Lee has options if not drafted

Conor Lee’s used to pressure.

A Pitt kicker for the last five years, he was the guy the… Conor Lee’s used to pressure.

A Pitt kicker for the last five years, he was the guy the football team turned to when it needed to score that extra one or three points to edge out the competition.

And he rarely let them down.

Lee didn’t miss an extra point throughout his collegiate career. Last year, he led the Big East in scoring by a kicker (98 points) and in field goals per game (1.54).

But that doesn’t mean he’s mentally prepared for the NFL Draft.

‘I’m kind of just happy to get it over with and to see if I’m going anywhere,’ said 24-year-old Lee. ‘I just want to get on with my life.’

Lee said that while it would be nice to stay somewhat close to Pittsburgh so his wife, Katie, doesn’t have to move far, he’d be willing to relocate if it meant a shot at an NFL career.

‘I just want to be drafted. That’s basically it,’ he said. ‘Anybody going through this knows that you don’t care where you go, you just want to be drafted.’

He’ll work with his agent, Eric Metz, to go to teams’ one-day training and work-out sessions.

If he doesn’t get picked, he said, he’ll just ‘move on with life.’ If Lee isn’t selected, he has a backup plan.

Lee’s currently working on his master’s degree in business administration. Even if he goes to the NFL, he plans to continue his studies, taking courses in human resources and business ethics independently.

But Metz is convinced that Lee won’t have to consider his other options.

‘At the end of the day, his resume speaks for itself,’ said Metz., who added that Lee was kicking on one of the toughest fields in the nation, and his numbers were still great.

‘He’s a good player, so he makes me look like a great agent,’ said Metz.

Lee, who’s 5-foot-11 and weighs 200 pounds, was named a first-team All-Big East kicker and Pitt’s Special Teams MVP. ESPN the Magazine named him an Academic All-American. Lee’s 98 points this year are just one less than the single-season school record, set by Carson Long, who kicked 99 points in 1976. Lee, who’s been preparing for the Draft by practicing with Pitt’s football team, earned 263 career points, the third all-time highest in University history.

Still, it wasn’t until recently that Lee considered going through the Draft.

Lee said he’s always dreamed of playing a professional sport but that, ‘I never really explicitly thought about it. I just think that thinking about [the Draft] makes you stop focusing on what you have to take care of [each game].’

So going through the NFL Draft, Lee said, ‘is just the next step.’

But kickers aren’t nearly the most sought after commodities in the Draft. In the past 10 NFL Drafts, dating back to 1999, a combined 26 kickers have been drafted. It might be more likely for a kicker to get on a roster by signing as a non-drafted free agent.

It’s a tough task, he said, because there’s only one kicker per team and kickers have a long lifespan, some playing for 10 to 15 years or longer.

Still, Lee only hopes that when the Draft finally arrives next week, he’ll be given a chance at a career that is long-lived.

He said he doesn’t have anything special planned for the Draft. He’ll travel to Ohio this weekend to visit his wife’s family. Part way through the Draft, he’ll make the trip back to Pittsburgh, his cell phone by his side in case Metz calls him with some good news.