James Wilhoit was a top-rated prep kicker who played at Hendersonville High School before kicking for the University of Tennessee from 2003-2006. Wilhoit was a naturally gifted kicker. Good thing, as he wasn’t well coached throughout high school and college. Which isn’t a knock on either Hendersonville or Tennessee. Kicking coaches are still a rare thing even in the NFL.
Nevertheless, Wilhoit was good enough to be signed as a free agent shortly after the 2007 NFL Draft. Two months later, he was cut.
“The team wanted me to be able to kick at a certain distance with a certain hang time and even though I was close, I wasn’t close enough,” Wilhoit told me during a recent conversation.