It takes an extremely talented kicker or punter to get a Division I-A scholarship out of high school. For every Sebastain Janikowski, there are players like former Ball State University punter Brad Maynard.
Maynard, the most successful professional football alum in the history of the Cardinal football program, came to Muncie as a preferred walk-on from Sheridan High School.
Maynard was recruited to Ball State by former coach Bill Lynch, now with Indiana University.
Maynard knew early on he had a chance to be something special; then-coach Paul Schudel didn't. He actually redshirted him his first year.
"I didn't know how good he was," Schudel said. "We just thought he was a good athlete. To show how smart we were, I had him at free safety until I realized how far he kicked the ball."
Maynard said he was always looking towards the future, and that helped make him what he is today.
"I remember fall camp the first day [my freshman year] punting with all the veterans," Maynard said. " I had guys come up to me on the first day and say 'Kid, you're going to be playing in the NFL.' I was looking at the bigger picture. I was always looking to the next level."
Those veterans evidently knew what they were talking about. Maynard left Ball State with every punting record. He accumulated 10,702 yards in his career, recorded 242 punts and averaged 44.2 yards per punt in his career. Reggie Hodges currently holds the most punts record with 254, but Maynard holds the other two still.
Maynard garnered numerous accolades. In 1995 and 1996 the Walter Camp Football Foundation, American Football Coaches Association, The Football News and American Football Quarterly named him First Team All-American. The Sporting News named him to the second team in 1996.
In 1995 the Associated Press and United Press International also named him to their first team roster.
Schudel said Maynard's biggest strength wasn't necessarily his average, but his ability to pin the ball inside the opponents' 20-yard line.
"People get all hyped up on average," Schudel said. "He didn't care about averages. He was more concerned with how many times he could put the ball inside the 10. He put the ball inside the 20 a lot."
The greatest and most surprising honor came after his senior year. Maynard won the Vern Smith Award, which is awarded to the Mid-American Conference's most valuable player. That's quite an accomplishment for a punter. Maynard said he couldn't have done it without great leadership from the senior class that year.
"It's very strange that I won the award," Maynard said. "Obviously we had to have a great year as a team, which we did. It was special. It was an honor to be thought of as that type of player."
Maynard's favorite Ball State memory came in his final home against the University of Toledo. After the Cardinals defeated the Rockets 24-14 and clinched the MAC championship, everyone piled on top of each other in the end zone.
"The closeness, the team unity, it's not comparable to the NFL at all," Maynard said. "For me, there's almost that generation gap now in the NFL. In college, the gap's not there and you're real close with the guys. It's unique to me how close that group was."
The Cardinals went on to play in the Las Vegas Bowl, losing to Nevada 18-15.
Maynard was drafted in the third round (95th overall) of the 1997 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. He signed with the Chicago Bears in March 2001 and is signed with the team through 2010.
Maynard credits his development at Ball State not to then-coaches Paul Schudel or Lynch, but to a former telephone company worker by the name of Bill Reynolds.
Reynolds was a volunteer coach with the team but had a fascination with the kicking and punting game. He was also a two-year letter-winner with the Ball State baseball program in 1934 and 1935. Reynolds wrote an unpublished manual on the kicking game that Maynard still has today.
"He never took credit for anything, always saying it was a god-given ability and that the talent is already there. He worked with me on my drop and got me into a rhythm.
"He'd say, 'You're on a Sunday stroll, 1-2, kick. It's a walk in the park.' He never let me have an ego."
One of the tales told about Maynard over the years is that he would stand at midfield in Scheumann Stadium, face the main grandstand and successfully kick the ball over the press box. Maynard said it was more of a half-truth. He'd stand with his heel on the sideline and kick it over the press box, which he did to work on getting height on the ball.
"I look around sometimes today [in Chicago], and I wish I had something I could kick over. It was nice having targets like that.
"If someone left with a dent in their car, I apologized," he said laughing.
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