Welcome to major college football, Chris Nendick. P How about for your first game – as a true freshman – you’re the starting kicker for NIU in it season-opening game at 22nd-ranked Maryland? P Oh, and let’s not forget you’re replacing Steve Azar, the most prolific kicker in school history with 370 career points. P “It’s tough to replace someone of that caliber,” said the 5-foot-11,

160-pound Nendick. “I’ve just got to do my personal best and give it what I’ve got.”

The Naperville native was in a battle for the starting kicker spot with sophomore Aleks Miskov until Miskov injured himself last week. NIU coach Joe Novak is looking for Miskov to eventually get back into the fold.

“[Miskov] has a knee problem that’s been bothering him,” Novak said. “He’s going to have to sit out a week or two, but I hope [Miskov] can get better and get back in the competition.”

Much of that competition involves kickoffs, an area in which Azar didn’t have the same level of success as kicking field goals -where he nailed 21 of 26 attempts as a senior. Nendick said his best days of field-goal kicking are still ahead of him.

“I feel more comfortable hitting kickoffs, but field goals will come with time,” Nendick said. “Azar was way more consistent with his field goals. It’s a mindset, and he was able to clear his mind anytime he went out there.”

Part of that mindset involved Azar staying loose by bobbing his head along with the school band to keep his mind off the pressure.

Novak has been doing his best to simulate that game pressure for Nendick, even going so far as to say Nendick or Miskov had to make a field goal at the end of practice or the Huskies had to perform an extra round on conditioning.

Nendick nailed that attempt, but missed a 42-yarder at Tuesday’s practice after Novak called a pair of ‘TV timeouts.’

“When [Novak] calls a timeout, I like to still go through the motions,” Nendick said. “I was ready to kick it. It shouldn’t have fazed me, really. Tomorrow’s another day, and I’ll step out there and try my best again.”

Novak is anxious to see how Nendick will handle game situations. He knows his kicker has the physical skills and the mental ability, it’s just a matter of going out there and proving himself.

“He’s got a good leg,” Novak said. “The consistency is the question. Does he have the cool, calm demeanor I like in a kicker? Yes. But until he kicks under the gun, we don’t know how he’ll react.”