Nugent eyeing shot at Groza Award

COLUMBUS -- When Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk and kicker Mike Nugent were still at Centerville High School, Hawk couldn't understand why Nugent was generating so little interest from big-time colleges.

Hawk says recruiters were making a big mistake in not seeing the All-America potential in Nugent.

"It made me mad when people weren't offering him scholarships," Hawk said. "He's gone from being a lightly recruited kicker to the best kicker in the nation."

Ohio State had been trying to lure Nugent to campus as a walk-on until coach Jim Tressel was hired in 2001. Tressel took note of the absence of a proven kicker on the roster and offered Nugent a full ride just one month before signing day his senior year.

At Ohio State, Nugent has kicked a school-record 68 field goals.

Nugent was named to The Associated Press All-America team as a sophomore in 2002, when he made 25 of 28 field goals as Ohio State won the national championship.

Former Buckeyes kicker Tom Skladany shudders to think what Nugent would have accomplished before attempts to marginalize specialists with rule changes beginning in the late 1980s.

Goal posts were narrowed from 23 feet, 4 inches to 18 feet, 6 inches.

"He unequivocally has the strongest leg in college football," Skladany said. "It makes no sense what he can do with a football. I can't imagine a ball being compressed that hard. He's a freak of nature."

Nugent routinely boots his kickoffs out of the end zone, and he is 8-for-9 in his career from beyond 50 yards.

"He has tremendous whip and tremendous timing," Skladany said. "His timing on field goals is akin to the timing of Tiger Woods when he was driving in the fairway."

Originally published Thursday, December 2, 2004