Adi Kunalic accepted a scholarship to Nebraska so he could kick field goals and extra points.
He never figured — then again, who did? — that a skinny walk-on and former soccer player would secure such a stranglehold on the position.
Alex Henery has earned star status in the process.
“He’s good, and I’m glad,” Kunalic said. “He’s probably one of the best kickers Nebraska’s had, and I give him respect.
“But I came here to try to do that, and I think it will work out in my favor if I would get the chance be a field goal kicker and do kickoffs.”
That’s why Kunalic is eyeing a redshirt this coming season.
Both he and Henery will be seniors, so taking his available redshirt is the only foreseeable way Kunalic can fulfill his wish.
“I obviously want to redshirt. I want to do that,” said Kunalic, whose booming leg has been a valuable asset on kickoffs the past three seasons. “But if it means us not being good next year on special teams, then obviously I want to help the team.
“But honestly, (redshirting) is what I want to do, because I feel like I can help the team in the long run, and I feel like I can help myself also try to get a shot at the next level.”
Kunalic said there’s no timeline for a decision, and that the coaches will ultimately decide what’s best for the team.
Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said Kunalic is his kickoff man until further notice.
“We’re about the here and now and doing what’s best for the football team. How that plays out, I don’t know,” Pelini said. “I can’t look into a crystal ball and have that all figured out yet.”
Kunalic, a senior from Fort Worth, Texas, helped Nebraska’s kickoff coverage unit rank No. 15 nationally last season. His 29 touchbacks, on 73 kickoffs, were third-most in the nation.
Nebraska enjoyed a plus 7.1-yard advantage in starting field position last season.
“A lot of it has to do with how good our guys are and the confidence they give me, when I know that no matter what happens, they’ll cover the ball,” said Kunalic, who has 89 career touchbacks. “The credit really goes to them.”
It’s why Kunalic believes Nebraska would succeed on kickoffs this season without him. He said kickers Brett Maher, a walk-on from Kearney, and Tyler Daake, a walk-on from Norfolk, are getting looks on kickoffs this spring, and that walk-on Jason Dann, from Richardson, Texas, will join the competition come fall.
“If those guys can do a good job,” Kunalic said, “with the cover team we have, I think we’ll be good in that aspect of the game.”
Under that scenario, Kunalic would sit, then return in 2011 as the likely replacement for Henery.
But the question remains: Would you shelve your key weapon on a special teams unit that played so soundly the year before?
“We had such success last year with it. They want to have that back,” Kunalic said. “But they also know having me back that following year would be good on field goals because I’m experienced, and I’d be able to help them out on the kickoff part, too.”
To date, Kunalic’s only career field-goal attempt is a 46-yarder he made as a true freshman — in Nebraska’s season opener against Nevada in 2007.
“I’m just focused on getting better in my aspect of the game,” Kunalic said. “But field goals is one thing I came here to do, and I wish I could actually go out and do that.”
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