Pretorius takes long way to Ohio State

The family dog probably wasn't safe at the Pretorius house in Durban, South Africa. After all, the kid, Ryan, would kick anything. A soccer ball was the early favorite. Then he followed his dad, a rugby coach, around and by the age of 3 he could kick that goofy thing from flat off the ground over the posts.

He would play something, something that provided him with a ball to kick, that was a certainty from Day One.

At age 14, a new ball entered his consciousness. His mom dropped Ryan and a friend off at the movie theater and the featured presentation was "Rudy.'' Ryan Pretorius, meet American college football, courtesy of Hollywood.

"It was so inspirational," Pretorius said last week after Ohio State University's annual kick scrimmage. "I didn't know much about American football but I wanted to know more. My dad got me a rule book on football, on kicking through the uprights. I was fascinated by it."

But Pretorius was a boy for all seasons and American football was half a world away. There was tennis and track and field, both of which he excelled at. He skied for fun. He was a pretty good soccer player. And, as all this played out, he became especially proficient at rugby, a vicious tackling sport, the historic forerunner of our brand, but one that comes without blocking and without much in the way of pads and protection.

Pretorius was good enough to play rugby professionally in Europe, despite standing just 5-9 and weighing less than 170 pounds. He started in England and later played for teams in Spain and France. He traveled the world.

All the while, though, something was nagging at him - American college football. Was it a ridiculous notion to imagine he could be another Rudy?

Of course, Buckeye fans know the answer by now. Pretorius has out-Rudy'd Rudy. A fifth-year senior now at the ripe old age of 29, the OSU kicker might prove to be the best in the country in 2008. He was a Lou Groza Award semifinalist last season when he converted on 18 of 23 field goal attempts and made all but one of 49 point-after tries.

"It has been unbelievable," Pretorius said. "I just thank God for this opportunity. There have been rough times and good times and I'm thankful for all of them."

It turns out there was another kicker from Durban. Gary Anderson went from South Africa to Europe as a pro soccer player before finding his way to college at Syracuse and to more than two decades in the NFL, where he compiled some of the best place-kicking numbers ever.

Pretorius talked to Anderson, said good-bye to rugby, and moved to Denver with no job and meager savings. He lived with friends and spent nearly two years doing nothing but learning how to kick an American football. At Anderson's suggestion, he had a video made of his practice performances and sent them out to about 20 colleges. He's still waiting to hear back from most of them.

But he had friends in Columbus, moved there, and pestered the coaches at OSU until they invited him to walk on in 2004, giving him the chance to red-shirt and learn from All-American Mike Nugent. A year later, Josh Huston had the job, but Pretorius had a scholarship. In '06, he played behind current teammate Aaron Pettrey, who suffered a hip injury early last season. Pretorius then got his opportunity and hasn't looked back.

He nailed down the starting job this season, with considerable competition from big-footed freshman Ben Buchanan among others, by kicking a 53-yard field goal during last week's scrimmage at Ohio Stadium. He is making more solid contact and kicking at a greater height than ever without sacrificing accuracy.

"It has always been a dogfight," Pretorius said. "It was Aaron and now Ben and I can never think the job's mine. I talked to Mike Nugent a while back and he said he could never afford to take a day off. He could never relax, never be content. I feel the same way.

"But this was the dream. It's great to know going into the season that it's my job. I have a lot of confidence right now."

A three-time Big Ten all-academic selection, Pretorius is a marketing major who learned long ago that his right foot could be marketed for big dollars.

"Gary Anderson told me you could come here and play pro football and just kick field goals, and if you're good you never have to worry about money," he said. "Of course, I'm getting old."

Not too old, though, to take another shot at kicking the Buckeyes back to the top of the Big Ten, or maybe even further. Not bad for a guy who several years ago needed help putting his pads on the first time he donned a scarlet-and-gray uniform.

Ryan Pretorius has indeed come a long way, in a lot of ways.

(E-mail him Dave Hackenberg at dhack@theblade.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)