Nugent kicks off his career

By: Peter Botte
New York Daily News Sports Writer
August 11, 2005

New offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger joked last week that he was "one foot on a field goal from not even being here." The same statement could apply to Mike Nugent.

The Jets used their second-round draft pick to select the pressure-tested Ohio State kicker before releasing Doug Brien, who had missed two key field-goal attempts late in their 20-17 AFC divisional playoff loss to Pittsburgh.

With rehabbing quarterback Chad Pennington and incoming Pro Bowler Ty Law not expected to play in tomorrow's preseason opener against Detroit, many eyes will be fixed on Nugent as he begins the quick transition from everybody's All-American to everybody's late-game NFL hero or goat.

"He's done fine. And we're expecting him to be very good when the games start," special teams coach Mike Westhoff said of Nugent following a 45-minute special-teams practice yesterday at Hofstra. "He's had a heck of a college career, and I haven't seen anything to make me think differently (in training camp).

"For any of these guys, I think there's always a carryover from where you've been to where you are now, and he's been in highly pressured situations his whole college career. He should be able to handle it."

Herm Edwards and the Jets felt strongly enough about Nugent's cold-weather, big-kick resume from his Big Ten days with the Buckeyes that they made him the highest-drafted kicker (47th overall) in team history - and the highest in the NFL since Oakland tabbed Sebastian Janikowski 17th overall in 2000.

"He hasn't kicked in a game yet ... but we have high expectations for Mike and he has high expectations for himself," Edwards said. "He alone will not win games. We have to do that as a football team. We need to put him in a position where he doesn't have to make dramatic kicks, but he might have to make one or two through the course of the year."

To that end, Edwards pointed out that Nugent "fully understands" that 24% of NFL games "are won or lost by three points." Nugent, who also was a team captain at Ohio State and a multiple Scholar-Athlete award winner, believes he's ready for the NFL "because it seems my last two or three years in college, almost every game came down to two or three points."

Said Edwards: "He's won a national championship, and been in a lot of postseason games in which he's had to kick to win. He's been through that pressure. He's played in a stadium with 100,000 people watching him. There were more people watching him (at Ohio State) than we have (at Jets games). Now it's just a matter of him understanding that he's at the pro level and that he can do it."

Nugent, 23, described himself yesterday as "somebody that definitely has a lot of confidence." And why not? He'd converted 72 of 88 field goals (82%), with a long of 55 yards, during his OSU career. And more than half of his 220 career kickoffs (119) reached the end zone.

Still, Nugent recalled watching Brien's playoff meltdown against the Steelers, in which he missed attempts of 47 and 43 yards in the final minutes, including one off the corner of the crossbar/upright. Even the rookie pointed out "it's easy to forget" Brien also had kicked the game-winning field goal one week earlier in the wild-card playoff against San Diego.

"I think with any kicker in that situation, you just try to put yourself in their shoes and know exactly how they feel," Nugent said. "That was a very high-pressure situation for him and hopefully everyone can put the past behind them and move on."

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