Jared Siegel has been accustomed to the jokes and pranks that come with being a kicker.
But he isn’t afraid to get them back.
“One thing that teammates have to recognize quickly is that I have far more time than they do,” Siegel said. “Both to plan and to execute.”
Nick Steitz learned the hard way.
Steitz had taken Siegel’s helmet and covered it with so much athletic tape that it wasn’t even recognizable.
Siegel planned his revenge.
“I didn’t want to be too blatant,” Siegel said. “I would grab his helmet and over inflate it so that the first two minutes of practice, before he had a chance to fix it, it would be annoying and uncomfortable.
“I had a couple days of silent retaliation and felt he had served
his penance.”
Siegel also told of a time “someone” pranked punter Paul Martinez.
“I don’t know who is responsible for it, but Paul Martinez ended up with eye black on the inside of his helmet, which is black (so he didn’t notice),” Siegel said with a smile. “It’s like the old kaleidoscope trick and the ring around the eye.”
Martinez ended up with eye black on his face and everyone had a laugh.
This contradicts the type of player Siegel is when he is on the field. The Sacramento native is an intense and highly competitive athlete. He is an All-Pac-10 performer who holds most of the kicking records at Oregon, including field goals, and is also the all-time leading scorer in Oregon football history.
“He’s a great leader and is always the first one out at practice,” punter David Dittman said. “He pushes you and always wants to see the max from you.”
Siegel also expects that from
himself.

Realizing his calling
In Siegel’s youth, he participated in an assortment of sports, but when high school came about Siegel had to make some decisions.
“Eventually when you get older, you start playing fewer sports, so I narrowed it down,” Siegel said.
Though he was playing football up until high school, he had never tried kicking.
“I kind of stumbled into it,” Siegel said. ” A week before our first game my freshman year my coach asked who could kick. Playing soccer I always had a strong leg so me and about 20 guys volunteered to kick.”
The players went to try out after practice, Siegel said, but he still wasn’t sure exactly how to do it.
“I imitated what I had seen on television,” Siegel said. “I figured I should probably take steps and look official. Then I just cut it loose.”
Siegel made the kick and said everything just took off from there.
Recruitment of a kicker
Coming out of high school, Siegel was recruited by many schools, but kickers aren’t high on the priority list.
“Everyone’s looking at you,” Siegel said. “As a program slowly evaluates their needs they don’t want to burn any bridges, but kickers, regardless of how good you are, are never at the top of the list.”
Oregon piqued his interest because the program was heading in the right direction and supported its athletes on and off the field. But the Eugene area also brought Siegel to town.
“I saw the Eugene area being a good fit for me,” Siegel said. “It was somewhere I could be happy because more than football, more than class, that’s where you’re going to live for the next four or five years.”
Oregon career
Siegel started his career on a team that went to the Fiesta Bowl and finished second in the nation. That’s pretty big for an 18-year-old freshman.
“It was something I think you almost take for granted because it is just so overwhelming,” Siegel said. “I was spoiled my freshman year, even my sophomore year, because we started 6-0 and thought we were on our way to the national championship.”
They wouldn’t go to the national championship, but Siegel would be named a first-team All-Pac-10 player his sophomore year when he made 49 of 50 extra points and 20 of 24 field goals, including a 59-yard field goal against UCLA.
He would statistically slump his junior year, but that was probably due to a slumping offense in 2003.
Freshman kicker Luke Bellotti said anytime Siegel misses a kick, Siegel himself is his worst critic.
“If he has a bad day, nobody will be harder on Jared than himself,” Bellotti said. “But he is always excited to go back out there.”
Now in his senior season, Siegel has accomplished a lot, not only on the field, but off the field as well. He has finished his undergraduate degree in business and is currently working on his MBA. He plans to finish the latter degree in the fall of 2005.
He even got married last June.
“Coming in as a freshman I saw a couple of the guys on the team married … I never pictured myself being one of those guys,” Siegel said. “I guess times changed and I grew up.”
But Siegel said any football plans past Oregon would be a plus.
“I’m going to stay in shape and hope I get lucky and get an opportunity to kick,” Siegel said. “But I’m not going to chase a dream forever.
“It will be weird (not playing football) though, because football has been part of my identity.”

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