Jack Olsen is off to a perfect start as Northwestern's kicker this season: 4-for-4 on field goals, 13-for-13 on extra points. I thought I may have noticed a rare mistake on Saturday against Penn State, when Olsen went in for a fist bump with his teammates when they offered high fives after his first make.
Olsen was quick to correct me. He wasn't out of sync; he was in the barn.
That's a celebration that Olsen and teammates practice when playing the treasured Midwestern tradition of euchre, a four-person card game that's become a staple for Northwestern's special teamers. The main players are Olsen, his roommate and long snapper Will Halkyard, punter Hunter Renner, plus honorary specialist, starting linebacker and Wheaton, Ill. native Xander Mueller.
The game is played in teams of two, sitting across from each other. There are five tricks to a hand. Winning three of five tricks wins the hand and a point, and 10 points wins the game. There are limitless idiosyncrasies, minutiae and house rules to boot.
When a team reaches nine of the needed 10 points, they're in the barn. One of the players knits their fingers together and flips their hands upside down (see Duke Olges and Dom D'Antonio above) to form udders. HIs partner then reaches across and grabs the other's thumbs, while theatrically mooing, to "milk the cow" and let the table know they're on the cusp of winning.
"Me and Halkyard play a lot," Olsen said. "So whenever we're in the barn, we do that. [This year] we carried that over to PATs and field goals. So after any kick, if you look over you'll see a bunch of guys holding their hands upside down with me walking down the line. It's just little things like that to make it fun and create the brotherhood.
When asked who the best player in his apartment and on the team is, Olsen confidently declared, "I'm going to give myself both of those. Will doesn't lock in enough. He's there for the conversations. I'm there to count the cards and play to win."
The bond between Halkyard and Olsen stretches beyond the euchre table. It goes all the way back to youth football.
"We actually grew up playing in the BGYFL, the Bill George Youth Football League," Halkyard said. "We played each other. He played on the Wheaton Rams, I played on the Glen Ellyn Golden Eagles. So we've been playing each other since we were about 10 years old."
"It's awesome," Olsen said about the connection that also gives him the opportunity to trash-talk his roommate. "I'll still, every once in a while, pull up the eighth grade, seventh grade youth football highlights. He doesn't have his highlights [on him], but I have mine saved. So it's all good plays for me and bad plays for him."
It's been a long time since middle school. Now, when the good plays happen, they happen together. In Olsen's first year as starting kicker, with Halkyard in his second as the long snapper, the Wildcats converted their longest field goal, 40 yards against UTEP, since Week 2 of 2021.
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Even though they grew up 20 minutes away from each other, their roads to Northwestern were very different.
Halkyard became a Wildcat straight out of high school. He started snapping in sixth grade when his father, Matt, made the call that began Will's decade-long career. And he didn't exactly do it in democratic fashion.
"My dad was my youth coach, that's when we started kicking field goals and he said you're the long snapper. I didn't have much choice there," Halkyard said with a laugh. "So I'd been snapping for a couple years before high school, and then one of my high school coaches actually snapped in the NFL and knew that I was pretty good at it.
"I started to take it pretty seriously and [went] to national showcases and recruiting camps where I learned a lot, improved my craft and was able to get into a school that I normally wouldn't have without football."
Long snapping seems straightforward. It's the same position, the same location and the same distance to the punter or holder each time. The defense can't make contact until a second after the snap. It's a key, but usually quiet, cog in the special teams unit. If a team's long snapper maintains anonymity for the whole season, that's usually a good thing.
"That's something that me and my family joke about," Halkyard said with another laugh. "I like to keep my name out of the newspapers as much as possible and I'm completely okay with that. I love to help my teammates out and do whatever I can for the team."
Halkyard likes to joke around, but he also gave a detailed and impressive window into how he goes about his work with Renner, the punter and holder.
"Usually people don't realize on field goals that the laces are my responsibility," Halkyard said. "When the laces are supposed to be out, most people blame the holder for the laces being back or the kicker hitting the laces.
"That's actually the long snapper's responsibility... Two-and-a-half revolutions is usually my sweet spot, just around eight yards [deep]. Me and Hunter [Renner] work tirelessly on that. It's great to work with him on that."
The hard work has paid off, setting the table for Olsen's perfect start.
"I know Will is going to give me a perfect snap every time," Olsen said. "Hunter Renner has been perfect holding. With those two guys in front of me and the other eight guys protecting up front, it's made my job pretty easy."
Olsen's path to a perfect 17-for-17 on all of his kicks this year has been winding. He initially committed to Michigan State, but the near-immediate retirement of long-time Spartan head coach Mark Dantonio led Olsen to reevaluate. He entered the transfer portal and took his talents to Northwestern for 2021.
He sat behind Charlie Kuhbander that season, then prepared to make his debut in 2022. But a quad injury in warmups before the season opener in Dublin limited his opportunities for the rest of the season. He attempted just one field goal, a chip shot against Wisconsin, and missed it wide.
Cut to 2023, and he had gone three full seasons without consistent reps.
"It's about keeping each kick a separate entity," he said. "I know I had a tough miss last year but being able to bounce back from that, put it in the past and keep looking forward has helped me a lot...
"It's always been a goal of mine to kick for a Big Ten team, a school like Northwestern. I know that I want to keep on this track."
Olsen is reaching his goal and thriving in his role as Northwestern's kicker, something that interim head coach David Braun does not take for granted.
"We're really proud of his performance," Braun said. "[He's a] young man that has earned opportunity. It hasn't always been the easiest path for him...
"I think he just brings a great deal of confidence to this team, to myself, to [special teams coordinator Jeff] Genyk, and to the offense in terms of knowing that if a drive does stall out in the red zone, you're not coming up empty handed. We can be very confident trotting him out there and expect him to come back with three points."
The two questions for Olsen going forward are: Can he maintain his consistency?, and Can he extend his range? Olsen's season long is 40 yards, but he's got a stronger leg than that. He hit one from 53 yards in high school and holds the IHSA record for most field goals in a game when he hit eight for Wheaton-Warrenville South against Metea Valley in 2018.
Although he's eager to stretch his leg, he's keeping his cards close to his vest on his maximum distance this season.
"I'll keep that a secret," he said. "It's usually pretty windy at our games, and Howard's supposed to be a pretty windy game on Saturday. It'll vary with the winds."
No matter the conditions, no matter his past success, he plans to keep taking it kick by kick.
"I think if you do mishit a ball, got to forget it and go on to the next one," he said. "It's huge for me to go kick by kick and stay locked in...
"Being able to keep that same focus for each of my kicks will help me keep this trajectory for the rest of the year."
When it comes to special teams, Olsen and Halkyard know this isn't a game where they can go alone. It takes both of them, working as one, just like euchre.
A win over Howard would even Northwestern's record at 3-3 and give the team tangible goals to play for the rest of the way. Wildcat fans hope to see the special teamers in the barn, taking tricks and making kicks many more times this season.
