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60 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED doesn't get hit on every play, and kick- er, which basically never gets hit. "So I basically was like, 'I'm go- ing to be a kicker,'" Griggs said. He was in fifth grade. Mom not only approved, she en- dorsed the decision with enthusi- asm. The day after Paul identified his goal, Julie Griggs was scouring the internet for coaches, research- ing the options and talking to peo- ple to find the best one. "That level of commitment from my parents is really the real rea- son I'm here," Griggs said. "They took what I was saying very, very seriously. Obviously I returned that level of seriousness with the level of seriousness I put in the commit- ment to completing my goals." "Here" being Purdue, where Griggs enters his senior season with a chance to become one of the school's most accomplished field goal kickers. As a junior, Griggs made 16-of-20 field goals, includ- ing three from 50-plus yards, and his career percentage on field goals (67 percent) ranks in the top 5 in school history. Really, there was no choice for Griggs. Not with how steely-eyed and ded- icated he was to being exactly what he is now — a very good college kicker — and much, much more. '13 GOING ON 30' Soon after his decision to become a kicker, Griggs started closely fol- lowing Carolina kicker John Casey. Casey was the ultimate profession- al, a model of consistency who got better in each of his seasons with the Panthers, ultimately becoming one of the NFL's long-tenured and most successful at his position. "He was everything you'd want to look up to as an aspiring kicker," Griggs said. "Kind of working back from that, I'm like, 'Well, he didn't just wake up one day and be an NFL kicker.' So what's the next step? For me, I probably could have set some shorter-term goals and I eventually did and accomplished those, but for me, I was thinking, 'OK, first step before I get to the NFL is I have to get to college. So I definitely want to kick in college.'" So Griggs got to work. One of the top priorities: Broker a deal. If he got a scholarship to play football in college, Mom would have to buy him a car of his choosing. She agreed with the middle-school- er. Secondly, connect with a coach who could teach him how to, well, kick a football. Initially, he worked with coaches on the West Coast before getting hooked up with Dan Orner, a for- mer UNC kicker who got a taste in the NFL with the Vikings. Based out of Charlotte, N.C., Orner and Griggs started working together when Griggs was a seventh-grader. And it didn't take long for Orner to see something different in the 13-year-old. "He was 13 going on 30," Orner said, "because he was just so ma- ture for his age and I would say how clear his vision was on how great he wanted to be at that young age. As a coach, you get a lot of parents who think their Johnny or Billy is going to be the next great player, Tom Campbell Griggs made three field goals from at least 50 yards last season, the most of such distance in a single season in Purdue history.