"I ended up winning the day one com-
petition, and then I tied again for :rst in
the day two competition," Sahaydak said.
"Obviously, I was feeling really good
coming out of that, so to then be ranked
number one [in the country], that was
when everything turned for me. That's
when I started getting a lot of texts and
calls from coaches. That's when I knew
I'm going to play football in college."
Within days, coaches from all over the
country were following him on Twitter,
from Alabama to Virginia Tech to Penn
State to Army. Je< Monken at Army was
the :rst coach to oer that, I stayed in con-
tact with Coach [Joe] Lorig and Coach
Franklin a lot more."
Sahaydak earned an o-footed
kicker with a :eld goal range of 50-plus
yards. He had a 52-yard :eld goal in high
school that would have been good from at
least 55 yards. In terms of his style, Sa-
haydak reminds me of Kevin Kelly, who
hit 78 of 107 :eld goal attempts in his ca-
reer and holds the school record for FG
percentage. Kelly's longest make at the
college level was a 53-yarder. He, too, was
a le>-footed kicker.
■
GAME
CHANGER
Interest in Sa-
haydak sky-
rocketed after
he began turn-
ing in stellar
performances
at kicking
camps up and
down the East
Coast. Photo
courtesy of Sa-
haydak family
