There’s no conclusive proof that icing the kicker works. There’s no proof in the NFL, a league overflowing with historical play-by-play data, and certainly no proof in college. That doesn’t mean it can’t work or be a factor in a kicker’s failure sometimes, but any head coach who calls a timeout to throw off an opposing kicker is doing it at his own risk.
Tom Herman’s icing adventures helped lose the game for Texas, but almost won it
Playing the icing game is kind of like playing darts.
Bethany Hocker-USA TODAY Sports
Take Texas coach Tom Herman, who failed badly on Saturday.
On Saturday against West Virginia, a few seconds before halftime, Herman called a timeout to ice the Mountaineers’ Evan Staley.
Herman waited until right before the snap to call the timeout. The Mountaineers ran through the play anyway, and Staley missed a 44-yarder.
Given another chance, Staley connected to close UT’s lead from four points to one.
At the end of regulation, Herman tried a different kind of icing.
The Mountaineers scored a game-tying touchdown with 16 seconds left. Or, they scored what looked like it would be a game-tying touchdown.
Dana Holgorsen was like, “You wanna win the game?”
His players were like, “Yeah, sure do.”
So they went for 2, and Will Grier converted on a slant pass to David Sills V. But it didn’t count, because Herman had called timeout right before the play. That was maybe part-icing, part Herman just not liking that he had a corner singled up against one of the best receivers in the country. Anyway, WVU had to try again.
On the second try, Grier scrambled for the win.
So, the final result of Herman’s icing adventures: one complete failure (which mattered a ton) and one success (which turned out not to matter at all).
I’m not saying Herman shouldn’t have iced WVU’s kicker before halftime, or that he shouldn’t have done it before the two-point try at the end. I’m just saying that icing the kicker (or anyone else) isn’t some kind of serious strategy. If it works, it’s quite possibly because you got lucky. If it doesn’t, it’s not like you gave yourself a better chance.
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