I have no idea how a place kicker got all the way up here in the 80s...but no matter. It's Pavel Time!
We've got 84 days until kickoff ... so today we'll be taking a look at number 84 on the Bronco roster—Jimmy Pavel
#84, Jimmy Pavel, Junior, PK
Stats
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 218 lbs.
High School: Central Catholic High, Molalla, OR
How'd he get to The Blue?
Drove...and way too fast I might add. As a youngster, Pavel was known around the Northwest not for his kicking, but his driving. See, Pavel was the P.H.R.A. (that's the Pacific Hardtop Racing Association, FYI) Rookie of the Year at the ripe old age of 16 and could be seen tearing up tracks in dwarf cars (like regular cars, but with long beards and battle axes) when he wasn't picking up all-conference awards for his kicking prowess at western Oregon's Central Catholic High. As a senior, Pavel took home first team All-Mount Hood honors as a punter, second team All-Mount Hood honors at kicker, and was named honorable mention All-State. Pavel walked-on to the program in 2008 and redshirted the same year.
Nickname
The Gavel [gav-uh
l]
Hopefully court is in session from the left hash mark.
Look-a-like
Pubescent DiCaprio.
Career highlights
Kicked off for the Broncos 13 times as a redshirt frosh in 2009 and averaged 61.0 YPK. Went 1-for-1 on field goal attempts as Kyle Brotzman's main backup. Accounted for 9 points (all PATs) in 2010.
Career lowlight
For a kicker, is considered morbidly obese.
2011 prospectus
Am I crazy, or is our place kicker bigger than most of our running backs? What gives? Either Pavel is bulking up so he no longer gets carded at PG-13 movies or he's been hitting the squat rack a little too hard. Either way, Pavel may want to try his hand at fullback, because when Jake Van Ginkel arrives later this month, I'm penciling him in at starter. Despite the sour end to Kyle Brotzman's career, he did leave the school as the all-time scoring leader and he does represent some rather large shoes to fill. When Brotzman walked on the team back in 2007, he was pretty much the only option we had at the time and he turned out rather well. In 2011, we've got a glut of kickers, and enough to finally have specialists performing punts, kickoffs, field goals, and even PATs if the mood strikes. This is where Pavel will likely see some action this year. Dan Goodale impressed in Spring Camp and Pavel has been known to have plenty of leg, as does Trevor Harman—so I would suspect that these three will be the chief rivals to Van Ginkel when he arrives on campus. If Coach Choate elects to save Van Ginkel's leg for FGs, I imagine Harman and Pavel have the edge to handle kickoffs. Lest we forget, we also have a JC transfer in Michael Frisina, who came in highly regarded and OH MY LORD WE HAVE A LOT OF KICKERS! Seriously, have you ever seen more kickers? Boise State has 7 on the roster if you count punter Brad Elkin. If I break down every scenario here I will break my keyboard. Let's just simplify it to this. Pavel, Goodale, Frisina, and Harman are all capable of seeing the field this year in numerous kicking roles. Van Ginkel is the wunderkind and should be treated as such, the others should serve as injury backups.
Completely made up fact
Pavel is bizarro Martin Grammatica.
Update
Jimmy Pavel is no longer with the team as of June 16th. Geez, Jimmy, couldn't you have decided to leave before I wrote 615 words about you?