When sophomore kicker Gianni Spetic lines up for a kick, he clears his head and has the comfortable cockiness to know the ball will go through the uprights. When long snapper Colby Garfield snaps the ball back to holder Jack Wilson, everything is in perfect unison for Spetic to make his kicks.
“I try not to think too much about it; that’s where mistakes can go wrong,” Spetic said. “When I line up, I just tell myself to attack with my plant foot … and just follow through.”
Spetic, a native of Chardon, Ohio, has had an excellent start to his sophomore season. In five games, Spetic has only missed once in six field goal attempts. He also scored a career-long 46-yard field goal in Week One against Syracuse.
“So far, compared to last year, there’s a big difference there,” Spetic said. “My confidence level is way up, and it continues to be that way.”
Spetic largely credits his jump between years one and two to his newfound appreciation for meditation practices.
“I started (meditating) this year,” Spetic said. “My aunt got me into it. I read a couple of books that talk about meditation and how it helps you.”
Before every game, Spetic takes the time to sit down and meditate so he can go into every matchup with a clear head.
The kicker position may have the most mental impact in football. Although every position requires a fair amount of mental toughness, kickers often only get a couple of tries per game, and a miss can linger in one’s head for a while, which Spetic said he needs to work on.
“I’m very hard on myself,” Spetic said. “If I go back out there and make another kick it goes right out, but that’s definitely my weakness.”
Even though the art of making a field goal comes down to way more than just the leg of the kicker, it can be a lonely job on a football team. The whole stadium is watching only you when you’re on the field. This is another reason why practices like meditation are so crucial to Spetic before entering a game.
Kicking is almost as much mental as it is physical, if not more.
“It sucks, just sitting there because your body gets tight again, and you always have to be loose as a kicker,” Spetic said. “The most challenging part of my gameday is just sitting around. You got to figure out a way to keep yourself loose.”
In his true freshman season, Spetic played in 12 games for Ohio, making 18 of his 26 field goal attempts, including a long of 40 yards.
It’s rare for a kicker to come in and be the starter on a Division I FBS football program like Spetic did, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have experience. In four years at Notre Dame Cathedral Latin High School, Spetic was a four-year varsity letter winner in football and baseball.
Spetic holds his high school’s record for the longest field goal made with a 49-yarder in his senior year, where he was also named First-Team All-District.
At Ohio, Spetic has quickly become a reliable point scorer for the special teams unit that has thrived in Ohio’s first five games.
“I’m really liking the operation this year,” Spetic said. “It’s been good, and it's been on point. Hopefully, we can keep it up as we go into our next games.”
