Gage Hurych’s first real college moment came with his body going numb.
As a true freshman in 2024, the Oregon kicker from West Linn was told by Ducks special teams coordinator Joe Lorig that he would handle the final extra point in a blowout win over rival Washington. Hurych remembers almost none of the sequence.
“I almost blacked out,” he said. “Like, my body was completely numb.”
He only recalls jogging onto the field and then back to the sideline. The kick was good, though he didn’t realize it until he saw the replay. By then, the nerves had already given way to a celebration that marked both his college debut and Oregon’s undefeated regular season.
Now Hurych is moving into a much bigger role. Entering his redshirt sophomore season, he is the Ducks’ starting kicker, and teammates have already given him a nickname that fits the way he handles pressure in practice: “Iceman,” Lorig said.
The label comes with a little bite, too. Hurych has shown a knack for clutch kicks in situations where a miss means the whole team runs.
That kind of poise didn’t happen by accident. Hurych spent the past two seasons behind Atticus Sappington, using that time to build confidence and learn from a kicker whose work ethic and competitive edge left an impression on him. Lorig said the staff tried to create pressure moments in practice, and also made sure Hurych got live reps last year in extra-point and field-goal situations, along with spring games.
“There’s a lot of pressure that I think is really hard to replicate, and that’s the biggest challenge, but we certainly try to build those things into practice as much as possible,” Lorig said. “And I made sure that, looking ahead last year, I made sure that we got Gage in the game multiple times in lots of extra point scenarios, in some field goal scenarios, as well as the spring games.”
Oregon also liked Hurych for reasons that go beyond a strong leg. Lorig prefers to recruit specialists from the Pacific Northwest, especially Oregon, and he wants his kickers to be athletic.
Hurych fits that mold. He played safety and wide receiver for the Lions, passed on several Division I lacrosse opportunities, and can windmill dunk a basketball.
“A lot of people view kickers as just, like, a robot going out there to kick the ball,” Hurych said. “But I wanted to show people that I’m an athlete.”
That athleticism could matter if Oregon ever needs a fake, or if Hurych has to chase down a bad snap. But the bigger issue is the mental load that comes with the job, especially with road games at USC and Ohio State on the schedule. Hurych has enough leg to hit from beyond 50 yards, yet as everyone knows, kicking is usually decided between the ears.
Duck fans know that side of it better than most. As Lorig put it, the whole stadium can disappear into one lonely moment when the kicker steps out for a game-winner.
“On offense, all eyes are on the quarterback, but then when the ball snaps, there’s a lot of different moving parts,” Lorig said. “Well, the kicker, when he goes out to kick the game-winning field goal, everyone’s just looking at him.”
Hurych, though, doesn’t sound like someone planning to flinch. He believes the year on the sideline prepared him for this. He also leans on his Christian faith, praying before every kick and crediting it with helping him stay steady.
“They were calling him Iceman like the first week he was here,” Lorig said. “He never really gets too high, he never really gets too low.
He’s just always the same, whether it’s a missed kick or a made kick. And that mental piece is the hardest.”
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