REGINA — It’s safe to say Saskatchewan Roughriders' kicker Brett Lauther hasn't had a lot of luck on his side in the early going of the 2025 Canadian Football League season.
Missed field goals — some at crucial, momentum-changing times — have had onlookers expressing concern in recent weeks, especially given how consistent the eight-year veteran has been throughout his career.
But with that kind of adversity comes a desire for improvement, it’s almost every day that Lauther, holder and punter Joe Couch and special teams coordinator Kent Maugeri are on the field trying to refine their game back into a steady points-producing machine.
“It’s coming great, those guys are working hard,” Maugeuri told voice of the Riders, Dave Thomas. “It takes a long, long time and they work so hard as individuals, they work so hard pre- and post-practice at getting better and it's a one-inch difference off the hold. For a kicker, that's a big difference whether you push it or pull it so they’re really doing a good job [working on] that.”
Lauther has hit 10-of-16 field goals this season, 62.5 percent, which is quite a bit down from his career 81.9 percent average. As one might expect in such a situation, it’s a matter of getting back to the grindstone, figuring out what works and putting it all into practice.
“We want to see good consistent ball flight because I know that's when he's striking it well,” Maugeri said. “Then sometimes it's windy here, if you overplay the wind or under play the wind it's gonna affect the ball, especially some of the longer kicks. But he's working at it, he's a pro, he wants to be great, so he’s been working on his ball striking and hopefully it pays off for him this week… not much wind in B.C.”
Interestingly enough, even kickers can benefit from video work, that’s another tool Maugeri has been putting to use with Lauther.
“He comes in every day and we look at his approach, his steps, his takeoff, everything how he's striking the ball and what’s happening on contact,” Maugeri explained. “There's a lot to it technically and he's a pros pro, he cares and he works his tail off.”
As for the field-flipping part of the special teams game, Couch himself has shown rapid improvement through his rookie season at punter, having rattled off back-to-back games with more than 200 net yards punting, including 70-plus-yard punts in both contests.
“He’s another guy who's got a great work ethic,” Maugeri said. “He's got pride in his performance, he's out here working every day to improve his consistency and he's done a great job. We're seeing that on game day too, which has been awesome.”
Like the kicking game, there are many aspects to punting beyond ‘kick it as hard as you can.’ Maugeri ran through a half dozen, including being able to identify what the defence is doing, how the ball is handled off the snap, hand and foot timing and, of course, hang time and placement.
“All that stuff beforehand is going to lead to your end result,” Maugeri said.
Couch is a former Australian Rules Football player out of Geelong College and has put the kicking skills from that sport into good use in his pro career, as well, giving him a versatile toolbox.
“Some of these Aussie guys are incredible,” Maugeri said. “He has one punt, it’s like a knuckleball, I don't know how any returners can catch it… he's got a lot of shots in his bag, he can do them all.”
Lauther, Couch and the Roughriders in action on Saturday night when the team takes on the B.C. Lions. Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates have the pre-game show at 2 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 5 p.m. You can hear everything on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.