounder from Memphis missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt in the first quarter, a 40-yarder in the second quarter and a 34-yarder in the third for an 0-for-3 night.
“Getting attacked on social media isn’t very nice,” Gilbert said this past week in a news conference. “People were attacking my family, my girlfriend and saying things about me, but my teammates didn’t treat me any differently.”
Gilbert bounced back the next week against visiting Mississippi State by making all four of his field-goal tries, which included a 51-yarder. His three misses against Kentucky would wind up being his only misfires all season on attempts shorter than 50 yards.
For the year, Gilbert went 20-of-26 on field-goal attempts (76.9%) with a long of 52 yards, and he made all 54 of his extra-point tries.
“Going through that definitely made me a better player,” Gilbert said. “It’s tough to go out there and not perform for your team. I knew after that Kentucky game that if this was something I wanted to do at the professional level that I would have to respond. I couldn’t go out there and do that again, or else I would have lost my job.
“Bouncing back the way I did was one of the happiest moments of my life, and going through that made me feel like I could go through anything now. I’m more confident than ever.”
Gilbert starred in high school at Lausanne, where he made a 54-yard field goal his junior season, before signing as a walk-on member of Tennessee’s 2023 class. He redshirted in 2023 while learning from Charles Campbell, who began his college career at Indiana before transferring to the Volunteers and capping his one season in Knoxville by going 18-of-23 on field-goal tries.
In his debut performance against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last season, Gilbert connected on field-goal tries of 36 and 42 yards in addition to his seven extra points. He would go 3-for-4 on field-goal attempts the following week against North Carolina State inside Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, missing from 53 yards, and his third showing against Kent State yielded two more field goals and nine extra points.
Gilbert’s first true road game was Tennessee’s 25-15 triumph at Oklahoma in late September, and he was up for that challenge with a 3-for-3 effort on field-goal attempts with a long of 41.
“I have a lot of experience under my belt now,” Gilbert said. “It’s not like I wasn’t confident last year. It’s just now I know what it’s like to go out there in front of 102,000. It was good to have that experience, and I’m really excited about this season.”
Gilbert’s second season as Tennessee’s starting kicker will be his first with Evan Crabtree as special teams coordinator, but there is nothing new about them working together. Crabtree was a special teams graduate assistant when Gilbert arrived and worked last season as a special teams analyst before being promoted to coordinator in February after Mike Ekeler left for Nebraska.
Crabtree is just as excited to see Gilbert perform in upcoming weeks as the kicker himself.
“When those guys go out there, it’s about the mental preparation, and that’s where Max is super strong,” Crabtree said. “Max goes out and approaches every kick the same way — like it’s a game — and we get the results that we want. He’s been fantastic.”
Hobbs sidelined
Tennessee junior defensive tackle Daevin Hobbs missed Friday’s scrimmage with a foot injury that is expected to delay the start of his season.
The 6-4, 290-pounder has played in 24 of a possible 26 games during his first two years, seeing action in all 13 contests last year and playing 209 total defensive snaps. He has been among the top three defensive tackles in preseason camp for the Vols, along with Bryson Eason and Jaxson Moi.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.