MORGANTOWN — Kickers, by nature, are the court jesters of football, surrounded by teammates who are anything but.
They share two common threads: The uniforms on their backs and the goal of winning a game.
Take West Virginia’s victory over Baylor last week.
In the closing minutes of a back-and-forth game, 250- and 300-pound guys are running full speed at each other, like brick walls that come crashing down on unforgiving concrete.
As for Legg?
“Honestly, I was wondering what my mom was doing up in the stands,” he said with the widest smile.
Ah, the life of a kicker, right?
They get only a glimpse of action during a game. Oftentimes, Legg admits, he is in his own world while standing on the sidelines watching, and no one says a word to him.
“In general, they leave me alone,” Legg said. “It kind of helps that we’re in our own little world, that we’re disconnected and just trying to have a good time. That makes kicking a lot easier when you disconnect from the score and the scenarios.”
They are seldom treated as conquering heroes, unless they find themselves on the positive end of a game-winning kick, which was the case for Legg, as his 22-yard field goal with 33 seconds remaining was the difference in WVU’s 43-40 victory.
Legg was perfect on another field goal earlier in the game, as well as on five extra-point attempts, and on Monday, was named the Big 12’s co-special teams player of the week, along with Oklahoma State kicker Tanner Brown.
West Virginia also had running back Tony Mathis Jr. named co-offensive player of the week, along with TCU quarterback Max Duggan.
Mathis rushed for 163 yards and two touchdowns for the Mountaineers.
But, we go back to Legg, a Charleston native who wanted nothing to do with football in high school.
He was only a soccer player then at Cross Lanes Christian, a private school with an enrollment of around 300 students split between kindergarten through the 12th grade.
It was only when his soccer career was finished did he take a stab at football and walked on at WVU.
“In reality, a 10-year old me would have agreed with you,” Legg said when asked if he believed he would ever be in the situation he was in Thursday. “But, when I look at reality and how God put this together, there’s no way.
“I was actually thinking about that before the kick, because there had been some timeouts, about the gift and opportunity to play for WVU, because that’s my home.”
Legg is a perfect 10 of 10 in field goals on the season, and while it took him some time to go from walk-on to full-time kicker, the senior needs just four more field goals to move up to eighth on the school’s all-time list.
For his career, Legg is 36 of 44 (82%), with a long of 51 yards.
And, if he was thinking about his mom, Leigh, in those closing moments against Baylor, chances are mom wasn’t watching.
“She struggles,” Legg said. “I’m not sure she watched, honestly. That’s typically the discussion after kicks is whether she was able to watch or not.”
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