Tim Long admits he’s “kind of weird in the head,” but for a kicker, that’s part of the job description.
Long is a member of the select group that gets thrown into the most pressure-filled situation in football. Field goals decide conference titles, national championships and Super Bowls, so for the men in the spotlight, attaining perfect sanity is not a major priority.
Still, it’s hard to understand why Long — an ultra laid-back philosopher type who happens to be a psychology major — would want to play a position that brings ulcers and ought to come with counseling sessions. His answer is simple — facing and overcoming the mental challenges.
“With kicking, like I’ve always said, 90 percent of it’s mental and 10 percent is ability,” Long said. “Once you get into that mental state of ‘I’m not going to miss this thing,’ then you start making them.”
Three weeks ago in Madison, Wis., Long reached that enlightened place.
With only two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and Northwestern trailing Wisconsin 34-31, Long was summoned to attempt a 46-yard field goal straight into the wind.
As the other 10 players huddled near the ball, Long stood alone. For several minutes his teammates treated him like the smelly kid in class, ostracizing Long as he gathered himself for the biggest kick of his life.
“I told (long snapper) Jack Harnedy, ‘You stand there and don’t let anybody down here to talk to me,'” Long said. “Because the worst thing is someone coming up to you and saying, ‘Yeah man, you can do that.'”
With the noise deafening in Camp Randall Stadium, Long kicked the ball toward the sea of red shirts behind the north end zone. The ball flipped end over end, and crept just over the crossbar to send the game to overtime, where NU eventually won 47-44.
“It was the biggest kick I’ve ever seen,” coach Randy Walker said. “You have all the factors in place and especially for kickers, the biggest thing is staying focused. Talk about distractions, there were about 78,000 of them there that day.”
The kick made Long a hero for NU fans and brought positive media attention rarely given to kickers.
The following day Long’s picture appeared on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. Even Walker, who boasts that he never reads the papers, admitted that he saw the photo. Long received praise from nearly everyone he knew, though his mother had an odd way of congratulating him.
“My mom said, ‘Hey Tim, we saw you. Great kick, but you really need a haircut.'”
Fortunately for NU, Long still hasn’t come down from that high. He has made six straight field goals and broke the NU single-season record for consecutive extra points with 28.
Long, who led the Cats in scoring last season with 47 points, has already surpassed that total this year, netting 49 points in only six games.
For the past couple of weeks, Long said the goalposts look “about the width of the field, they’re huge.” And Long has settled into a Tiger Woods-like zone, connecting from almost any distance.
“You want to be so laid back that nothing gets to you,” Long said. “So you don’t want to think about anything. When you go out there you don’t even want to hear anything. Once you start doing that you get into that big zone.”
The road to Long’s current comfort zone started when he served as a backup to former star kicker Brian Gowins.
Prior to Long’s kick at Wisconsin, NU’s last memorable kick was the 39-yard field made by Gowins to cap a 17-16 monumental comeback against then-No. 6 Michigan in 1996. Gowins actually made the kick twice after referees ruled the ball had been snapped inadvertently the first time.
As the school’s all-time leader in points scored with 262, Gowins set a high standard for Long to follow, especially in clutch situations.
“Coming to kick at Northwestern, it always seems to come down to those pressure kicks,” punter J.J. Standring said. “Sam (Valenzisi) had big kicks, Brian had big kicks, so it was inevitable that Tim would face some too.”
Long’s poise and focus in games seems to be eons away during team practice. But he really can’t help it, with kickers exiled to a separate practice field away from the offense and defense.
That’s fine with Long, who tosses the football around and jokes with Standring, who serves as his holder. The two seem to have their own special kicker chemistry, passing the time with stories, laughs and a few practice kicks here and there.
“Tim’s kind of a loose guy. Sometimes you watch him in practice and you wonder if he’s all there,” short snapper Mike Souza said. “But when it comes down to it in the games he’s all business, he’s all focused and he gets it done.”
And although Long might be a little too relaxed, too quirky and too spaced out, as long as the ball keeps flying through the uprights, no one will stand in his way.
“Tim’s really good at what he does, and I don’t really know what he does,” Walker said. “I said, ‘I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to coach you. Just kick it between the two white poles.'”
NYENHUIS QUITS TEAM: Freshman defensive tackle Gabe Nyenhuis informed Walker last week that he would be leaving the team. A high school All-America selection by SuperPrep, Nyenhuis did not see any game action this season.
“He just didn’t feel like his future was going in the right direction here,” Walker said. “Obviously we’re disappointed, but it’s one of those things. We wish him well in whatever he decides to do and obviously it just didn’t workout here.”
Nyenhuis has been absent from NU’s depth chart for several weeks and did not travel with the team to Michigan State or Wisconsin.
Hailing from St. Charles, Ill., Nyenhuis was a high school teammate of Cats’ linebacker Patt Durr. Nyenhuis was named first team all-state by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.
“He was a young player with a lot of promise and I’m disappointed he didn’t choose to stay,” Walker said.
