Lincoln not dwelling on miss, just next opportunity

Kickers have long held the reputation as football's idiosyncratic head cases. Tennessee place kicker Daniel Lincoln, though, is a decidedly different breed.

Only a few moments after Lincoln's potential game-tying field goal from 34 yards sailed wide of the left upright in a 27-24 overtime loss to UCLA last Monday - the first time a game has ended on a missed field goal by Lincoln - the sophomore and his head coach said that miss wasn't going to be hashed out on some shrink's couch.

"I'm not that guy," Lincoln said after the game. "I'm definitely not that guy. I'm not going to need a psychiatrist. I know what I need to do. I know what my job is. I've got perspective. In my life, football is a game. I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of what my job is and how big we are to the state of Tennessee. I'm just saying that I know the sun comes up tomorrow."

Yet even before Lincoln's night ended last week in California, he was moving on. Back at Tennessee's hotel in Pasadena, he was talking to roommate and holder Bram Cannon about his next opportunity.

"The first thing he said to me when we got back in the room was he was ready for next week," Cannon said. "He talked about how he wanted to come out here and kick in a game again. He felt more bad for the team than himself, which is awesome. He's a great team player like that."

And, despite three misses at UCLA, he's still a pretty good kicker.

As a redshirt freshman in 2007, Lincoln earned All-America honors from the Football Writers Association of America and second-team All-SEC after hitting 21 of his 29 attempts. His 8-for-8 start last fall was the best debut in Tennessee history.

He's delivered under pressure, too.

After the Vols squandered a lead against South Carolina, he drilled a 48-yarder to send the game into overtime. He hit a 33-yarder against Vanderbilt that proved to be the game-winner, and he connected on a 47-yard field goal as time expired against the Bruins on Monday night to force overtime.

After watching film of that errant 34-yard attempt to tie the game, Lincoln said his mechanics were fine.

"I kicked the ball right where I was aiming," he said Sunday night. "It wasn't a kicking mistake. It was an aiming mistake. Like I said, it's corrected. It's over."

UT coach Phillip Fulmer, who said after the UCLA game that Lincoln isn't "one of those typical guys you have to go get a psychiatrist for or anything," said that Lincoln's two previous misses against the Bruins weren't a big deal.

In the first half, Lincoln missed a pair of tries from 51 and 55 yards that would have been career longs, and the 55-yarder was the longest attempt of his career.

"I'd like for him to think he's going to make them all, but he's not from that distance," Fulmer said. "Not many people are. One reason that I decided to (try the long field goals), I thought he would handle it and our defense was playing real well. It didn't end up hurting us, either one of them."

The 34-yard miss, however, both Fulmer and Lincoln said should have been made.

"He needs to make that kick to keep the game going," Fulmer said. "But he's handled it fine. You can put the kickers and the quarterbacks and the guys that have individual things that need to happen, they need to come through. He didn't, and he'll respond well."

Cannon isn't worried, either.

"I learned a lot from him this week," he said. "It takes a special guy to come out here and fight the way he has. He's mentally tough. You don't find that a lot in kickers."

Lincoln, though, doesn't know any other way to approach it. He credits his family and coaches for helping him become mentally tough, as well as his tendency to be his harshest critic.

"When I lay my head down in bed after I pray and I think about the day that I just lived, I think about the day that I'm going to get up and live the next day," Lincoln said Sunday. "It's not about letting the things that happened to you in the past eat you up. It's about learning from them, coming back, not taking a thing for granted and being mentally tough in that respect."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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