Duncan's biggest moments have provided an education

Keith Duncan had a big kick and then disappeared, swallowed by the physics of Iowa’s kicking room.

It wasn’t that Duncan was a bad kicker — no, he was quite good. You’re good if you’re a true freshman and you step out under the Saturday night lights at Kinnick Stadium and bury the game-winning field goal against No. 2 Michigan, as he did in 2016.

He was good, but Miguel Recinos eventually won the job one season later. Duncan took a redshirt year in 2017, didn’t play at all last season.

Duncan didn’t want to leave — he grew up in North Carolina but learned to love Iowa and its hot days and cold days.

So he got better. And now the job is his.

“You learn,” Duncan said, “to love the process.”

Duncan is 8-of-8 in field goals in the first three games for the No. 14 Hawkeyes, who play host to Middle Tennessee State in Saturday’s 11 a.m. game.

“It’s a real credit to him,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said on Tuesday.

Duncan’s fade into the background was “very humbling,” he said, but there was an education to be gained.

“It was a great learning experience, sitting on the bench for those two years,” he said. “I got to learn different techniques, different mindsets, but also different routines. Seeing the game from the sideline helped my mindset a lot.

“So my job when I was on the bench was, ‘OK, if I was the starter, what would I do here?’ Where would my focus be, what’s my mindset, when would I start kicking?”

Duncan was 9-of-11 on field goals, 38-of-39 in extra points, in 2016. The one field goal that made the biggest impact was the kick to beat the Wolverines, when he ran from celebration that was pursuing him.

“What a great moment,” Ferentz said. “If nothing else had happened in his career, what a great moment.”

The biggest moments for Duncan may now have come from the times he wasn’t kicking.

“You learn to love the process,” he said. “In the offseason, and when Miguel was kicking, I had a lot of time to reflect on what I’ve done well and what can I do to improve. Just having those little things that click all of the sudden.

“A chain reaction. That’s what I kind of figured out.”

Duncan was able to break down his kicking motion, a frame-by-frame analysis that unveiled some answers.

“It’s very similar to a golf swing,” he said. “It’s almost like replicating a golf swing. A big part of what I used to do — I was very up and down, like a pendulum. I wanted to change more into like a Nike ‘swoosh’ with my right leg, if that makes sense. So it’s more like out, and then coming up, rather than up, and up.”

There is a danger, though — too much tinkering could spoil the swing.

“You always have a base to go back to,” Duncan said. “But kicking is a game of inches. You never know. Maybe my plant foot is an inch forward, that can impact the whole entire kick, it can flare out to the right. If it’s an inch back, it can flare out to the left. There’s always things that you have to be aware of.”

“I think Keith has done a good job,” special teams coordinator LeVar Woods said. “I wouldn't necessarily call it a re-emergence. Maybe re-emergence to the public, but I think he's been working really hard behind the scenes.”

“Fortunately he was motivated to push it further,” Ferentz said. “He's had his ups and downs since that time obviously but I think the thing we've all noticed is he's been working extremely hard behind the scenes, especially this past year plus.”

Duncan didn’t make road trips with the Hawkeyes last season. Sitting at home, he said, was “not fun.”

“But again, it’s humbling,” he said. “It gives you a drive to improve your game some more.”

Duncan would not kick again in a game until this season’s opener against Miami (Ohio), when his 21-yard field goal in the first quarter provided the Hawkeyes’ first points of the season. He won the job in a competition with Caleb Shudak, who handles kickoffs.

“The good thing is the competition has been very close in practice,” Ferentz said. “They are just so close with each other, so we have total confidence in either one. But right now (Duncan) certainly has a hot hand and is doing a great job.”

Duncan was 4-for-4 in field goals in Iowa’s 18-17 win at Iowa State on Sept. 14, when the Jack Trice Stadium grass turned slippery after thunderstorms that caused two weather delays.

“I said it after the Iowa State game, it’s ‘kicking free,’ Duncan said of his mentality. “It’s been kind of my motto this year. I’m a pretty religious guy. Having that trust in God, knowing that He’ll provide for you whether you make a kick or miss a kick, that’s the definition of ‘kicking free’ for me. And that has been the biggest part of my success this year.”