Mike Knoll: Staying Grounded

The Twitter mentions of a football kicker are generally quiet similar to life on a special teams unit. No one pays attention until a kick or field goal becomes crucial in determining a game's outcome.

At any level, the kicker's role comes with a lot of pressure and oftentimes criticism. Junior kicker/punter Mike Knoll has experienced it all.

Missed field goals and extra points have resulted in death threats from internet trolls and yet somehow he still keeps a smile on his face.

"I think my game has pushed me into my faith and my faith has pushed me into the game," Knoll said. "Negative experiences have helped me lean on my faith, but I also think growing in my faith has helped me deal with negative and positive experiences whether that's being more humble or just getting over failure."

His Twitter bio quotes Proverbs 3:3: Let love and faithfulness never leave you.

This scriptural mantra along with his Catholic faith has continually stabilized him through tough times. Knoll has learned to focus on himself while lalso tuning out the external chatter.

Life can get busy between football and classes but the Ohio native spends his downtime mixing up tunes as a DJ. His teammate, redshirt sophomore running back Jon Hilliman, is known to be the main contributor to those beats.

We'll look forward to those iTunes links.

Players Mentioned

Jon Hilliman

Mike Knoll

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