Kicker commit not afraid to compete
AUBURN | Chris Elmore was nervous for his kicker. The Fort Payne head coach had just seen his team complete a Hail Mary to tie the game on the road against Huntsville's Mae Jemison in 2018, and now the hopes of the Wildcats' coming out with a miraculous win was on the legs of a freshman in just his fourth varsity game.
Luckily for Elmore and his team, that kicker wasn't a regular freshman kicker. It was Alex McPherson.
"They called time out and tried to ice him or whatever," Elmore said. "I just kind of looked at him and said, 'Hey.' And he just kind of smiled at me and said, 'Coach, I got this.' Just with all the confidence in the world."
McPherson didn't miss, and the momentum of the entire season for Fort Payne, which was 1-2 at the time, changed, leading the Wildcats to a regional title. But, of course, that is just one of the many stories of lore that have come out of northeast Alabama for the past few years involving the Auburn commit and the nation's top-ranked kicker.
There's the 57-yard field goal he made against Albertville as a sophomore that, right before, Elmore had called his coaching staff "crazy" for even thinking of attempting. Oh, and that time that a rowdy Briarwood student section was stunned silent by a booming 56-yard missile off of McPherson's foot.
"I could hear them across the way hollering," Elmore said. "I don't know why it stuck out to me. They go out there, 'You can't make this. This is crazy what y'all doing? There's no way he'll make this kick."' Just kind of ridiculed the whole time. Give him a hard time. He didn't just make that one, he drilled it. Immediately they all went quiet like, 'Oh my God I can't believe that just happened.'"
Granted, it is anything but new for a McPherson to nail it through the uprights for the Wildcats. Alex's older brother, Evan, holds the SEC record for field goal percentage after his four years kicking for the Florida Gators. That experience, per Elmore, of filling his brother's shoes in high school will prove crucial for Alex's time in college, where he'll likely be the front-runner to take over the starting job after eight years of Daniel and Anders Carlson.
"I don't think puts any more pressure or maybe not pressure, nobody has higher expectations of Alex than Alex to be honest with you," his coach said. "He expects the best out of him.
"He's very hard on himself when he does not kick or punch the way he thinks he should have. He's going to be very upset. To a point where we've had to talk to him is look, 'Hey,' it's kind of like he and I both play golf. So we got that bond and I said, 'It's kind of like golf. You're not going to get every shot perfect. We got to move on to the next one.'"
With the high school rules being that a missed kick landing in the end zone results in the opponent's getting the ball at the 20-yard line instead of a possible return, Elmore has used that to his advantage when it comes to stretching out the leg of McPherson.
With all the accolades and attention surrounding McPherson, it'd be easy for him to get caught up in everything. But, that's not the case, Elmore says.
"I've told this to several people and I truly mean this, this is not just coach speak. This is not me trying to build up my players. He really is the best kid or at least one of the top five best kids that I've ever coached. Just a humble guy. He's very genuine, he's very nice. He's got a great personality. My little boy is about to be nine years old and he [McPherson] is good with young kids. And he understands they think he's a pretty big deal. And so he's just an all around really, really great guy. "
Don't let that good-guy persona fool you, though. McPherson is all business on the field, drawing a comparison from Elmore to a certain Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback he coached at a previous stop.
"I'll say this about Alex, I was fortunate enough to coach Jameis Winston back when I was at Hueytown and Jameis was this way as well. Jameis was not afraid of competition. Neither is Alex, and he's not afraid to compete with anybody and has always enjoyed going to those Kohl's kicking camps and really kind of thrives off that. I think sometimes does his best at those camps because he likes competition, he likes being able to go against guys that have similar skill sets and be able to show what he can do."
Keeping him grounded during the recruiting process was a family that grew used to it with Evan. While many high school coaches become the front-and-center for their players' recruitment, Elmore stayed out of the way while the McPherson family kept him in the loop. Not even a nationwide pandemic ruined the experience for the first family of Fort Payne football.
"I think Alex and his family just took their time, enjoyed the process and made some visits when they could."
However, a decision between Auburn, the school he grew up rooting for, and Florida, where he could continue the greatness that his brother left behind, will be made. While Elmore doesn't want to speak for his kicker, he guesses the decision was more straightforward than most thought.
"I think from day one he's just always enjoyed Auburn, the university, itself," the coach said. "And I think that was, maybe I speak for him and don't want to speak for him. But I think that was a big part of it. He always, I think, felt comfortable just at the university. Just liked the campus. So, I think, that made it maybe a little bit easier decision for him when they came through and then officially offered."
The kicker of the future for Auburn still has a year of high school left, but the hype around his arrival will be possibly even more significant than the Carlson brothers. His current coach is sure that the Tigers' coaching staff have found a gem.
"Auburn got a great player and a great kid."