If he was looking for some preseason attention — at least as much as kickers can honestly expect — Wes Byrum picked the wrong year to do it.

Coming off a nearly perfect season as Auburn’s field goal kicker, Byrum has been largely forgotten by the prognosticators who make college football a 365-day-a-year sport.

Perhaps a victim of too few attempts in 2009 because of Auburn’s remarkably efficient red zone offense, Byrum received preseason, second-team billing from the media last week and was left off the coaches’ teams completely. College football expert Phil Steele put Byrum on his fourth team All-SEC.

Byrum missed just once all of last season, a wayward 46-yard attempt that didn’t have any effect on Auburn’s 26-22 victory over Tennessee.

Guess he should have been perfect if he wanted to supplant the likes of Georgia’s Blair Walsh, Florida’s Caleb Sturgis or LSU’s Josh Jasper.

“You think he made strides with consistency?” special teams coordinator Jay Boulware asked sarcastically this spring. “What was he, 98 percent?“

Factor in Byrum’s 54-for-54 mark on extra points and yes, the 69-for-70 mark clocks in at 98.5 percent.

“I really try not to think about it much at all,” Byrum said near the end of last season. “When I go out there, it’s just like the attitude I have now is just like practice. Just go out there and kick the ball.“

His resume
Byrum Gator-chomped his way into the hearts of all Auburn fans as a true freshman in 2007.

Wth the upset-minded Tigers tied with No. 4 Florida in the Swamp, Byrum made a game-winning 43-yard field goal as time expired. He had to do it twice because Florida coach Urban Meyer called a timeout shortly before his first kick went through the uprights. Byrum famously celebrated the second kick by running around the field, Gator-chomping the entire time, as devastated Florida fans looked on.

He finished that year with another game-winner on the road, when he booted a 21-yard chipshot to beat Arkansas. His accuracy that first season wasn’t great (73 percent) but there was unprecedented promise directed toward Byrum at a school where field goal kickers had recently labored.

Then 2008 happened. It’s a season Byrum doesn’t like to talk about. Byrum hit just 11-of-19 field goals and missed a handful of extra points in 2008.

“It just got tough,” Byrum said. “Overall, the team wasn’t doing well, and I wasn’t helping at all on my end of it by putting points up on the board when we were struggling.“

Suddenly, the awkward form he used to boot field goals was a source of major scrutiny and, suddenly, Byrum had to try out for his job in an open competition the following spring.

He beat out Morgan Hull and Chandler Brooks and hasn’t looked back. His relationship with former Auburn kicker John Vaughn has provided a major confidence boost.

“He’s missed before, he’s made,” Byrum said of Vaughn. “So it’s nice to have someone that I can relate with and level with on it.“

Why he’s important
This one’s easy. Is there any position that has more pressure per snap than field goal kicker?
Even when the kick isn’t to win or lose the game, a field goal can directly affect the momentum of a game, no matter when it’s attempted.

Think of the extra point Auburn blocked and returned for a two-point conversion last season against Ole Miss. The Rebels had just scored their second touchdown in less than two minutes and were in a position to cut Auburn’s lead to two possessions, 31-21. Instead, Joshua Shene’s kick was smacked away and deflected into the hands of Demond Washington, who ran it all the way back to put Auburn up by 13 for a three-point swing.

Ole Miss didn’t score the rest of the game.

Byrum never had the direct fate of the game lying on his foot last season, but he also changed the course of some by hitting clutch field goals throughout them. His 49-yarder as time expired in the second quarter against Louisiana Tech put the Tigers ahead, 13-10, heading into halftime, a game they’d ultimately win, 37-13. Against Tennessee, Byrum hit a clutch chipshot with 39 seconds to play that put the Tigers up by two possessions.

Who’s behind him?
Hull is gone, but Brooks was still around this spring to keep Byrum competitive.

Brooks briefly held first-team status last spring before Byrum overtook him. Boulware said the two kickers have each gotten better because of their repore in practice.

“He made Byrum better last year, whether we realize it or not,” Boulware said. “Because he was consistent in his field goals at practice, and that forced Byrum to be consistent with field goals at practice, and that’s translated over to the football games.“

Cody Parkey, one of the highest rated high-school kickers in the country, will join the group next week. If Byrum does what he did last season, there should be no reason for Parkey to burn his red shirt.