Michigan State football: New kicker Jonathan Kim not lacking confidence

The transfer portal has been kind to Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker yet again.

After landing a really good class, headlined by Kenneth Walker III, in 2021, he picked up another crop of solid players in 2022, led by Jacoby Windmon. Although the 2022 season didn’t pan out like anyone had hoped or expected, there are still some really good players from that team that came from the portal.

Now, Tucker is hoping the 2023 portal class is better than the previous two.

And he’s hoping his new kicker that he landed to replace Ben Patton and Jack Stone will have that it factor. Heck, every MSU fan is hoping that the kicking game isn’t a disaster yet again — the kicking game arguably cost the Spartans a bowl bid (still trying to forget the Indiana game). Whether it was an execution issue or a confidence issue, something just wasn’t clicking with Patton or Stone.

Confidence won’t be an issue with new kicker Jonathan Kim, however.

Kim already a Michigan State football fan favorite

Kim doesn’t have a ton of college experience kicking field goals at North Carolina as he was the kickoff specialist, but he doesn’t seem to be worried about the new job.

And he’s already thinking bowl rings.

Sometimes when players talk like this, you worry that it’s going to backfire, but Kim’s confidence might just be contagious and you have to love a confident kicker. It’s a breath of fresh air.

“Just make sure those diamonds go in my bowl ring” is a heck of a line. I love it.

Will this confidence translate into 50-yarders? We’ll see, but at least he’s not going to crumble when the pressure is at its highest — or so he says.

I’m all for confident kickers and I hope that he backs it up. He’s off to a great start as a Spartan.