After missing the majority of his freshman season due to injury, redshirt-freshman Kicker Nico Radicic came into the 2024 season with something to prove. Prove it he did. The Croatian-American, who didn’t start playing football until 8th grade, set the Indiana single-season extra points made record just nine games into the 2024 season.
When asked about what breaking this record meant to him, Radicic said, “A lot. A lot of people don’t look at it that way, but kickers miss extra points all the time…you can get it blocked as well if you’re not fast enough, so I take pride in it.”
While college kickers miss extra points all the time, the same cannot be said for Radicic, who went a perfect 69-of-69 on PAT attempts in 2024. Radicic chalks this up to approach, saying, “Every kick I’m out there is the same kick mentally– if it’s a 55 [yarder] or an extra point, I take it the same way.”
While Radicic has proven himself to be one of the best short-distance kickers in college football, he has not had the same opportunity to showcase his leg from long range; his longest field goal in 2024 was just 41 yards. Certainly this can be explained by the historic success of the Hoosiers’ offense; however part of this could be due to the extended recovery process Radicic underwent after his 2023 injury.
Radicic spoke about his confidence in his range on Tuesday, saying, “So I had surgery last year in January, so it was really hard coming back. I wanted to just work on getting consistent inside of that 45 [yard line].”
In terms of what he can do to earn the coaches’ trust from 50 yards plus, Radicic said, “I’ve got to put up games like the Michigan game, earn their trust at shorter field and then when it comes to hitting a big kick, they know that I have the confidence to make it. So [I just got to] get that strength back up.”
Watching Radicic at spring practice, it’s clear that his leg strength is improving. While the Hoosiers’ are set to have another high-powered offense in 2025, a confident Radicic provides another weapon that makes Indiana even more of a scoring threat.
