Gene Collier: Steelers Get Kick Out of Kemoeatu

Collier: So far, can't kick about draft
Monday, April 25, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Steelers were not looking for a kicker in this draft, but they took one in yesterday's sixth round anyway in the person of Utah's Chris Kemoeatu, whose kicking experience goes essentially like this:

He kicked a UNLV player into the hospital in a game in 2003, one week after he kicked a grounded San Diego State defender for a rare two-game ejection streak.

Talk about issues.

That got him kicked off the roster for a week and eventually Kemoeatu went into anger management counseling. Kicking and screaming presumably.
"This mean streak that I got, I think I've overcome that problem," Kemoeatu said on the phone late on the second day of the NFL draft. "I think I've really matured from that incident and I've learned a lot from it."

I think the important lesson here is, if you're 6 feet 3 and 344 pounds and can topple a vending machine with a single spasm of testosterone, a little streak of documented intemperance (even if the legal term is closer to felonious assault) can be viewed as an asset in the right job hunt.
"He's aggressive," Steelers offensive line coach Russ Grimm said when asked to describe Kemoeatu's temperament. "He's an explosive player. We like him."

Asked specifically if the Utah guard's short fuse would be a concern, Grimm said, "No, as long as it's not in the meeting room. He'll be fine. He loves to play the game. He gets excited about it."

If nothing else, the selection of Uikelotu "Christopher" Kemoeatu validated the pre-draft analysis that the Steelers' primary need was at the psychologist position, not that anyone had said as much. But when you're coming off a 15-1 season, played three games in which you were not so much as forced to punt, and you don't really have anything that would be classically described as a need, you sometimes look in nontraditional directions.

What this team needs most, after all, is someone who can have them play a lot more confidently in home AFC championship games, and that's really something of a niche position. What you lack might be an enraged 344-pound Ute and it might be a 144-pound grad student at Johns Hopkins with an insight into sports psychology previously not posited, so the football playing public wedged into those ephemeral parameters can present something of a puzzle.

This is much is evident -- the Steelers are pretty good in this situation.

The last time they drafted from the 30th turn in each round, the spring of 2002, they took Kendall Simmons, Antwaan Randle El, Chris Hope, Larry Foote, Verron Haynes, Lee Mays, LaVar Glover and Brett Keisel. All but Glover remain important components.

Each time the Steelers have advanced to the AFC title game or beyond in the Cowher Era, they've drafted effectively in the subsequent spring, and Cowher wasn't doubting they could go 7 for 8 on the players they took this weekend, which is what he batted in 2002.

"It can be duplicated," Cowher said. "I don't want to go in with any preconceived thoughts about it. We took football players. You look at a player like Rian Wallace [the fourth-round pick from Temple], we needed a 'backer and we took him in the spot we took Larry Foote in. We pretty much stuck to the board. The one thing we did not want to get away from was, I don't want to say reach, but try to fill a position before they needed to be filled by bypassing a good football player.

"Obviously, we don't want people kicking people, but we want competitive people. We want them to play with passion. We'll get them in here and expose them to veteran players who know what's expected and we'll get them wearing the black and gold and they'll know what that means."

It was notable that Cowher would point out Wallace because many a draft has begun to break down at the first mention of the word "Temple" -- as Temple football pretty much remains an oxymoron.

"Temple played a little bit different scheme than we did," Steelers linebacker coach Keith Butler said.

Did they ever.

Oklahoma had 11 players drafted this weekend, and it must say something about Wallace that when the Steelers took the All-Big East inside linebacker from Pottstown with the 166th pick, Sooners defensive stalwarts Lance Mitchell and Michael Hawkins were still on the board. Mitchell is a linebacker.

Despite what you'll hear and read in the next 24 hours, there is simply no evaluating a draft class until it plays a few seasons. Even in the age of instant analysis, I couldn't begin to project the impact of this crop of Steelers draftees until I at least see their tattoos.

(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.)