Freshman Aaron Medley is reliable kicker for UT Vols

photo UT's Patrick Ashford holds for Aaron Medley in game against UTC at Neyland Stadium.

KNOXVILLE -- This time a year ago, Aaron Medley was kicking field goals and extra points in front of, at most, 1,500 people at Marshall County High School in the southern-middle Tennessee town of Lewisburg.

A few months later, he was lined up for a 41-yard field goal in front of more than 100,000 people in Tennessee's season opener against Utah State.

"I remember I hit the ground a little bit in front of the ball and it sailed wide right," the freshman kicker recalled after the Volunteers finished Tuesday's practice.

"It was pretty bad."

Since then, though, Medley has been pretty good.

Medley is 18-of-24 on field goals and 33-of-34 on extra points in 2014 with a made field goal in every one of Tennessee's 11 games. He's been almost automatic -- 17-of-18, with the lone miss a 35-yarder against Arkansas State -- from inside 40 yards heading into Saturday's regular-season finale at Vanderbilt.

The 18 field goals are the most in the Southeastern Conference, and Medley needs three more kicks to tie Daniel Lincoln's Tennessee freshman record of 21 in 2007.

"There's a standard here at Tennessee," Medley said. "We have so many All-Americans at the kicking position. It's my duty to fulfill that year in and year out."

This freshman's contributions get overlooked considering what defensive end Derek Barnett, tailback Jalen Hurd, right guard Jashon Roberston and other classmates have done this season for the Vols, but he's been valuable in replacing Michael Palardy, who had a standout season kicking and punting in 2013.

"Aaron's done a very good job, and we needed him to," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. "He's one of those freshmen that right, wrong or indifferent, had to play and had to perform. He's performed well for us. You look at his accuracy within 39 yards, so he's done a great job.

"He's another individual who takes tremendous pride in his performance. He works at it hard every day, just like we spoke about we started the press conference (about) the onside kicks. He's done his due diligence. He works on those kicks every single day.

"I think getting into Neyland Stadium and kicking in here has really helped as well, so again, I'm very, very proud of him, and we're going to need that consistency down in Nashville on Saturday."

Medley credited much of his success to James Wilhoit, the former Tennessee kicker who's worked with a handful of high school kickers who have gone on to success in college. Medley began kicking in his back yard when he was 8 or 9 years old, he said, and he became Wilhoit's pupil his freshman year of high school.

The two still speak regularly.

"His technique is proven, and for me personally, I know my swing," Medley said. "If I miss a kick in a game, then I can go back and kick in the net a few times and correct it. I think that's a credit to the consistency.

"It's been a long relationship, and it continues to get better. (We talk) pretty frequently -- just about after every game, recapping what I thought, some mistakes I think I might have made. We just kind of talk through some stuff, and I come in that Monday and get back to work."

In Tennessee's win at South Carolina, Medley bounced back from third-quarter misses from 43 and 45 yards to nail a 32-yarder in overtime that turned out to be the winning kick.

Medley made three field goals in games against Florida and Kentucky and hit all three of his 3-point tries in hostile environments at Oklahoma, Georgia and Ole Miss.

Of course, Medley has made just one of his attempts over 40 yards -- a 46-yarder on the opening drive at Georgia in late September -- but it's expected that his range will increase as he gets stronger in future years.

"I think that if you're doing something you love," he said, "and it's your dream, I don't really feel the pressure of the crowd, home or away. I think that's huge in my development here for the next couple of years."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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