RedHawks kicker looks to build on Florida game

Staff photo by Cameron Knight Miami University kicker Trevor Cook attempts an extra point during a game in 2006.

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 8:02 AM Thursday, September 9, 2010

OXFORD — Trevor Cook gave himself exactly two days to bask in the satisfaction of drilling four footballs through the uprights at the University of Florida.

“You’ve got to forget about it and move forward,” the Miami University senior place-kicker said. “I told myself after Monday (Sept. 6), that’s the last day I get to feel good about myself. Then I’ve got to get down to business.

“On the other hand, I have gained confidence from that game,” he added. “Whenever you have a successful game like that, you’ve got to take good things away from it. But at the same time you can’t feel good for yourself for very long because there are 12 games in a season, not just one.”

Cook accounted for all of the RedHawks’ scoring, kicking four field goals in four tries during their 34-12 loss to the Gators last Saturday.

The four field goals were just one short of Miami’s single-game record of five, shared by Gary Gussman (1987 at Central Michigan) and Nathan Parseghian (2007 at Ohio).

In his previous years at Miami, Cook, a 6-foot-2, 197-pound native of Sioux Falls, S.D., had enjoyed only spotty success.

As a freshman in 2006, Cook nailed his first six field-goal attempts, including a 49-yard kick at Cincinnati on his first try, but connected on just nine of his next 17 attempts through the end of the 2007 season.

He did not play in 2008 and went 7-for-12 last fall, missing 2-of-4 attempts from 30-39 yards, though he did set a school record with a 55-yard field goal in Miami’s 31-24 victory over Toledo.

“This summer, I really worked hard on it,” Cook said. “I really got down to business, making sure I did not just the kicking but also the drills outside of kicking, without the ball. My kicking coach, Chris Sailer, told me it would help, and I’m really dedicated to that.

“There’s a bench drill that he has us do where you’re just balancing on one leg, and you go through your kicking motion, just balancing on your plant leg,” he said. “It’s a muscle memory drill that really seems to work well.”

Cook has been kicking for a long time, but has been doing it on a football field only since he was a sophomore in high school, where his main sport was soccer.

“I had a lot of buddies on the football team, and they were really struggling with their kicker, and in one game they actually hit the cross bar and both uprights on three different kicks from this O-lineman kicker,” Cook said, “so they were begging me to come out for the team next year. I said OK, I’ll try it out.

“I did well at it,” he said, “and the rest is history.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.