NC State’s Christopher Dunn offers ECU kicker words of encouragement after Pack’s win
After the game ended last Saturday, N.C. State escaping with a 21-20 victory over East Carolina, Christopher Dunn was seeking out Owen Daffer.
It’s a kicker thing. Theirs is a fraternity, Dunn says, and there was a brother in need, hurting.
Daffer, a sophomore from Wilmington, first hooked a point-after attempt that would have tied the score for ECU after a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. He then was wide right on a 41-yard field goal try with five seconds remaining that would have won it.
Both teams were left somber after the game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and Daffer especially so. That’s why Dunn, the Pack’s graduate placekicker, made his way to the ECU sideline for a few words.
“I just said, ‘Hey, look man, you’ve got a whole year, 11 games left in your season, so don’t let this kick define you,’” Dunn said Tuesday. “I said, ‘Don’t let it get in your head. It doesn’t matter what other people are going to say. People are going to doubt you. Go prove them wrong.’”
Daffer listened but was despondent, as many would have been in his position. And that includes Dunn, who understands the travails and the thrills of being a placekicker put in big spots.
“You make that kick and it’s emotional and you miss that kick and it’s emotional,” Dunn said.
Against Clemson last season, the score tied 14-14, Dunn pulled and missed a 39-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the fourth quarter, causing a collective groan from State fans at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Pack would win 27-21 in double overtime but Dunn had to deal with his own big miss in the clutch.
“I felt sick to my stomach,” Dunn said Tuesday. “I went through the same thing. No one wants to miss that kick.
“I hate that (Daffer) had to go through that. You never want to see anyone go through it but I’m sure he will move on and keep kicking.”
Dunn said he once had Kyle Bambard as a roommate at N.C. State. It was Bambard’s last-second miss at Clemson in 2016 — a pushed 33-yarder — that allowed the third-ranked Tigers to get to overtime and win.
Bambard took a beating on social media, later telling the N&O, “It can be brutal and it was brutal.”
Daffer has heard from some haters, too. Dunn, perhaps wisely, keeps his Twitter and Instagram accounts private.
“A lot can go out and make the kicks, but at the end of the day when you have 70,000 people screaming at you and you’ve got a rush and there are so many things out of your control, what are you going to do when the lights are bright?” Dunn said. “It’s about going out with confidence. It’s about being in the moment and focusing on every minor detail.”
It’s also about having a good team of specialists around you. Dunn was careful to mention the work of long snapper Joe Shimko and Shane McDonough, his holder and the Pack’s punter.
“We have a cohesiveness that can carry us through games,” Dunn said.
‘One of the 11 guys’
Dunn said he worked with two kicking coaches in the offseason to help sharpen his technique and did some interesting reading — “Golf is Not a Game of Perfect” and “Chop Wood, Carry Water” two of his book selections — to help sharpen his mental approach.
Chopping wood and carrying water had a different meaning for Dunn growing up on his family farm in Lexington. He describes farm life as “getting your hands dirty every day” and learning to value the little things while developing a good work ethic.
As a middle schooler, Dunn said he fashioned his first goal posts after cutting down three cedar trees — “Made the old H-style field-goal posts,” he said — and later welded his first metal posts.
“It wound up working out for me,” he said.
Well enough. Dunn is the Pack’s career leader in points with 380, holds the career record for field goals (69) and has made all 173 of his PAT attempts, also a school record.
Dunn has a degree in communications but opted to stay at NCSU for another season to further his education with a certificate in business management. He also said he had other “unfinished business” — the pursuit of an ACC championship while doing his best to be a team leader.
But Dunn also will be remembered for one of his shortest boots.
It was Dunn’s perfectly executed onside kick against North Carolina that was vital in the Pack’s scintillating comeback win at Carter-Finley Stadium last season. Sandwiched around the kick were Devin Leary’s two TD passes to Emeka Emezie that gave the Wolfpack the lead late in the game.
“I think you have about a 19 or 20 percent chance in college football of recovering an onside kick,” Dunn said. “To be one of the 11 guys out there, to be able to execute and do my job when the lights were bright, it’s a memory I’ll be able to keep with the boys the rest of my life.”
Dunn was the one who came out of the pile with the football, holding it high as he raced off the field.
Dunn said he already has a few balls framed from his college career. And the UNC ball?
“It might be in there,” he said, laughing.
With more to come, he hopes.
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 7:05 AM.
