OSU kicker thinks less, kicks better

Mike Nugent had a near-perfect season for the Fiesta Bowl-bound Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Learning not to think so hard has made Ohio State kicker Mike Nugent an All-American.
A year after sharing the kicking job -- and a large part of the blame for four of the Buckeyes' five losses -- Nugent is one of the stars as the No. 2-ranked and unbeaten Buckeyes head into their Jan. 3 showdown against top-ranked Miami in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
Nugent owes his success to not using his head.
"I was thinking way too much," the sophomore said. "I was thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm out here? I can't believe it. I'm so shocked!' "
Nugent had come in as an all-state placekicker out of Centerville. Dan Stultz had graduated after the 2000 season, leaving the job wide open to either Nugent or fellow freshman Josh Huston.
Worried too much
Nugent was brimming with confidence as he approached his first collegiate game. But it was also clear that he had spent a lot of his time worrying about the immensity of the job.
Asked by a reporter what he had to consider when kicking off in the newly reconfigured Ohio Stadium, Nugent went off on a 10-minute explanation about where the winds swirled the most and when, and where he had to aim on field goals just to avoid a gust blowing the ball off line.
His mental approach wore him down. He missed his first collegiate field-goal attempt, a 35-yarder in the season-opener against Akron. The next week at UCLA, he shanked a 28-yarder and Huston missed from 32 yards -- errors that loomed large in a 13-6 loss.
"I was excited to just be on the team," Nugent said. "I thought about that way too much more than I should have instead of just going out and doing my job."
He later missed a 34-yarder in a 29-27 loss to Penn State. At the same time, Huston was also struggling and the close losses started to mount.
It got so bad that when the field-goal unit came onto the field at Ohio Stadium, they were met with a cascade of boos.
"It was real tough because the only people who've got your back is your family and your teammates," Nugent said. "Pretty much everyone else is rooting against you, even your own fans. They kind of assumed that we would go out there and do a bad job."
Realized his problems
Over time, Nugent realized what he was doing wrong. Like a golfer over-analyzing a 3-foot putt, he never allowed himself the freedom to simply make contact with the ball. Instead, he had been filled with the fear of what would happen if he missed.
Despite a horrendous start, he ended up with a positive finish. He converted his only attempt in a win at Michigan and was 4-for-4 on extra-point kicks in the Buckeyes' last-second loss to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl.
For the year, he converted half of his 14 attempts, missing four kicks of less than 40 yards.
This season he resolved to let his body take over and to push all thoughts out of his head. The result was nothing short of stunning.
"As spring practice ended, Mike had every confidence that he was going to emerge as our kicker and that he was not going to allow anything around him to affect him, whether it was the opponent's rush or 100,000 people or a snap or whatever," coach Jim Tressel said. "Mike did that through a lot of hard work and believing in himself. We knew he could do it and sometimes you have to go out there and learn a little bit through adversity."
After beating out the injured Huston for the job, Nugent converted a 45-yard field goal in the opener against Texas Tech and the successes kept coming. He converted his first 23 attempts -- several of which went a long way toward keeping Ohio State's record spotless.
He set seven Ohio State kicking records this season, including most points by a kicker (113), most field goals in a season (24), most consecutive field goals made (24), most consecutive games with at least one field goal (12) and most field goals of 40 yards or longer in a season (9).
Earns All-American honors
Nugent ended up being Ohio State's first kicker to make first-team All-American.
"Last year we were a little inconsistent," quarterback Craig Krenzel said of the Buckeyes' kicking game. "This year we were darned near perfect."
It's not just a coincidence that after going 7-5 in 2001 while losing four games by a touchdown or less that the Buckeyes turned around and went 13-0 and won all six games decided by the same margin.
"One thing we realized this year was that special teams had so much to do with the [outcome of] games," Nugent said. "We realized that the offense and defense, if they do their jobs and we don't do much on special teams, we're probably going to lose the game.
"This year I knew I was going to be out there and everytime I came out prepared to do my job."