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VOLUME 25, ISSUE 6 61 and the uniqueness with his family is that Paul was the one who had that vision instead of the parents. "From a practice standpoint, as a coach the unique thing about him when he was younger is he was able to take on skill levels that would be of someone who I would train in college. He picked up things easi- ly. He constantly was a sponge, just always asking for more. How could this be better? How does this rank against kids who are five years my age? He had a vision of 'I know what it takes to do this, and I'm willing to do anything to get there.'" When Griggs still was in middle school, he'd work twice a week with Orner. Instead of heading to the af- ter-school program, Griggs would meet up with Orner and kick. In that first year of training, Or- ner was trying to get another of his athletes, a kicker from the Univer- sity of Central Florida, to ratchet up his competitiveness, to find the laser focus needed at the position. He had the perfect way to do it. He simply told the kid to watch. Griggs' lesson was about to start, and he was putting his shoes on. Orner yelled across the field, "FIFTEEN SECONDS." Griggs raced onto the muddy middle school field, ready to kick. "He was taking it as serious as if it was a last-second field goal to win the Super Bowl," Orner said. "Kind of from then on, it was like, 'I have a special talent here. I really have to figure out how I can help him reach his potential.'" Orner worked with Griggs throughout high school, stopping by those practices once or twice a week and then meeting on Satur- day mornings to kick in the pool, do a swim workout or maybe hit the treadmill. On his own, Griggs had developed a strict Monday-Wednes- day workout plan to be prepared for Friday nights. "He was taking the mindset that he wanted to be, as we call it, the perfect weapon as a 14-, 15-year- old," Orner said. BUMPY ROAD That work ethic, that sin- gle-mindedness on the future, helped Griggs land what he wanted: A college scholarship. He found once he got to West La- fayette, though, it wasn't as quite of a smooth transition as he'd hoped. All the adjustments that are tough for most freshmen were there — a new environment, being away from home for the first time and away from everyone, everything he knew; getting acclimated to Midwest win- ters; learning how to adapt to a higher level of academics — plus Griggs had just gotten cleared from a significant knee surgery before he left for campus. But he still appeared in games that first season, making four field goals, including a 46-yarder in the final seconds that not only clinched a victory at Iowa but also kept Pur- due's bowl hopes alive. He also ex- perienced lows, missing an extra point and two field goals in an over- time loss at Ohio State. As a sophomore, he was in a camp battle again with Sam McCartney, the same kid he split kicks with as a freshman, but won out. But he made only 6-of-12 field goals that year. And that may have been the best thing to happen in Griggs' college career. "That sophomore year, I was like, 'OK, I've learned from everything that I didn't know (as a freshman).' So I had to struggle with I'm still not having that success that I know I can achieve," he said. "That was tough for me because with the level of internal drive and competitive- ness that I have, to not achieve my full potential was not something that I'm comfortable with. That was definitely a trying experience." So Griggs did the only thing he could to get rid of that feeling: Work. He first had to identify the is- sue, and that self-diagnosing is something Orner incorporated into his teaching, knowing he wouldn't be able to train with Griggs much while he was in Indiana. Griggs noticed a "very large diver- gence" between how he performed in practice vs. how he performed in games. He was a 90-percent field goal kicker during the week, he said, but was only a 50-percent kicker on Saturdays during that sophomore year. He realized he needed a change in mindset about how he ap- proached games and the way he thought about each kick. "That was really between my sophomore and junior year, almost my sole focus in terms of what I was trying to improve," said Griggs, un- able to verbalize exactly what that change in mindset and approach was. "I knew coming out of that (sophomore) season really what it was going to take to be successful at the Division I level and was really