Wednesday, October 27, 1999
Kicker bright spot for Buckeyes
More confident, Stultz emerges as unlikely hero
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBUS — Kicker Dan Stultz was one of the last guys Ohio State wanted on the field to win a crucial game last year. But following the up-and-down path of his career, Stultz has emerged as one of the Buckeyes' most valuable players.
Stultz's game-tying 43-yard field goal in the fourth quarter Saturday and his game-winning 40-yarder with little more than a minute to play lifted No.21 Ohio State to an important 20-17 victory at Minnesota, keeping the Buckeyes' bowl hopes alive and earning the junior kicker a game ball.
Perhaps it's an indication of Ohio State's rebuilding year, but two of the Buckeyes' most consistent players this season have been linebacker Na'il Diggs — who everyone expected to be — and Stultz, whom no one expected.
Except Stultz.
“As the games have gone on and I started making (field goals), in my mind I imagine that ball going through there,” Stultz said. “If I really focus on that ball going through there, it's going through. That's the mentality I had before that last field goal at the end of the game. I knew I was going to make it going out on the field.
“Being the situation it was, that's the attitude I had to have.”
Stultz, from Orrville, Ohio, isn't being cocky. He's just feeling comfortable in his confidence after struggling with it and a bulging disc in his back last season, when he hit just 13 of 25 field goals and stuck out as a blemish on an otherwise dominant 11-1 team.
This season, Stultz has hit 11 of 14 field goals, nine of his last 10 and four in a row from 40-plus yards (long of 47) — and that's after having back surgery in February and not kicking again until June. He also won the punting job over highly touted freshman B.J. Sander (Roger Bacon High) and has averaged a solid 40.5 yards a punt. He hadn't punted since high school but said, “It was something I never let get too rusty.”
Buckeyes coach John Cooper managed the offense late against Minnesota to set up Stultz's game-winner. Last season, he might have been tempted to try to punch the ball into the end zone instead.
“I didn't have (confidence in Stultz) a year ago,” Cooper said. “We didn't attempt many field goals beyond that 40-yard range. You earn confidence. This year, with his place-kicking and his kickoffs, the more success he has, the more confidence I have in him.”
Stultz said his confidence surge began in the season's third game. He had missed a 43-yarder in his only attempt the week before against UCLA but came back to hit two field goals each in wins over Ohio University and Cincinnati. He is in such a groove that he took only one practice kick before nailing the game-winner Saturday.
“If you play football at this level and you play here, you're expected to make kicks like that,” Stultz said. “That's the attitude I have to have.”
That's a big change from last season, when Stultz says he worried about whether or not he could hit the big kick late in a game.
“I struggled physically last year, and I struggled mentally,” he said. “I wondered, "If I go out there, is my back going to bother me? Do I have it in my mental power to go out and make the kick?'”
Stultz politely said he would like to forget about last season, and his importance to this Buckeyes team goes a long way toward that end. Maybe that's not a good thing for the fortunes of Ohio State — the Bucks aren't used to depending on a kicker — but it's good for Stultz.
“Coach Cooper stresses points on the scoreboard is better than no points, whether that's six or a field goal,” Stultz said. “We'll take it any way it comes. If they have to rely on me to kick field goals, that's fine with me.”
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