It was three o’clock in the morning, and Brad Craddock finally called it a night.

He closed his spreadsheet, filled to the brim with email addresses and phone numbers of every Division I football coach in America and ended his self-propelled recruiting tour for the night.

The Aussie punter knew he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ben Graham and Sav Rocca, whose punting prowess earned them promotions from Australian rules football to the NFL in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

“I stayed up late every night for months calling, emailing, and sending film until someone offered me,” recalls the college junior who recently won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top placekicker. “I’d keep calling them until they told me no, then I’d pull up my spreadsheet, cross them off, and go on to the next school.”

For Craddock, this persistence is the reason he has flourished some 10,000 miles from home, after being thrust into a new game and into a new position.

Rocca and Graham lit the way for Craddock, but, unbeknownst to him at the time, his path would stray slightly.

Arriving only three weeks before his freshman season kicked off in 2012, Craddock had the job of placekicker fall directly into his lap. Then-senior kicker, Nick Ferrara, was out for the season due to an injury, forcing the Australian punter to drop his intended duties and pick up placekicking full-time.

Until this point, his main experience with American football was playing Madden on Xbox with his brother-in-law a few months before the season started.

A shaky freshman campaign for the foreign student-athlete playing a foreign position in a foreign game almost sent him home for good. In just his seventh game, a 33-yard would-be game winner against ACC foe North Carolina State devastatingly clanged off the left upright with two ticks left on the clock; the first of the Terps’ six straight losses to end the 2012 season.

Christian Carpenter, who took over long snapping duties in 2013 as a redshirt freshman, roomed with Craddock freshman year.

“We sat in our room and talked for a while after that game,” Carpenter said. “A lot of guys would give up, but to see him bounce back from that and take it in stride; it made him a better kicker and stronger person all around.”

Unsure about his future, Craddock buckled down and became notorious for his painstaking work ethic and commitment on all fronts of his life. The next two years he would be All-Academic ACC and All-Big Ten Academic selections and was voted by his peers as captain of the special teams unit.

“The biggest growth that I’ve seen is his leadership off the field,” said holder Mike Tart. “He is extremely respected by everyone on the team, and not just specialists, I’m talking linemen and linebackers. He’s actually had some players meet with him one-on-one to talk about how to make a plan and set goals.”

In one short year, he had become the leader of the special teams unit and the player teammates sought out if they wanted to relay a message to Coach Randy Edsall or other members.

Following the trajectory of his newly acquired leadership role and heightening respect from the program and community, his skill level exploded. All he needed was to be around the right minds. Kicking coach Michael Husted, whom Craddock calls one of the best coaches he’s ever had, introduced him to former Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover.

Stover was able to “take the raw talent Brad had and mold it into a more consistent movement built on form and technique,” said Tart. “Once he got it, he just took off with it.”

A 21-25 sophomore season earned him a selection as a Lou Groza Award semifinalist.

During his freshman year, the team cycled through five “quarterbacks” during the season, losing each to injury except former scout team true freshman linebacker Shawn Petty, now playing at Marshall.

His sophomore year, injuries decimated the Terps roster once again. Top wide outs Stefon Diggs and Deon Long were lost for the season in October, along with starting quarterback C.J. Brown for multiple games midseason, beginning the downward trend from their No. 25 national ranking after a 63-0 drubbing by Heisman winner Jameis Winston and soon to be National Champion Florida State Seminoles.

Through injury, turmoil and a transition into the Big Ten, Craddock has been the team’s mainstay. His intensive work ethic raised the focus of the entire special teams unit.

“Working hard is his whole demeanor, he just works every day,” said Carpenter. “It makes me a better long snapper just trying to keep up with him. As a guy on the special teams unit, you’re going to try and match his intensity.”

Carpenter recalls often seeing the 6-foot Aussie run into a workout after kicking on the field for two hours. This intensity carried the Terps special teams unit from the depths of the ACC to one of the top Big Ten units in their inaugural year.

As for Craddock, he knew he had no other option.

“For me it’s not just working on my kicking but working on my school and my teammates," said Craddock. “You have to get better at all aspects in order to get better at your job. I always say if I’m not getting better then I’m getting worse.”

Craddock can’t do it all himself, however. A field goal requires a successful snap, hold, and proper blocking. His experience has earned him the trust of those in front of him and vice versa.

“Especially in kicking, when the other guys are playing to the best of their ability, it allows you to perform your best. That’s what I’m surrounded with here,” said Craddock.

He knew the process in front of him was perfect from Carpenter’s snap to Tart’s hold to the big guys blocking up front. All he then had to do was follow the painfully simple words of a coach from back home. “See the ball, kick the ball.”

Like Billy Chapel in For The Love of the Game, Craddock’s success relies on small trigger points and a zen-like intensity before the snap. During his steps backward, he remembers what he’s focused on in practice. “Get my right hip through, swing my arms, head down through the ball.”

During his lateral steps, he prays.

“That’s me drowning everything out. As soon as I do that, I can’t hear a thing. I almost black out and let my body take control not letting my head get in the way,” he said.

This is his "clear the mechanism-moment."

In his biggest kick of the year, Craddock banged home a 43-yard game winner in the 4th quarter of a frigid contest at Beaver Stadium against Penn State. 

Upon the referee's arms raising in confirmation, ESPN announcer and former NFL wide receiver Joey Galloway deemed the kick, "good from 65 yards out, it was almost over the entire goalposts. He nailed that football."

The rapport between Tart and his kicker allows them to feed off each other in any way necessary.

When Craddock is in the zone, Tart knows he doesn’t need to say anything. Although he may give what he calls constructive instruction, similar to the trigger points the kicker uses.

“It got to the point where I felt like I didn’t even need to look up at the kick because I knew it was going through,” said Tart.

The holder has learned a myriad of lessons about perseverance and determination from the top kicker in the country, especially after the NC State miss freshman year.

“He said I’m not going to let this define me, and I’m going to give it everything I have,” Tart said. “That’s something I’ll always remember and be able to apply to my life. When times are tough, you can get through it.”

Craddock looks to 2015, hoping to pull off what the 2014 winner Roberto Aguayo couldn’t, being named the Lou Groza Award winner in back-to-back years (Sebastian Janikowski was the first to do so in 1998 and 1999 at Florida State where Aguayo plays).

The Maryland kicker joined elite kicking folklore after his record season. Gramática, Janikowski, Kaeding, Nugent, and Bailey; all Groza winners. Not bad company.

“I don’t like all the publicity and all the crazy stuff,” Craddock said, “I just want to kick balls through goal posts and keep it as simple as that.”