Sometimes, things are what they seem. People are who they appear to be. Other than being a superlative punter, one of the best things I can say about Bryce Baringer is that he is a legitimately fantastic guy. I was lucky enough to be a teammate of Bryce's on the Notre Dame Prep football team during our formative years, and am lucky to still count him as a friend. At NDP, Bryce served as our kicker and punter, and I as his practice holder and punt returner.

He was also an outstanding basketball and soccer player.

I was...uh...an outstanding Quiz Bowl and debate team member.

I was, and am, continually impressed with Bryce's singular focus and work ethic in pursuit of his goals. While I went a decidedly academic route, Bryce was able to balance his studies while playing three sports at a varsity level and attending seemingly every kicking camp known to man. I distinctly remember sitting at his kitchen table with the lovely Mrs. Baringer in the summer of 2018, watching video after video of Bryce absolutely nuking punts at a national prospect camp, being completely mystified as to why Bryce wasn't satisfied with his performance.

Looking back at his journey, it makes more sense.

Bryce would routinely practice his kicking and punting for hours before and after every summer practice, and was always asking people to meet him at local fields so he could practice. This being in addition to having a private coach, the camp circuit, and practicing for two varsity-level fall sports at a relatively solid sports school, beggars the imagination.

It wasn't easy for Bryce. Our senior year didn't go the way we wanted, and Bryce contrasted some of the most unbelievable punting performances you could imagine (I distinctly remember a 70-something-yard punt on homecoming in 2016) with inconsistent placekicking that provided the decisive margin in several close losses. My family still talks about the mental fortitude that Bryce showed to come back stronger than before.

After missing a pair of extra points in early season games that would have given us a win, with eight seconds left in the regular season, Bryce lined up for a 23-yard field goal against Birmingham Seaholm that would have won the game and sent us to the playoffs.

Wide left.

Thus ended high school football.

To say that Bryce was devastated would be an understatement. He was understandably inconsolable. More than anything else, Bryce was always his own harshest critic. He had, and has, a maniacal drive to be perfect that I am told is common among elite athletes. Among all of the emotional tumult, I know that he felt he had let himself down, and that probably hurt worst of all. I didn't see Bryce until the next day, when he played absolutely out of his mind, and was a key piece in winning NDP's first district championship in soccer. Mental toughness, indeed.

Bryce put his head down, and worked even harder.

Coming off of that tough experience, which took some time to get over, I think what makes Bryce so special shone through. He kept working, kept grinding, even as the offers I figured he would get didn't manifest immediately. We hung out a lot outside of football, as I looked ahead to going to college, and he continued his recruitment journey. I have fond memories of going on spring break together, countless trips to fast food establishments after school, and savoring the last bits of high school before life started in earnest.

Bryce wasn't as highly recruited as I figured he would be coming out of high school.

Following a circuitous route to Southern Illinois, then the University of Illinois, and then stepping into the fray amid punter attrition at MSU in 2018, working to rejoining the team a year later, and now being one of the best players at his position in the country, it is a bitter pill that the Horatio Alger story was not capped with the winning of the Ray Guy award. With all respect to Adam Korsak, there is little question in my mind about who deserved the award.

However, I am confident that Bryce will respond to this as he has to all the other adversity he has faced, and make the Ray Guy voters look even more foolish as he pursues an NFL career. He will leave the bitterness to we who cover the team, and the fans who follow the team. We can beat our chests about the unfairness of Kenneth Walker III not going to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist, of the Ray Guy award, and of a million other things, while he keeps on kicking footballs into the stratosphere.

It's been a great journey for Bryce, and I can't wait to see where it takes him.

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