They’re the players everyone forgets about. The guys nobody appreciates until it’s time for a game-winning field goal or a key punt in the fourth quarter.

For NIU, this means punter Andy Dittbenner and kicker Mike Salerno. Senior Dittbenner has had a solid career for the Huskies and is currently third in the MAC with 40.9-yards per punt average.

He was also named to the Ray Guy Award watch list, named for the former Raiders great, which is annually given to the nation’s best punter.

Junior Salerno, in his first season at NIU after transferring from Division II Winona State, is 10-for-14 in field goals, and a perfect 18-for-18 in extra points. Two of Salerno’s missed field goals have been between 40 to 49-yards.

“Mike’s done a great job,” said NIU head coach Jerry Kill, who also serves as the special teams coach. “[Huskie Stadium] is not an easy stadium to kick in. All the opponents will come in and tell you that, because of the way the wind swirls.”

What many people don’t see with both players is how they get prepared for those game-winning kicks, those key punts late in the game. It’s impossible to duplicate one of those key situations during practice, but Kill has ways to put pressure on Dittbenner and Salerno during practice, getting them as mentally prepared as possible.

“He will kind of try and disrupt us,” Salerno said. “I’ll be trying to kick field goals, and he’ll bring the whole team around me standing four yards from me, screaming at me, and I’ll have to kick a field goal.”

Kill will yell at Dittbenner and Salerno when they are kicking, trying to disrupt them, and on field goals, Kill will try to disrupt the players by throwing things such as a hat or bags at the ball as well as Salerno and Dittbenner, who serves as the holder.

“He’ll always try and get in our head,” Dittbenner said. “He always says if you can’t perform in front of him, how are you going to do it in the game.”

Kill says he is just trying to get them prepared.

“I try to put them in situations in practice to where the game’s easy,” Kill said. “We try to put them in game situations and pressure situations as much as we can.”

Before the season, Kill would have the team run if Salerno missed a certain kick, once again trying to put pressure on him.

“He did that the week before Minnesota to kind of get us prepared,” Salerno said. “The offensive line wasn’t looking forward to running if we missed that field goal in practice. We didn’t have any trouble with that, thankfully.”

The drill that week certainly helped Salerno, who hit a 39-yard as well as a 49-yard field goal in his NIU debut at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

“Hitting that first field goal was kind of like a relief for me,” Salerno said. “I was glad I was able to go out there and especially help the team out.”

It’s impossible to simulate an exact situation, like the one NIU will be facing Nov. 5 at No. 24 Ball State. You can’t practice kicking a game-winning field goal on the road with 20,000 screaming fans.

But one thing is for certain, Kill is trying as much as possible.