Zac Yoakam Saw Success in 2022, Preparing for Bigger Role at Notre Dame in 2023
Zac Yoakam committed to Notre Dame as a walk-on in January of 2022 and nine months later he found himself kicking off inside Ohio Stadium.
The catch is Yoakam found out he’d be doing kickoffs 30 minutes before the game. It’s a lot to process for a true freshman, especially when you add in the fact Yoakam’s hometown of Upper Arlington is nine minutes from Ohio Stadium and he grew up a Buckeyes fan.
“Bryce McPherson got hurt and I think he was injured kind of a week coming in, but we thought he would be like about 50%, maybe he can kick off, but at the last second, he pulled his groin in warm-ups and they're like you're kicking off,” explained Yoakam.
“So I had it in like the back of my mind, there's definitely a possibility I'd be kicking it off. I was ready for it. I mean, it's Columbus, I'm from Columbus. It was awesome.”
Yoakam not only kicked against Ohio State, but he locked down the job for the rest of the season.
“I was living every day, like one step at a time,” stated Yoakam. “It felt like it was so slow and I was just in the moment at that point. It was just one of the best experiences of my life.”
When asked about the loudest environment he kicked in last year, Yoakam didn’t hesitate as he quickly pointed to Notre Dame Stadium for the showdown with Clemson.
“I think the biggest adrenaline rush you'll ever get,” Yoakam said of kicking in front of 80,000 people. “I would say it's like the first time riding a roller coaster with like a huge drop. That first kickoff, you just like have so much energy and so much emotion and so much adrenaline. Whatever the happiness emotion is. It's just awesome. It's one of the best things you can ever feel.”
Yoakam will now look to compete to earn the starting kicker job in 2023. The Irish will add graduate transfer Spencer Shrader in June and Yoakam embraces the competition. And Yoakam certainly didn’t hurt himself on Saturday as he was perfect during practice.
“There's always gonna be competition,” explained Yoakam. “There's a freshman coming in as well. No matter what you're going to have competition. At the end of the day, you've just got to come up and show yourself.”
The 5-foot-8, 192-pounder and Notre Dame’s specialists are also getting used to a new special teams coordinator in Marty Biagi, who brings a wealth of experience to the room as he was a former kicker at Marshall.
Yoakam has noticed a few differences through two weeks of practice, but it’s all positive as Biagi knows what the kickers and punters are truly going through.
“It's a little bit different,” said Yoakam. “Coach Biagi is more of a specialist-minded coach because he's a specialist himself at Marshall. Coach Mase is more of a special teams coach. He's called himself a hard-nosed guy from the D-III because he's he played D-III football at Denison, so he's going to leave the kickers alone. He wants you to make the kicks and he's gonna get mad if you a missed kick just like any other coach would.
“But Coach Biagi is more of a specialist and then like obviously special teams are this huge thing too, but he works with the specialists. You could see him he's with a specialist the whole time.”
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