Special Teams Give Hoosiers 'Winning Edges'
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Perfect? Not quite. Nico Radicic has missed two kicks in his Indiana Hoosier career.
But this sophomore is as close as any kicker in America, delivering a big advantage every time he takes the field.
Radicic is a catalyst for a special teams unit that rates as good as any in the country. Consider the top-seeded Hoosiers (13-0 and Big Ten champions) have blocked three punts this season, and five in head coach Curt Cignetti’s two-year IU tenure. They’ve had key kicks and punt returns and, as Cignetti says, “no catastrophic mistakes.”
“Those are winning edges.”
Radicic, a 5-foot-11, 187-pound redshirt sophomore, sets the tone. This year, he’s 15-for-16 on field goals and 71-for-71 on extra points. He was named Big Ten Bakken-Anderson kicker of the year after leading the conference in scoring (109 points) and made extra points (70) during the regular season.
Last season, Radicic was 69-for-69 on extra points, including a program record 11-for-11 against Western Illinois. He was 10-for-11 on field goals.
“Nico has been money in the bank for two years,” says Cignetti, winner of back-to-back national coach of the year honors. “We’ve been pretty fortunate. About the last five of our kickers have been that way. We have certain things we do with them that have worked up to this point, but it’s really all credit to the kickers and their ability to put the ball between the uprights.”
What’s Radicic’s secret to success? Fun, for one thing. Simplicity, for another.
“I make it a fun thing,” he says. “I don't make it anything harder than it already is. I’m there if the team needs me to knock down three points. If I make it anything harder than that, I just keep putting stuff in my head that I don't need. I make it very simple and kick the ball between the posts.”
In this era of kicker excellence, where the once unthinkable 70-yard field goal is within reach (Abilene Christine’s Ova Johansson’s 69-yard college record effort came in 1976; Jacksonville’s Cam Little set the NFL record with a 68-yarder against Las Vegas in early November), Radicic avoids complexity at all costs.
“If you over-complicate it,” he says, “a lot of things can go wrong. So, I just jog out there, get one swing in in the air, kick the ball, and walk back to the sideline.”
Radicic began honing his accuracy during his high school freshman year in Coppell, Texas.
“When I started kicking, my kicking coach put me on the 20-yard line and I wasn’t allowed to move. He said, ‘you’re going to kick it down the middle every time.’
“I was stuck on that for like six months. I was like, ‘Coach, I need to go farther. I’m tired of this 20-yard line.’ He said, ‘No, you’re staying here. It’s 20-yard line, 20-yard line.’
“It got to a point where I realized I was pretty accurate so when I got to 45 or 55 yards, it felt like I was on the 20-yard line.”
In so many ways, it still does.
There’s no letup in Radicic … ever. He says he didn’t miss a kick during spring practice, and he took that momentum into fall camp.
“I was kind of hoping for a miss here or there, just so I could feel that. It did happen once.”
The result -- “I was ready to get back on that high horse and keep making kicks.”
Radicic’s success continues a long run of quality kickers under Cignetti, at IU and James Madison before that.
“We’ve been blessed with our field goal kickers in the last six to seven years,” Cignetti says. “Nico is no exception. I have a lot of confidence in him.”
Radicic doesn’t overwhelm with distance, although he did make a 48-yarder this season, and says he’s comfortable up to 55 yards. If the Hoosiers need more, they have kickoff specialist Brendan Franke, who tied the school record with a 58-yarder against Oregon.
As far as punting, Mitch McCarthy averages 39.8 yards with a long of 52. Ten of his 27 punts were inside the 20-yard line.
When he was injured, Quinn Warren filled in and averaged 48.0 yards on six punts. Warren also filled in on kickoffs when Franke was injured.
During the regular season, the Hoosiers only punted 33 times. Opponents punted 69 times.
Receiver Jonathan Brady thrives as a punt returner, averaging 17.5 yards per return, including a 91-yard touchdown to earn all-conference honors.
Running back Roman Hemby averages 22.6 yards per kickoff return.
Beyond that, long snapper Mark Langston made first-team All-Big Ten.
It will all lead to a Rose Bowl quarterfinal playoff opportunity on Jan. 1, 2026.