Missed kick nothing for Abdul

David Abdul was expected to overcome his missed extra point Saturday against Youngstown State;… David Abdul was expected to overcome his missed extra point Saturday against Youngstown State; it was the fact that he was even able to kick again that no one expected.

“It is a miracle that I am still here today,” Abdul said following the game. “You have to thank Jesus Christ for that, for just allowing me to be here still. To be able to go out and kick still is just a whole other thing. I am just happy to be here.”

A February 2003 car crash in which Abdul fell asleep at the wheel resulted in three broken bones in his kicking leg. After the crash, he was unsure if he would ever kick again.

“I was hoping this day would be here,” Abdul said, “but I wasn’t sure if it would.”

After undergoing four surgeries and a season on the sideline, Abdul returned as a backup for Josh Cummings to start the season.

“I have taken the whole year like I am going to be the starter,” Abdul said. “I take the field like that every day in practice, because you never know when you are going to get your chance.”

Following Pitt’s loss to Nebraska, team doctors determined an injury to Cummings’ knee required surgery, giving Abdul the chance he had been preparing for. But even after all his preparation, Abdul missed his first attempt against the Penguins, an extra point with 13:23 remaining in the first quarter.

“I was thinking the same thing you thought when (Abdul) missed that first extra point,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said. Although Cummings was out for sure, starting Abdul was not a given.

“It was real close between him and Conor Lee,” Wannstedt said. “We could have gone with either one.”

Wannstedt explained that his decision to go with Abdul over fellow backup Lee was because of Abdul’s prior service as Pitt’s kicker. He started for the Panthers in 2002 and also in 2003.

Prior to Saturday, Abdul’s last successful kick was an extra point during the ’03 Continental Tire Bowl.

“When I was out there for that first one, it really felt like my freshman year again,” Abdul said. “I had the nerves going, my head wasn’t in it like it should have been. I was just happy I stayed in after that. I wanted to get that next kick under my belt as soon as I could.”

When asked how he was able to overcome the missed extra point in his return to action, Abdul was quick to respond.

“This is my fourth year, so it’s like my senior year,” he said. “I think I was expected to come back like that.”

And come back he did.

Abdul hit his next six kicks, four extra points and two field goals, the longest a 40-yard attempt that made the score 27-0 with 10:59 to go in the third quarter.

“I hit it real well and right down the middle,” Abdul said, “It felt as good as a kick has in a long time.”

Abdul has now made 81 of 85 extra points and 24 of 40 field goals in his career at Pitt, a time during which he has overcome more then his share of adversity.

A month after his apartment burned down during the summer of 2003, Abdul’s roommate and teammate Billy Gaines died after falling through a church ceiling in Homestead. So, waiting to get back on the field was no big deal.

“It has gone quick, it really has,” Abdul said. “I have my son who helps me get through everything.”