Football
Meet Mike Nugent
By J.C. Pennington
Mike Nugent (K, 5-11, 175) was very close to being a Pittsburgh
Panther rather than part of the incoming class of Ohio State Buckeyes
who will report for practice in less than a week.
Last year the Buckeyes, under Coach John Cooper, signed kicker Josh
Huston. "They offered Josh Huston and I kind of thought, well,
they got a kicker and I must be out of the picture," said Nugent
after attending the OSU kicking camp since his freshman year at
Centerville, OH High School.
"So we called up (recruiting coordinator) Coach (Bill) Conley
and said 'Is this over? Is there anything there to pursue any more?'
He said, 'Hang in there. We don't want to end this right now.' I
believed that and I still stuck with Ohio State," Nugent said
even though he was talking to Pitt, Stanford and Michigan State.
"Finally, after that bowl game and Coach Cooper got fired,
Coach Tressel came in. I was actually on my way to Pittsburgh. I
was about to commit to them on my official visit there. On the way
there, Coach Conley called me in the car and offered me. It was
really cool."
Even cooler for Nugent was what could be a new Ohio State football
tradition. "I heard this story that (former OSU quarterback)
Kirk Herbstreit was the first person to commit under Coach Cooper."
True. "I think I was the first person to commit under Coach
Tressel and we are both from Centerville," said Nugent. True
again.
In fact Nugent was not the only one on an official visit when he
committed. "Since I was the first person to commit under him
on my official visit, it was kind of his official visit too since
he just got to Ohio State," Nugent explained. "He already
knew everything about Ohio State but we got to go around the campus
with him. Me and my parents went with him and his daughters and
his wife to the stadium. One thing I'm really impressed with is
he's just so personal. I'm really impressed by that. I don't want
to play for a coach who doesn't even know my name. I've been told
by some college guys that some coaches didn't even know their name
until like their junior year. Coach Tressel, I guarantee, he knows
every guy's name on that team right now," he said.
New Coaches Are Impressive
Tressel is not the only OSU coach who has impressed him. Special
teams coach Ken Conatser has made a big impact on Nugent. "I
can just tell he's a great guy. Every time I see him it's like he
just shows me a lot of love. I'm just so happy and honored that
I get to spend the next four years seeing this guy every day of
my life. He cares about who he's dealing with. That's one of the
things I've noticed about these coaches," Nugent said. "They
get really close to you and they show that they care about you.
They are not out here to prove a point or just win football games
and make some money. They are there for you and to have you win
and when you win, they win. They are not just coaches. They are
like teammates."
Aside from being the first commitments for new Ohio State coaches,
Herbstreit and Nugent have another thing in common. They were both
Centerville quarterbacks. "At first I started out at receiver
and then as I got older I played running back my junior year,"
Nugent said. "We graduated one of our quarterbacks, our only
quarterback, so the coach asked me if I wanted to play quarterback
my senior year. I just practiced in the off-season and tried to
get the hang of it because we ran the option a lot. I got used to
that very well and had a great time playing quarterback," he
said. "I really like the hitting, the physical aspect of football.
In soccer there are restrictions on hitting people. I just love
the competition of football."
That prospect didn't really inspire a lot confidence in his friends
or with Centerville fans. "When we started out that year, everybody
knew that we wouldn't have a quarterback. They would ask me who
was going to play quarterback. They were really surprised when I
told them I was," he laughed. "They're like, 'What?' They
thought we'd win two or three games but we actually tied for the
league championship."
Performs Under Pressure
Had Centerville won that game, it would have been the outright champion
of the Western Ohio League. It was a game Nugent nearly won with
his foot and showed why Ohio State didn't turn its back on him.
Nugent was called on for a field goal late in the game. "It
was my last game and I hit a 52-yarder," he explained. "When
I hit that field goal, it tied the game at 17-17. They came back
and hit a field goal and beat us."
That game and field goal reveal another side of Mike Nugent, the
competitive side. "(That kick) actually beat the school record
by one yard. I always told myself that I'm here for four years,
I've got to break that record. I knew I could do it but I never
thought I'd get a chance," he said.
He was ready when he got his chance because, he said, he loves to
compete. "That's like my life. I don't go through a day in
my life when I'm not thinking about winning. I love winning. I feel
like that's one of my biggest strengths, how much I like to compete,"
he said. "My biggest goal is that I want to start. I want to
play as much as I can. I feel that's what I'm brought to college
to do is to play. If I'm sitting on the bench then I'm not fulfilling
what I was asked to do. I want to have a great four years there
and be one of those people who have made a difference. You don't
hear a lot about kickers and I want to be one of those guys who
people say, 'Who's this new kid?'"
Nugent is already trying to make a difference, an attitude that
fits in with Coach Jim Tressel's belief in service to others. "I've
been going a lot to schools around Dayton and helping other people,"
he said. "The people around here say, 'He's going to Ohio State
so he must know something about kicking,'" Nugent laughed.
"They see me and say 'Hey, can you come over and help some
of my guys with a little bit of kicking?' I just love that. That's
the only reason I am where I am because someone else helped me out.
If I can help other people out that just makes my day," he
said.
Youngstown State Connection
One of the people who has helped Nugent is Jeff Wilkins, currently
kicking for the St. Louis Rams and a former kicker under Jim Tressel
at Youngstown State. Wilkins, along with former NFL kicker Paul
McFadden, runs the Youngstown State kicking camp each year. "I
got to hang out with Jeff the whole three days and got to talk to
him a lot and see his point of view. I was very honored to meet
him. That just doesn't happen every day that you get to meet someone
like that and have them turn out to be such a great person,"
Nugent said of Wilkins, the only perfect kicker last year in the
NFL. Before an injury, Wilkins was 17 of 17 in field goals.
While Nugent was at the YSU camp, Wilkins was talking about the
NFL field goal record of 63 yards. "He went up there and hit
a 63-yarder just because we were talking about the pro record,"
Nugent said. "I said 'O.K. I'll try it out.' It was on turf
but I hit the ball well and made it by a few yards. You've got to
factor in that I've got no guys running at me, not in pads. There
is so much of a difference it's unbelievable. When I go out and
kick by myself, if I kick a 63-yarder I have no pads on, I'm by
myself with no one watching and a mechanical holder. Everything
is perfect, just the way you want it to be. When you get out there
on the field you've got pads on and the best athletes in the country
running at you. It's different," he said.
That's not to say that Nugent doesn't think of himself as an athlete.
"The way I first started out, I played soccer all the way up
to eighth grade. In high school I started kicking a little bit and
I was thinking I'd have more of a future in kicking (the football),"
he said. "So I tried that out and played football. In high
school, it was my decision. I didn't want to go through school just
being a kicker. I don't really believe in that. I think if you play
football, you shouldn't just kick. I don't think there is enough
action in that for high school. When you are in high school the
competition level isn't as high as it is in college. I think if
you have any athleticism you should play another position,"
Nugent said.
A Guy Who Can Give You A Chance
Nugent realizes that his job at Ohio State will be just kicking
but he'll be ready if things go wrong. "We had some fake plays
in but one that actually happened with my holder was like his first
or second hold of the year. The kid fumbled it away and I just picked
it up and ran it in. Sometimes when you get a guy who just kicks
he might not be athletic or he might be afraid of getting hit,"
he said. "I've run the ball before and maybe that'll give us
a better chance. You don't want to get a guy out there who has never
had a ball in his hands before. If something bad does happen, you
want a guy who can at least give you a chance to get the ball in
the endzone," he said.
That's the competitive side of Nugent, who knows that he will have
to compete with Josh Huston for the kicking spot opened up with
the graduation of Dan Stultz. He's thinking about that already.
"He's a redshirt. He's been there for a year but we are in
the same situation. I've met him a few times and kicked with him
in camps and stuff," Nugent said. "One person told me
a good way of looking at it. You can't help what the other guy does.
You can only help what you do. I can't do anything about it if he
makes the kicks or misses them. All I can do is make myself better
and make myself put it through. My biggest goal is to start. I want
to play as much as I can," he said. "I'm not one of those
people who say, 'Hey, I'm still on a full ride so it's O.K.' I can't
stand people like that. That just kills me."
One of the things Nugent has done to make himself better is to get
used to kicking without a tee. "It does make a difference with
no tee. It cuts down on the height. The thing with me, it's the
best thing I've adapted to, no tee," he said. "Going to
the ground I've gotten the hang of it really well. Everything is
going so great kicking off the ground I actually prefer it now."
North - South MVP (N-S
Photo)
He's kicking well enough to have been named the offensive MVP of
the South team in the Ohio North-South All-Star game earlier this
summer. When his name was announced to the crowd at Crew Stadium
in Columbus, the most surprised guy in the house was Mike Nugent.
"When he said my name, I was expecting to hear, like, I don't
know, anybody but me," he laughed. "First of all, I missed
two field goals, you know? I made two other ones but I was really
disappointed that I missed those two. But I thought I kind of made
it up with kickoffs and punts. When he said my name I thought, 'You've
got to be kidding me. You don't give that to a kicker.' I was surprised
and just so excited."
The North-South game gave Nugent a chance to meet his future Ohio
State classmates for the first time. "It's so weird. I really
didn't expect it. I expected a different attitude. I'm going in
meeting all these high school All-Americans. I'm so impressed with
how good these guys are and they are great guys," he said.
"In fact, me, Angelo Chattams, Simon Fraser, Brandon Schnittker
and Maurice Hall all went to Maurice Hall's house just watching
the North-South game because we got it on tape. It was during the
week when we were at Ohio State lifting and stuff. The attitudes
of these guys is just...they just make you feel so welcome around
them," he said.
"At camp during North-South week, it seemed like we were all
best friends. These guys kind of knew each other before because
they talked a little during recruiting. None of these guys knew
who I was but I knew who they were. Every single guy I've met, I've
been so impressed with their attitude and their personality."
Next week that group will get together again as the new freshman
class of Ohio State football players report on Monday, three days
before the upperclassmen report. Nugent is more than ready. "Actually,
that's pretty much all I've been thinking about since the day I
got offered," he said. "I could be sitting around with
my friends or my parents and they are like, 'Can you believe that
you'll be wearing an Ohio State uniform in less than a month or
two months?' I still can't believe it. I won't believe it until
the day it happens," he said. "Ever since I was little
I would always watch Ohio State games and dream of what it would
be like to play on that field and in that stadium. Finally, I'm
going to get a chance to."
