Ducks’ likely next kicker had once dreamed of college lacrosse. Then things took a turn.

For the record, Gage Hurych had options.

Oregon’s projected placekicker for 2026 played cornerback, receiver and kicker at West Linn High School in the Portland suburbs. He had five Division I lacrosse offers and, at 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, more bounce than that one other export from the mean streets of West Linn.

“I chose kicking,” said Hurych, whose dad briefly played for Kansas City of Major League Soccer and whose mom was a junior Olympic swimmer.

It’s a choice that’s beginning to reward the redshirt sophomore: Just over three weeks before the Oregon Ducks kick off the season against Boise State, Hurych has emerged as the clear favorite in the race to replace the steadying foot of Atticus Sappington.

“Gage is really a guy that we’ve been prepping for the last couple of years for this spot so we’re really excited about what he’s going to do,” Oregon special teams coach Joe Lorig said. “(Keaton Emmett) will push him as well, but I feel pretty confident to say that Gage can be the guy.”

Oregon’s last guy was pretty good: In his two seasons with the Ducks, Sappington hit 33 of his 40 field goal attempts — including 13 of 18 from 40 yards or more. He was perfect in 2025 on point-after attempts and won the game — on the road and in the rain — against Iowa with three seconds left on the clock from 39 yards away.

When his career ended in the Peach Bowl, Sappington’s legacy was up there with fellow Oregonian Aidan Schneider as one of the better kickers in UO history.

It’s pretty clear Hurych has the athleticism to make his own story a good one. He spent much of his youth dedicated to lacrosse, but he started kicking in the sixth grade, liked it and took a tremendous leap after attending a Chris Sailer Kicking camp his sophomore year of high school.

The feedback he got there — and the attention after earning five-star status from Sailer’s ranking system — forced Hurych to reevaluate his future.

“Lacrosse was kind of my dream growing up. That’s what I wanted to do,” Hurych said. “I’ve loved lacrosse since I was in third grade and started playing. And it was an interesting transition, seeing all my dreams come true, but also not wanting to play lacrosse anymore because I realized that football is what I wanted to do and what I feel like I’m called to do.

“I mean, I was on phone calls with Division I lacrosse coaches that I’ve been dreaming to talk to, and I felt myself not interested. I had to tell them, like, ‘I don’t want to play college lacrosse. I want to play football.’”

Lorig saw Hurych’s drive when he came to Oregon as the No. 13 kicker in the 2024 class, according to 247Sports. He also saw that athleticism. And, in an era where specialists are routinely plucked out of the transfer portal, he saw an in-house heir to Sappington’s starting job.

“There’s a lot of pressure that I think is really hard to replicate, and that’s the biggest challenge, but we certainly try to build those things into practice as much as possible,” Lorig said. “And I made sure that, looking ahead last year, I made sure that we got Gage in the game multiple times in lots of extra point scenarios, in some field goal scenarios, as well as the spring games.”

It makes a difference: Hurych had one point-after attempt in 2024 as a true freshman against Washington, and he doesn’t recall much from his collegiate debut because he “almost blacked out” due to the nerves.

The kick was good. So were all 16 last year, with each one getting a little easier as the confidence and experience began to build to match the leg.

“It’s just through reps,” Hurych said. “It’s like anything else. It’s like practice. It’s like, ‘How do you develop a physical body?’ but a mental body.”