AUBURN | There's no question that Anders Carlson is struggling to kick field goals this season. While his numbers read 5-for-7 on the year, he missed two against Missouri that were negated due to offsides penalties and is just 1-for-3 from 40-plus yards out.
Carlson doesn't have the strength or accuracy we saw earlier in his career after undergoing surgery in November for the torn ACL suffered in the Mississippi State game. That doesn't mean Bryan Harsin has lost belief in the fifth-year senior.
"We have faith in Anders," the Auburn head coach said. "That's not anything from practice. He's been very good in practice. Anders is a very consistent guy, and we still believe in him."
In Saturday's loss to LSU, Carlson finished 1-of-2, nailing a 29-yard attempt in the second quarter to put the Tigers up 17-0 but failed once again at a longer attempt, missing from 40 yards out with 1:56 left in the first half.
With the arrival of top-ranked kicker Alex McPherson this season, there is the question of if he should get a shot at field goal duties, especially when it is from 45-plus due to Carlson's inaccuracy so far. While Harsin doesn't rule out that happening, it seems he is sticking with Carlson currently.
"Yes, Alex is available," Harsin said. "Alex can go out there and have opportunities as well. But we still believe in Anders and know he's a guy who's played. He's played at a high level."
After kicking in the familiar confines of Jordan-Hare Stadium in the first five games of the season, Carlson now has the challenge of going into Sanford Stadium in Athens and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford in the next two weeks. Harsin is confident that both kickers will prepare a little bit differently, just as the rest of the team will, with road games coming up, and also says he's confident Carlson will make the adjustments to get what has been going wrong corrected.
"Anders still has our full support, and this week is going to be a great week to get back on track and be consistent in the Georgia game," the coach said.
