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K Mike Nugent (All American, Lou Groza Winner, National Champion)

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Nugent knows how fickle life is for a kicker
Monday, January 18, 2010
By rob oller

Mike Nugent feels their pain. He can get into the hurting heads and aching hearts of failed place-kickers and, well, he would not wish such anguish on anyone.

But truth be told, Nugent also knows that every missed field-goal attempt by another embattled kicker brings him that much closer to returning to professional football. So in the vicious business of the NFL -- where loyalty often ends with Et tu, Brute? -- the former Ohio State kicker is both a member of a football fraternity and also an opportunist who watches wayward kicks with the eye of someone needing a job.

"It is a tough thing, a tough process," Nugent said yesterday. "You never wish bad upon anyone, but I will admit it is easier to cheer for someone when you already have a job yourself."

It remains stunning that the 27-year-old Nugent, who was named the nation's top college kicker his senior season, is an out-of-work NFL kicker. That reality is made even more perplexing by the handful of memorable missed kicks that have taken place through two weeks of the playoffs, including last night when San Diego's Nate Kaeding became the first kicker to go 0 for 3 in a playoff game since 1995. Kaeding, who only missed three field-goal attempts the entire regular season and owns the highest regular-season percentage in league history (87.2), wore that blank stare of despair on the sideline as his misses from 36, 57 and 40 yards meant the end for the Chargers, who lost 17-14 to the New York Jets in an AFC divisional playoff game.
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Rob Oller commentary: Nugent knows how fickle life is for a kicker | BuckeyeXtra
 
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"If you would have asked me senior year, where do you see yourself in five years, I wouldn't have expected to be a free agent looking for a job," Nugent said. "But that can happen in kicking and you have to roll with it."

No kicker has been drafted in the first three rounds since Nugent went in the second round of the 2005 draft to the New York Jets. He kicked for the Jets for three seasons, but has since been let go by the Jets, Tampa Bay and Arizona. With only 32 jobs out there, every kicker has competition.
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OSU kickers Pettrey, Nugent hope to put their best foot forward in chasing NFL openings | Ohio State Buckeyes - cleveland.com - - cleveland.com
 
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Bengals sign Mike Nugent
Posted by Michael David Smith on April 23, 2010

On a day that we'd expect to be all-draft, all the time (with a little Ben Roethlisberger mixed in), we've actually got a free agent signing to pass along: The Cincinnati Bengals have signed free agent kicker Mike Nugent.

The signing is something of a homecoming for Nugent, who's from Centerville, Ohio and went to Ohio State.

The Jets' second-round pick in the 2005 NFL draft, Nugent suffered a quadricep injury in the first game of the 2008 season that ended his tenure in New York, and he bounced around the league with the Buccaneers and Cardinals in 2009.

In Cincinnati he'll compete with Dave Rayner, the other kicker on the Bengals' roster. Bengals special teams coach Darrin Simmons says he's high on Nugent.

"This is a guy that was highly regarded coming out in the draft," Simmons told Bengals.com, "and if we can get him back where he was before the injury, he's a very interesting guy."
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Bengals sign Mike Nugent | ProFootballTalk.com
 
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Nugent lands with Bengals after tough year
Centerville grad has played for three NFL teams in five seasons after OSU
By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 2010

On the current NFL draft weekend, Mike Nugent thought back to the April 2005 afternoon when his professional career began.

?I was just at home with my family,? Nugent said Friday, April 23, just hours after he had signed a contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. ?When you go through the combine, you make sure everyone has every possible number to call you, and then you wait.?

For Nugent, that wait wasn?t long. The Centerville High School product who left Ohio State with 22 school records as a kicker, became a second-round draft pick when the New York Jets chose him No. 47 overall.

That selection began an NFL career that has lasted five seasons with three teams and has now landed Nugent with the club that was his favorite as a youth. Nugent will begin workouts Monday preparing to compete with Michigan State product Dave Rayner to win the team?s kicking job that opened when Shayne Graham entered free agency.

After two releases in the past year from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Arizona Cardinals, Nugent has also gained an appreciation for the opportunity, he said, all while he tries to stay connected to his past by staying in an apartment near Columbus and making frequent visits to the Miami Valley.

Despite some struggles, Nugent said his confidence is high while playing one of the most mentally challenging positions in football.

?You have to have confidence,? Nugent said. ?I wasn?t doing the job right in Tampa, and I wish I could?ve done a better job of judging and hitting the ball. But honestly, this is the most confidence I?ve ever had in myself, and I?m excited to compete for the job.?
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Nugent lands with Bengals after tough year
 
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don't know how I missed this earlier. I wish Nugent all the best. One of the most enjoyable parts of watching the Alamo Bowl (apart from Herbstreit predicting the Les Miles would be the next coach at Michigan) was all the love Nuge was getting from the crowd, the announcers, you name it.

Of course, that was the game in which he set the all time tOSU scoring record.

I thought he looked good last year with the Cardinals, not sure why they didn't keep him unless they had a lot of guaranteed money with Rackers.

Nuuuuuuuge!

:tongue2:
 
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Swinging spring
GEOFF HOBSON

Tigers Woods may be looking for a swing coach, but the Bengals kickers already have one in this spring of tinkering.

With special teams coach Darrin Simmons staring at his first season in eight years without kicker Shayne Graham and Dave Rayner on the shelf with a hip flexor, Simmons is working on Mike Nugent?s technique. Nugent is just one of his projects when the club?s on-field sessions resume next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Simmons also has on his hands a guy that had one of the greatest special teams seasons in history four seasons ago when cornerback Adam Jones broke three punts for touchdowns for the Titans. Before Nugent got injured early in the 2008 season, he had rung up 81.5 percent field-goal accuracy for the Jets that would project to the NFL?s top 20 all-time. If Simmons can get both guys back to that while also working with Rayner, talk about adding some weapons.

?Mike?s been very receptive to some of the things we?ve been tweeking and that says a lot about anyone,? Simmons said. ?He hasn?t done much in the last couple of years after those (three) seasons in New York, so he?s still got a pretty fresh leg. Mike is still a young guy (28).?

Simmons says Rayner is working hard to get back into the mix and his message to both has been that there are reasons they are here and ?have a quote unquote gig of their own.? But there is opportunity here. When Nugent came out of Ohio State as a second-round pick in 2005 Simmons said, ?He was one of the best kickers I?ve seen come out in several years.?
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Swinging spring
 
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