2008 Woodie Awards
Dodge packs an added punch to ECU special teams
Punter earns respect in the weight room
Kellen Holtzman
Issue date: 7/23/08 Section: Sports
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Most probably imagine a short and scrawny walk-on, one who spends most of his Saturdays on the sideline and his time in the weight room cowering in the corner. Others see a timid special-teamed individual being toppled over by or easily shaken off by breakaway return men.
ECU Head Coach Skip Holtz can breathe a little more easily than most coaches; his last line of defense, junior place-kicker and punter Matt Dodge, doesn't fit the mold of a typical kicker.
A passion for strength and conditioning has added a bevy of muscle to Dodge's 6-feet-2, 220-pound stature.
Mike Golden, ECU's director of strength and conditioning, doesn't recall working with a kicker that has paralleled Dodge's ability and intensity in the weight room.
"In the weight room--it's not even close," said Golden, comparing Dodge to other kickers. "He's unbelievable. He's an animal. He's big and ripped, but he keeps his flexibility. As long he keeps that kicking stuff good--he can get as big as he wants."
Dodge's athletic ability was recently on display in the team's annual Strongman Competition, an event aimed at rewarding the team for its hard work in strength and conditioning. The showcase also serves as a barometer for just how far the team has come in the Holtz-Golden era.
Dodge may be a kicker and a punter on the fielder, but in the Strongman Competition, he is just another athlete-and an impressive one at that.
Dodge finished third out of nine competitors in his event, which involved being strapped into a harness and pulling a 300-pound sled.
Not bad for a punter, right?
"You're never going to get the full respect of everybody just because of your position," said Dodge. "I work really hard in the weight room and that's just a passion I've always had-and I work hard out here [the field]…if you perform in the game, you will get all the respect you need."
Dodge doesn't have any trouble earning respect from deep snapper Wilson Raynor, who hikes the ball to Dodge on fourth downs.
"Look at the guy," said Raynor, pointing to his teammate. "What is there to say? He looks like a linebacker. Everybody knows he works as hard as he can. He goes in there and works just as hard as everybody else, if not harder."
Aside from his athletic prowess, Dodge also has an FCS national championship victory under his belt, care of Appalachian State in 2005.
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