Tyler Davis turns from soccer to football, becomes Penn State's Mr. Reliable

Tyler Davis never played football in high school, yet there he was wearing a Penn State uniform throughout the 2016 season kicking a football through the uprights as easily as someone dropping a rolled-up sheet of paper into a wastebasket.

Now a senior, Davis was a reliable member of the Nittany Lions during their Big Ten championship season, connecting on 20 of 22 field-goal attempts and a program record-tying 62 extra points in as many tries. Adding those totals to 2015, when he split kicking duties with Joey Julius, Davis is 30 of 32 on field goals and perfect in 73 extra-point attempts.

It's been quite a successful career change for Davis, who appeared to have no sports in his future after playing soccer during his freshman year at Bradley University in his home state of Illinois. After the season ended, he decided he wanted to see what kicking a football was like, and he enjoyed it enough to ask for his release from his soccer scholarship so he could transfer.

"That was my first time kicking — ever," he said. "The transition was pretty smooth for me from soccer to football. After I won a kicking camp, I kind of wanted to switch to football. But when I asked for my release and (the coach) said no, I was like, 'If football doesn't work out, I'm not playing sports any more.' That was the main thing I was concerned about. If football didn't work out, I wouldn't have soccer to fall back on."

Davis got busy sending coaches tape of him kicking a football on an open field by himself. Of course, there was no tape of him kicking in a game against a rush. However, Charles Huff, Penn State's special-teams coordinator, responded to Davis after a few emails and invited him to the university.

"We got along and he offered me a spot," said Davis, who came to school as a walk-on and sat out the 2014 season.

Three years later, Huff is elated over what Davis, who turns 23 next month, has provided to the Nittany Lions.

"Tyler Davis is almost like 60 when you look at him compared to everybody else," Huff said. "He's a lot older. But he is such a mature kid. If you watch the way he works, the way he warms up, it's almost like meticulous. It's like Phil Mickelson. He goes out and does the same routine every single day. It's almost like Groundhog Day. But because of that, he's so consistent and he's so reliable. He's done an unbelievable job of taking care of his body, kicking, getting stronger, getting faster. He's even taken a role now of helping the younger guys."

Davis, who overcame a severe concussion suffered in a traffic accident when he was 16, worked all summer with the team's new long snapper, Kyle Vasey, and his new holder, punter Blake Gillikin, to "fine-tune things to really make it work."

The next step for Davis will be to try longer field goals. His longest attempt, and make, was from 42 yards in 2015. Both his misses last season, from 39 and 30 yards, were blocked. Huff said Davis' range from week to week will depend on his accuracy from a certain distance in practice.

Davis, who was named to the preseason watch list for the Lou Groza Award given to the nation's top kicker, said that  the recognition is nice but that it's a team effort.

"Everyone else on the unit really makes it pretty easy for me," he said. "I know the ball is going to be exactly where it needs to be, and I know I won't have people rushing and running into me and blocking my kicks. With that, it kind of just makes it like practice."