USC junior kicker Lanning has been Mr. Consistent for the Gamecocks

COLUMBIA -- If you can easily recall every one of a kicker's misses from a season, you either have a photographic memory or the kicker had a great season.

South Carolina's Spencer Lanning falls into the second category.

In his first season with full-time field goal duties, the junior from Rock Hill made 17 of 20 kicks.

The misses? An admittedly botched 27-yarder in the North Carolina State opener. A permissible miss from 50 at Alabama. A block in the Clemson game on a 42-yard attempt.

That's it. So, that's a good year.

Especially when you consider that Lanning also served as the team's punter, averaging 42 yards a kick on those 62 punts.

Lanning went from an unknown -- or even a possible liability, in some minds -- to a Lou Groza Award semifinalist. That means, at least to a board that evaluates the position, Lanning

was among the top dozen kickers in the country.

He was the most special part of a pretty good overall season for USC's special teams.

"I think the year couldn't have gone any better," Gamecocks special teams coordinator Shane Beamer said. "He made some clutch kicks in some pressure situations. He punted the ball well and had as good of a year as possible."

Boy, it sure didn't seem as if he were destined for that kind of a season after Raleigh.

Lanning had said all throughout camp that he was confident he would seamlessly carry on Ryan Succop's tradition of accurate, strong legs at USC.

Then came the 27-yard yank left against N.C. State. The Gamecocks held on for a 7-3 victory. So, clearly, the team could've used any and all available points.

Lanning is brutally honest in his assessment of that poor first step.

"I thought I was ready. It just showed you I wasn't," he says, bringing up the miss before you even have the chance. "I was sort of scared of missing that first kick. Sounds funny now, but I was."

What happened? Lanning said his mind ran wild in the moments before the kick.

Golf is typically a good metaphor for kicking. It works in this instance.

Imagine standing over the ball at the tee, thinking of every little mechanical thing you have to do -- and what all could go wrong. That was Lanning in Raleigh.

The result was a duck hook that never had the right height or trajectory. It was a yuck moment that frightened Gamecocks fans -- but never the team itself -- into believing this might be the start of worse things to come.

"It's weird to think about that first one and how bad I hit that first one and how bad I was," Lanning said. "I think it's a testament to how much you can improve over the course of the season."

Forget the course of the next few months. Lanning got better immediately.

It was easier than you'd think. The less in Lanning's mind at the time of the next kick, the more of a chance it had of sailing through the uprights.

Lanning would pick a spot high up in the crowd - maybe a hat or something, he said - and he'd lock out the world around him.

"I just made kicking simpler," he said. "I was concentrating on so many different aspects, all this stuff that people basically remind you of. I just made it simple. I handled what I can handle."

The following week, at Georgia, Lanning made all five of his field goal tries -- from 21, 39, 22, 35, 34. None were too long, but all were true in a 41-37 loss that, ironically, required more touchdowns and fewer of Lanning's field goals.

Lanning went on from Georgia to make seven more consecutive kicks -- for a total of 12 -- until the long miss at Alabama. By then, he was well on his way. And Raleigh was in the rear view.

"It didn't bother him and it didn't bother us," Beamer said of that first miss. "A lot of guys might've gone in the tank, but he just kind of shrugged it off. He was ready to kick the next one. We never lost confidence.

"We weren't concerned about Spence. He's got a great attitude, mindset, confidence about him. He's not your stereotypical kicker. He's got a quiet confidence about him."

But just describing Lanning's kicking is selling him short. Just shy of 6 feet and 200 pounds, Lanning also proved to be a great tackler when thrust into action.

His most memorable stop came when he tackled an Ole Miss punt returner in the open field, preventing a Rebels' return for a touchdown to help secure USC's first-ever home win against a top-five team.

After each game, Beamer said he was looking for a special teams player of the week to give an in-house award to.

Time and time again -- because of his various contributions -- it was Lanning.

"It just seemed like every single week Spencer stood out," Beamer said. "Whether it be his punting, his kicking, his game-saving tackle against Ole Miss. He was consistent. That's all you can ask from a kicker."

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com. and check out the South Carolina blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/gamecocks.