By Bill Kipouras
Matt Lincoff was a cornerback and punter on the Marblehead football team and didn't get a single letter from any college showing interest. Nary a one.
The 20-year-old Lincoff was also a high jumper and nearly went to Rhode Island for track, but football was his first love. He was determined not to give it up.
Finally, that offer has come and Lincoff was more than happy to take it. He's headed for Clemson University this fall after a strong career at Dean College.
"Nobody from a college even called me on the phone about football," Lincoff said.
Now that word is out around Marblehead that he's a future Tiger and will kick in the dynamic Atlantic Coast Conference, some of the people have been asking him if he hopes to punt in the National Football League some day.
He shakes his head and replies the NFL isn't even on his mind.
"I honestly haven't even dreamed about professional football," Lincoff said. "My dream — and it can become a reality — is being in Death Valley (the well-known sobriquet for Clemson's playing field) with 86,000 looking on and waving (in pregame) to my parents (Nate and Andrea) in the stands, like I did in Marblehead and Dean College. I can't imagine how exciting that will be."
He grew up in Salem, played Little League baseball for Sean O'Keefe's Giants and the Lincoff family still resides there. He was a school choice kid in Marblehead.
Dean plays an underrated brand of football and that's where it all happened for him. As a freshman he was an all-purpose kicker, but was relegated to punting as a sophomore when a recruit from China, Long Ding, arrived, and was a super kicker.
"It's kind of ironic that I became a punter and squib-kicked and did onside kicks that sophomore season. Long Ding was a high recruit. The transition went well and looked what it did for me," Lincoff said.
After sending video footage to a number of schools, Lincoff narrowed his choices to UMass Amherst, Coastal Carolina and Clemson and was accepted at all three.
"I was studying for finals and my coach there, Todd DeVasey, said a Clemson coach called him and said they had full interest in me. The Clemson special teams and running backs coach, Andre Powell, told DeVasey he liked the things he saw on my video. Like that I was a two-step punter, punted well under pressure, and one of the best things was that I had a 4.3 hang time." Lincoff said.
His resume made note that in his second year at Dean, Lincoff had a net average (punt) return of 1.6 yards, ranking him among the best in the nation.
"I knew as soon as I stepped on the Clemson campus that it was the place for me," he said.
Lincoff had a 44.2 punting average until a wild wind storm knocked it down to 35.4 in a game against Erie next to Giants' Stadium in New Jersey.
"Do you remember the Pats game at Buffalo when the wind was so tough it knocked down the goal posts? We had the same weather against Erie in New Jersey," Lincoff said.
"They told me there was room for a punter at Clemson. That was good enough for me," he said.
