Quarterback is the most important position in football, but it could be said that a strong second is the kicker.
When a kicker is called upon, a lot of the time the entire game is on the line and a win or loss hinges on a good kick or not.
Oregon will be trotting out a new kicker for the 2026 season in the form of a redshirt sophomore Gage Hurych . For the past two seasons, Hurych has been under the tutelage of former kicker Atticus Sappington . But now he's the guy and has the correct attitude a kicker needs in order to get through a season, according to special teams coordinator Joe Lorig.
"They were calling him 'Ice Man' like the first week he was here. Like he just has a, he never really gets too high, never really gets too low," special teams coordinator Joe Lorig said. "He's just always the same whether it's a missed kick or a made kick, and that mental piece is the hardest."
A lot of those traits can be identified early in the process for a college player. Coaches look not only at the physical attributes, but also the mental ones in recruits as well.
"A big part of it is in recruiting," Lorig said about recognizing if high school recruits have what it takes mentally to succeed on the next level. "You know, you try to identify those guys that are really mentally tough. I've had a lot of kickers go on to the NFL: Jordan Stout , Jake Kelly, a lot of guys, Zane Gonzalez , and all those guys had the same commonalities as far as their mental makeup during the recruiting process, how they respond to adversity."
There's no bigger pressure on a kicker at this level than playing in some big time stadiums in front of some big-time crowds such as the Horseshoe at Ohio State or the Big House at Michigan . The Big Ten isn't exactly small potatoes. But Hurych has what it takes to look down the barrel of those huge atmospheres and make the big kick, at least the Ducks thinks he does and they do all they can in order to prepare their kicker for those situations.
"Coach Lanning and I put them in situations in practice where, you know, if they were to miss a field goal, the whole team has to run," Lorig said "Those kind of things. But the truth is, you really can't. There's only so much you can do to prepare a kid for being in the kind of stadiums that we're going to play in. Y
A lot of that goes into making a game-winning goes far beyond just making the actual kick. There's getting into the right mindset and blocking out all those eyes looking at you. Even when they're at home, a kicker doesn't want to disappoint the 60,000-plus fans rooting for you as well as his teammates.
"You know, it's very unique. If you think about it, like when a kicker goes out there, it's the only position in football that I can think of that like all eyes are on you," Lorig explained. "On offense, all eyes are on the quarterback. But then when the ball snaps, there's a lot of different moving parts. Well, the kicker, when he goes out to kick the game-winning field goal, everyone's just looking at him. There's a lot of pressure there that I think is really hard to replicate, and that's the biggest challenge. But we certainly try to build those things into practice as much as possible."
Oregon knew Hurych would eventually be in this position even when Sappington was the No. 1 kicker. The coaching staff tried to put Hurych on the field as much as possible to get him a taste of what it's like.
"I made sure that, looking ahead last year, I made sure that we got Gage in the game multiple times in lots of extra-point scenarios, also in some field goal scenarios, as well as the spring game," Lorig said. "So this is something we've been building up to. You want to prepare for those things at least a year in advance, or you're putting yourself at a disadvantage."
Having Hurych out there shouldn't be a disadvantage. It should be quite the opposite.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Why Oregon teammates call new starting kicker Gage Hurych 'Ice Man'
