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Buckeyes land kicker

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Ohio State is in the middle of its three-day kicking camp as the Buckeyes have been searching for a possible kicking specialist in the 2014 class. On Tuesday afternoon they found their guy in Sean Nuernberger. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound prospect hails from Louisville (Ky.) Oldham County High School.
"I committed to Ohio State today," Nuernberger said in a message to BuckeyeGrove.com.
Nuernberger becomes commitment No. 10 in the class for Ohio State and fills a serious need at kicker as senior Drew Basil will move on after the completion of the 2013 football season. The Ohio State staff pulled the trigger on an offer after putting the young kicker through the ringer on Monday and Tuesday at the camp.
"I talked to coach (Kerry) Coombs a few weeks ago about them needing a kicker," he explained. "He said there were going to be some good guys out here and that whoever was going to be the best at the camp and shows that they can handle it was going to get the job."
"I came up here two days ago and started kicking on Monday," he continued. "I showed them what I could do and felt like I separated myself from some of other guys. I got to meet coach Meyer and everything and he called us back out this morning and we had another showdown. I just felt like I needed to do my job like I did before and I came out and made all my kicks and about 20 minutes later I got called over to the athletic facility and met with Coach Meyer and Coombs, we talked for about an hour or so and at the end they said, 'we want you to be our kicker for the next four years'. When they offered me I accepted."
The pressure of kicking in a game is one thing but the pressure of kicking for a scholarship is a completely different animal. With Meyer watching closely, Nuernberger rose to the challenge.
"I'm really blessed that I have such good coaches working with me 1-on-1 with my kicking year round," he said. "They helped get me ready for that moment so the pressure doesn't get to me and so I can do the job. I try not to think about any of that because if I do it will screw me up right away. I just stayed focused and made the kicks like I've made a million other kicks and in the end it worked out."
Nuernberger had a few other camp stops planned over the next several weeks but chose to jump on the Buckeye offer instead of making the additional trips.
"There was a couple of other schools involved," he said. "I went to Alabama already but I was going to head up to maybe Louisville and Kentucky and then I was going to go up to Notre Dame also but Ohio State had really been the No. 1 for me for the last year or so."
The complete package of both athletics and academics was ultimately the selling point for the commitment.
"Starting with their football program, it's amazing," he said. "You really can't go wrong with them at all. I want to go to Med School, I want to get into pre-med when I start school and it's a great school for all of that so that definitely helped put them up there."
Nuernberger is the son of Kai Nuernberger who is a former German Olympian in basketball.
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