With more than 105,000 pairs of eyes watching him week after week during the regular football season, Ryan Pretorius has proved he certainly knows how to block.

And, his blocking is not physical but mental.

The Ohio State place-kicker isn’t on the field for every play, but he definitely draws attention as he tries for extra points.

“When you’re out there, you just block everything else out,” said Pretorius, who went on to emphasize the importance of concentrating on the job at hand.

Pretorius, who has a 50-yard range and a reputation for accuracy, didn’t arrive on the OSU campus, just out of high school. He was offered a spot as a preferred walk-on and enrolled at Ohio State in the fall of 2004.

While attending high school in South Africa, Pretorius earned honors in soccer and rugby. He was in France when he decided to visit the United States and explore the possibility of playing collegiate-level football.

Gary Anderson, a former NFL player who is a friend of the Pretorius family, suggested he make a video of himself and send it to various universities.

Earning the position as Buckeye place-kicker last year, he went on to be a semifinalist for the award named for Martins Ferry native Lou “The Toe” Groza.

At 29, Pretorius is the oldest member of the OSU team. A spot check of the current roster reveals that at 5-9, he’s also the shortest player on the team.

During OSU’s recent media day, Pretorius received unexpected recognition from head football coach Jim Tressel.

Asked who was the best physical specimen on the team, Tressel with a smile replied, “Maybe Ryan Pretorius. He’s kind of my height,” before adding the team had a lot of good-looking guys.

Noting that things look great for the coming season, Pretorius said, “The guys are so together, it’s so much more like a family, it’s unbelievable. Practice has been going real well so we just have to keep it up till the season starts and then just take it through, one game at a time.”

The team’s new talent, according to several players, looks good, and there are high hopes for the coming season.

Linebacker James Laurinaitis, a returning All-American, Butkus and Nagurski awards recipient, said the goal of every player on this field is to get the national championship.

Laurinaitis, who said he’s not taking things for granted, went on to comment, “I’m doing any little possible thing I can right now to make sure it contributes to us being successful. … If it doesn’t have to do with making our team better than I’m not interested in it.”

The “high expectations” for the upcoming season are only one of the reasons that Tressel thinks that Laurinaitis and other senior players remained on the Buckeye team.

“They do enjoy being together. It’s the big reason so many of them came back,” said the coach. “They could have entertained the thought of going on. They just enjoy being together. I think they enjoy the fact there’s high expectations. They want to enjoy each step along the way.”

Terrelle Pryor, the No. 1 high school recruit in the nation, appeared to be quizzed thoroughly by a large number of media during the event.

When talking about the quarterback recruit who was USA Today player of the year, Tressel said, “If you watch the drills, he throws maybe even better than I ever thought he would.

“Now, when you get into the group things and so forth and he’s trying to figure out the coverage and still not sure where ours are going, it slows down his release a little bit but he’s still shown a good ability to make decisions. … We haven’t seen him out there when the game is live and they have to get him on the ground and have to get their hands up in the air, and we’re anxious for that to take place.”

Todd Boeckman, a fifth year senior, is the lead quarterback, and Tressel said the Joe Bauserman, who played minor league baseball before joining the Buckeyes as a walk-on, right now is in the No. 2 spot “from the standpoint that he’s shown he’s got a grasp of what we’re doing and has shown he can do some good things.”

Tressel had good things to say about the veteran players as well as the freshmen, but the coach himself received accolades from Laurinaitis.

Pointing out it’s a pleasure to play for Tressel, the linebacker from Minnesota added, “What he says, he means. He’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever met.”