Ex-Idaho Kicker Hollis Survives Jaquars’ Cuts

Mike Hollis, former University of Idaho kicker, beat out Scott Sisson for the starting kicking job with the NFL expansion Jaguars.

The two kickers rode to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium together Saturday and awaited the inevitable word of which one had made the team.

“We were talking as we drove in and saying to each other, ‘This is it. I all comes down to this,”’ Sisson said. “Mike and I were sitting next to each other in the locker room and (director of pro player personnel) Ron Hill walks in and points to me and a few other players. I said, ‘Well, that’s it.”

Hollis, cut by San Diego in training camp last year, is not guaranteed a job when the time the season begins next Sunday against Houston. The Jaguars could still pick up a more established kicker once other teams make their roster moves.

Pittsburgh, for instance, is expected to cut longtime NFL kicker Dean Biasucci.

Sisson, who kicked for Georgia Tech’s national championship team in 1990 and spent the 1992 season with the New England Patriots, lost out to Mike Hollis in the battle for the Jaguars kicking job.

Sisson made both of his field goal attempts in the preseason but missed an extra point in a 23-17 victory over Denver on Friday night. Hollis missed a 35-yard field goal in that same game but connected on a 33-yarder in the final minute in a driving rain. it.”’

Coach Tom Coughlin told Sisson that his missed extra point was not a factor in the decision. Instead, he told the kicker that his form had changed since a spring minicamp.

“I don’t know what he was talking about,” Sisson said, a befuddled look on his face. “There was something that he saw between spring and now that he didn’t like, obviously. He’s the head coach and that’s his decision.”

Sisson said he only wished he had known of Coughlin’s concerns earlier in training camp.

“We never get any feedback,” Sisson complained.

The Jaguars released six players Saturday, including Sisson, as they moved to set their roster for the season opener against Houston next week.