However, lost in everything else is the fact that a good punter can help
teams win the field-position battle that coaches always talk about and one of
the best in the country this fall is Hinds P Brent Sutherland.
“I’m more of a directional or pooch punter than anything else,” Sutherland
told JCFootball.com. “I didn’t have a big average last year, something like 42
yards per kick, but I pinned teams down inside their 20, 16 times which really
helped out our defense last year.”
Sutherland (6-4, 200) prepped at Northwest Rankin High School in Rankin
County, Mississippi and was a full-qualifier, but he didn’t receive any
scholarship offers so he decided to follow some friends to Hinds.
“I had a couple of friends who went there and they said that Hinds takes
special teams seriously,” Sutherland said. “I went to visit there and met with
their coaches and they told me they needed a punter so I decided to come in and
see if I could earn myself a four-year scholarship.”
Sutherland said Nebraska, Iowa State and Ole Miss are the schools that have
made inquiries as to his availabilities for 2007 and he’s receptive to all
comers.
“I’ll go anywhere that offers me a scholarship,” Sutherland says. “Location
will only matter if I don’t get an offer and have to walk on somewhere. If that
happens I’ll probably end up staying in-state so I can be kind of close to my
family, but if I got an offer from somewhere, that’s probably where I would
head.”
Sutherland will graduate from Hinds in May of 2007, but because he qualified
out of high school, he could end up transferring in December.
“It all depends on whether or not I get an offer before December,” Sutherland
said. “If I do, then I’ll transfer early so I can get in for spring ball, but
if not, I’ll just finish up at Hinds and figure out what to do after that.”
Sutherland will have three years to play two at the next level and would like
to major in the medical field in some capacity.