Spring practice and the spring game provide an opportunity to many football players who will be returning next season. The standout seniors are gone and members of the highly touted recruiting class has yet to strut in. This is their chance to stand out to the coaching staff and earn their role for next season.

That will certainly be the case for both kickers and punters. Jackson Rice and Rob Beard are graduating and leaving vacancies in both positions. Alejandro Maldonado, who filled in as kicker for much of last season, would like to think he sits atop the depth chart, but his three infamous misses, one against USC and two against Stanford, will remain branded into Oregon fans’ memories for years to come.

Kicking and punting, however, can be as mental as they are physical, much like pitching in baseball or goaltending in hockey. Maldonado would surely have to make a strong case for himself this spring, then into fall, to be named either kicker, punter or both, but it’s not impossible.

And while those losses seem to stand out, it was a rough year overall for Oregon’s kicking game. Beard and Maldonado combined to make just half of their attempted field goals, and they only attempted 14. They went 1-5 from 40 yards or further, and late in the season Chip Kelly often elected to either squib kick the ball or keep the offense on the field.

If Maldonado plans on being named either starting kicker or punter heading into the fall, he not only needs to prove to fans, the coaching staff and his teammates that he can be counted on in pressure situations, he needs to believe it himself.

While he tries to put the past behind him, he also can’t forget that he is in a competition for both the kicking and punting job with Dylan Ausherman, who spent last year red-shirting. Ausherman, who came out of California in 2012 as a two-star recruit, has been looking forward to the 2013 season knowing Beard and Rice would be graduating and will surely give his all in the spring in attempt to earn the job.

Perhaps whoever wins the top spot through the spring will just be gearing up for a second competition this fall with three-star recruit Matt Wogan, another athlete who can both kick and punt. Wogan is one of the top ten kickers in the country coming out of high school and as high as second on some lists.

Wogan’s longest in-game field goal measured 58-feet, but hit a 60-yarder in a kicking camp held by the University of Oregon last June, impressing Kelly and earning him a scholarship.

Wogan seems to have all of the abilities to make a difference on the field for Oregon, but after all he is still a freshman and everything must be earned. Most likely both Maldonado and Ausherman will play for opposing sides in the spring game, capping off their spring practice campaign. Who ever is most impressive might head into fall camp first on the depth chart, but a fierce competition will likely ensue for both roles.