Snow was thick, surrounding the cabin in LaPine and the three members of the Oregon football squad sitting inside it last December.
Oregon placekicker Paul Martinez, sitting on a couch, looked over at teammates Matt Dragich and Aaron Knowles as the Lou Groza award – the nation’s top kicker – was presented to Oregon State’s Alexis Serna.
Dragich and Knowles, both punters for the Ducks, looked over at Martinez simultaneously as Martinez caught their eyes. All three knew that Martinez, who led the nation in field goals made per game (2.11) last season, should have been in Florida as a finalist for the award.
“They turned to me and said, ‘Don’t you think you should be there?’” Martinez said. “I wasn’t crushed, but it would have been cool. I would have liked to have been there, whether I was just a contender or what.”
Martinez said his goal heading into last season was to prove himself, something he did by equaling a school record 5 of 6 field goals in the season opener and following that by connecting on all six field goal attempts – a conference record and tied for the NCAA single-game best – during the second game.
He finished the season making 19 of 24 field goal attempts, including 8 of 9 from at least 40 yards.
This offseason has been remarkably different, with Martinez suffering a 50 percent tear of his right hip flexor prior to spring camp.
“It was right before spring ball, I tore 50 percent of it,” Martinez said. “I was working back home in California with some other guys from some other schools. It was kind of a freak thing. I felt it pop and immediately it began to swell up. I just kind of knew right there that I tore it.
“It hurt to walk. I couldn’t run. Any quick movement was just really painful. I couldn’t do anything until summer.”
The injury has taken four months to heal and Martinez finally began kickoffs last week. Midway through the summer Martinez initially tested the injury with field goal attempts.
“I started one day with some no steps, which is one of my warmups,” Martinez said. “I’d wait a day to see how it felt the next day. The following day I’d do a one-step, which is still part of my warmup. And then waited the next day to see how I felt. The last day I finally did some full approaches, but I didn’t go 100 percent. I went at 50 to 60 percent, kicked 20 balls and waited to see how I felt. Last week I started kicking 100 percent, kicking like 30 balls.”
The mental aspect has been the most difficult part to overcome, Martinez said.
“Coming back from an injury you always have to work through pain, you are going to have pain because the muscle isn’t the same as it was before, rebuilding strength … you just have to mentally know that it is going to do that,” Martinez said. “You have to push it right, but not too much so you don’t reinjure it. That was the toughest part.”
A mental struggle is what many questioned for Martinez’ several missed point after touchdown attempts early last season, but that wasn’t the case, Martinez said.
“In the beginning of the year I didn’t take them as serious,” Martinez said. “I didn’t kick them the same as a normal field goal. The power and the way that I went at it, because I pretty much run at the ball … and I wasn’t running at it as much.
I just wasn’t trying to kick it like I would a 40-yarder. Then I started to do that and I was good from then on.
“You should make it, I’m not going to lie. I don’t really think about it too much. That’s like a basketball player missing a free
throw. They are close, right? They have no one guarding them, right? So should they make a free throw every time?”
Martinez said he will be ready for the season opener – Sept. 2 against Stanford – and that the injury won’t play a role once the games begin.
If it does and Martinez is sidelined, Matt Evensen and Morgan Flint are set to battle for game time. All three are competing for
kickoff duty, an aspect that the Ducks struggled with last season and a focal point this year.
“We’ve talked a lot about improving our kickoff … just placement of the ball and hangtime,” Flint said. “Last year I think we were last in the Pac-10 in kickoff coverage and that’s definitely something (Oregon coach Mike Bellotti) has made a point of. We all just sat down and looked at our weaknesses and what we could improve on in the offseason. That has been basically our number one goal is just improving kickoffs.”
Evensen converted 4 of 9 field goal attempts during a three-game stretch that Martinez was out last season, while Flint is a walk-on from Bend High.
“At first I felt that I wanted to make an immediate impact, and obviously with the amazing season that Paul had last year it was basically impossible to really make any kind of an impact, at least on field goals,” said Flint, who is “putting in (his) time and just kind of waiting.”
Flint has kicked with Minnesota Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell, who encouraged the Duck to focus on slowing everything down.
Flint said he is a consistent kicker up to 45 yards, a range the kicking unit emphasized in its goals.
“Our goals are to make 100 percent PATs and 100 percent field goals inside of 42 yards and I believe it is 60 percent over 42 yards,” Flint said.
No matter which kicker ends up on the field, the
one thing that is certain is that
the team hopes he is out there for more extra points than field goal attempts,
unlike last season when the Ducks scored only 10
more touchdowns than
field goals.
“Who knows how many opportunities I will get this year because it is a different team,” Martinez said. “If I get as many opportunities, hopefully I can do something good with it again. If I don’t, I’m just going to make the
best with the opportunities I do get.”
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