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Show Viewpoint Putting the kick in football kicking game, saw 64 percent of all attempts successful. Clearly the foot in football is getting more powerful and more accurate each year and more passes than ever before can be expected this fall. By JACK HILL When the 1986 college football season kicks-off later this month, it will be from the 35-yard line. As college kickers steadily improve, im-prove, rule makers continue trying to keep the kick-off return in the game. Most Division I kickers are able to kick the ball into the end zone from the traditional 40 yard line and the kick-off return is becoming a rare occurrence. "The kick-off return has essentially essen-tially become a non-play," said John Adams, member of the NCAA Rules Committee, speaking to the Western Athletic Conference Football Officials clinic last weekend in Colorado. Two years ago, the rules committee com-mittee tried to get coaches to make their kickers put the ball in play by bringing a ball kicked into the end zone out to the 30 yard line. The extra 10 yards on the touchback was supposed to be an incentive to teams to keep the ball in the field of play. It did not work. Last season only 40 percent of the kick-offs were returned. Moving the kicker back five yards to the 35-yard line is this year's attempt to get the kick-off return back into the game. Several other minor rule changes dot the rule book, but the new kick-off kick-off spot will be the one change most easily visible to the average football fan. Following a trend started several years ago (BYU is a leader), the passing game continues to be the area of college football setting all-time all-time records in the NCAA books. Last year in 1,259 Division I NCAA games, a fan saw an average of 29 pass completions per game, with 52 percent of the passes being ' complete. (These totals are for both teams in a game.) Games average 89 running and 54 passing plays with a combined total offense of 710 yards good for 44.7 points on five touchdowns and two field goals per game. . Conversations with officials from the nine different WAC cities indicates in-dicates the trend toward the passing game will be accelerated this season. The new coach at Wyoming has replaced the wishbone with a wide open passing attack. New coaches at UTEP and San Diego have installed in-stalled sophisticated passing attacks, at-tacks, leaving Air Force as the lone team relying on the run over the pass. WAC games averaged 3.: 01 in length with the national average 2:58. Games will probably be longer due to the increase number of teams that will throw the ball this year. One rule discussed but not changed was the point after touchdown. More than 95 percent of PAT kicks were good last year and the rules committee wanted to change. Moving the PAT try back was just one idea, but the coaches on the committee resisted and the rule will remain the same. If your team doesn't have a punter who averages 40 yards per punt, he is below average. F!H onals the othor nhase of the |