Christopher Stanley Koepplin (born October 11, 1985) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He was only a member of the practice squad. Koepplin played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the University of Massachusetts.

High school career

Koepplin attended St. Anthony's High School in

South Huntington, New York South Huntington is an affluent hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,422 at the 2010 census. Residents have a Huntington Stat ...

. He played football only in his senior season, but went 31 of 32 on extra point attempts.

College career

Koepplin attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in his first year of college and served as a manager for the men's basketball team. Koepplin then attended

Nassau Community College Nassau Community College (NCC) is a public community college in Uniondale, New York, using the Garden City, New York ZIP Code. It was founded in 1959 and is part of the State University of New York. History Nassau Community College was cre ...

for two seasons. Koepplin then played his junior and senior seasons at the University of Massachusetts and served as the team's primary kicker in 2006 and 2007. As a junior. Koepplin hit 51-of-52 points after touchdown and was 16-of-23 on field goal attempts. He was named a Second-team All

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

kicker. As a senior, Koepplin was 48-of-49 on points after touchdown and 11-of-15 on field goal attempts, with a long field goal of 51 yards, the second longest in school history. Following his senior season Koepplin was named a

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

third-team kicker. He finished his career ranked first in school history in field goals during a season (16), points by kicker during a season (99), and points after touchdown during a season(51).

Professional career

After his college career, Koepplin did not receive any interest from National Football League teams. However, he spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons with the

Manchester Wolves The Manchester Wolves were a professional arena football team, based at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, which folded at the end of the 2009 season along with the rest of the league. They played in the East Division of the ...

of the Arena Football League's developmental league before the team folded following the 2009 season. Koepplin attended kicking camps in 2010 but was unable to draw interest from professional teams and went to work as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym. On July 25, 2011 the

NFL lockout The NFL lockout may refer to any of the lockouts or strikes in the history of the National Football League: * The 1968 NFL strike/lockout, which lasted 12 days before the start of the 1968 season. * The 1970 NFL strike/lockout, which lasted a ...

ended and teams scrambled to find players to fill rosters for training camp. With starting kicker Stephen Gostkowski coming off a leg injury, the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

signed Koepplin to handle kickoff duties in pre-season, but he did not make the final roster. Koepplin was signed by the Patriots again in 2012, but was once again cut during training camp. In April, 2013 Koepplin was signed by the

in order to attend their training camp and compete with veteran

Rian Lindell Rian David Lindell (born January 20, 1977) is a former American football placekicker in the National Football League for the Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played college football at Washington State. Early years ...

for the starting job. He was cut by the Bills as well

References

External links

UMass profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koepplin, Chris 1985 births Living people American football placekickers Manchester Wolves players New England Patriots players UMass Minutemen football players Boston University alumni People from Kings Park, New York Players of American football from New York (state) Nassau Community College alumni