Nugent enjoys status as best

He needs just eight points to become the all-time leading scorer at OSU.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Mike Nugent's pursuit of two Ohio State scoring records resembles the way he approaches one of his kicks -- he's taking it in stride.
Nugent needs just two points against Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl on Wednesday night to break Dan Stultz's school record of 342 points by a kicker. If Nugent can manage eight points, he'll pass fullback Pete Johnson's 348 points to become the Buckeyes' career scoring leader.
"I'd like to get eight points in the bowl because it means we're playing pretty good offense," Nugent said. "But with the way my season already has gone, how can I ask for anything more?"
The senior won the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top kicker, was named an All-American and honored as the Ohio State team MVP.
"That kid did such a great job since his freshman year," said Johnson, a 6-foot-1, 247-pound bruising runner who scored 58 touchdowns from 1973-76.
After making just 7-of-14 field goal attempts in his first season, Nugent has gone 61-for-70 over the last three years. He also has put 34-of-55 kickoffs this season out of the end zone for touchbacks, making opposing offenses go long distances to score on Ohio State's defense.
Role model
He can credit some of his success to Stultz, who preceded Nugent as Ohio State's kicker.
Stultz, now a sales representative for a Cincinnati-based plumbing company, has been friends with Nugent since the two met at a kicking camp when Nugent was 14.
"I pulled him aside because I knew he had something very special," Stultz said.
Stultz and Nugent meet almost every week for lunch with another former Ohio State kicking standout, Vlade Janakievski.
"After my career, I held seven records at Ohio State," Stultz said, "and now the only one I have left is the kicker scoring record.
"If anyone is going to break my record, I want it to be Mike Nugent. But it might cause a tear or two when it goes down."
Johnson, who had a 1,000-yard rushing season as a junior despite sharing the backfield with Archie Griffin, thinks his scoring record would have been beyond reach if his Ohio State teams hadn't been so dominant.
"We never played past halftime except for the Michigan game," said Johnson, who now runs a sports promotion business in Columbus. "People talk about Archie's totals. I tell them, 'Can you imagine if we played a whole game?' After the first half, most of the time, we were done."