Miami’s kickers should learn from Jose Borregales’s example at FIU

The Week 8 slate of college football in Miami felt like a famous quote from Charles Dickens’ novel “A Tale of Two Cities”.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Saturday in South Florida was a tale of two kickers.

Miami played Georgia Tech at noon and FIU followed it up with the 7 p.m. nightcap against UTEP. The Panthers’ kicker made all three field goals and won 32-17. The Hurricanes missed all three field goals between Turner Davidson and Bubba Baxa and they lost in overtime, 28-21. 

There was once a time this season where FIU kicker Jose Borregales was in the same slump that the Miami kickers are currently in. Through the month of September, the junior make 2-of-6 field goals. He made all but one extra point and his kickoffs mostly end in a touchback.

Through the first three games of October, Borregales made a perfect 6-for-6 FG and missed only one extra point. Against UTEP, he connected on his longest field goal of the season from 46 yards out.

“[Jose Borregales is] kinda getting back into what we expected out of him after last year,” FIU head coach Butch Davis said, “perfect in extra points and field goals. I think every one of his kickoffs, into the wind or with the wind, were all touchbacks with the exception of one.”

“He’s extremely reliable, obviously great to have,” FIU quarterback James Morgan said. “We know that every time we go down there we’re getting points, which is awesome. We always try to score touchdowns but having him as a resource and somebody who is consistently making them for you is great.”

The Panthers have won all three games this month. The bye week separated the best of times with the worst of times. So how did the change of fortune come about?

“Coming back from the seasons I’ve had before and then starting the way I have this season,” Borregales said, “you got to step back, look at your technique and just get back to basics.”

Boregales could relate to the plight in Miami. Every kicker feels the same way when their kick doesn’t make it through the uprights. In football, kickers are viewed at like machines. They are expected to work all the time but the second they don’t, fans want to toss them out or take their frustration out on them first.

“It’s the worst feeling ever,” Borregales said. “You’re in a hole. You’re thinking to yourself like ‘damn, I suck now. Where am I going? What am I gonna do?’ To get out of that, you got to get back to the basics, watch film, ask coaches that know what’s going on. So I just went and sent my film out to kicking coaches. They watched it and told me what I was doing wrong and all that. So I just go back to practicing that, do the little things and I think it’s working now.

“As a kicker, I know instantaneously when I hit my A ball,” he said. “If it’s good, I don’t even have to look and if it’s not, it’s the worst feeling in the world.”

An argument could be made if Miami had this version of Borregales, the Hurricanes would be ranked and on top of the ACC Coastal. Instead, Baxa has made 5-of-10 field goals and missed two extra points and Davidson went from a perfect effort against Virginia to missing both field goals against Georgia Tech. 

“All we know how to do is to manage the situation,” Miami head coach Manny Diaz said. “We continue to coach the guys, we give them all the psychological help that we can afford them and, as I’ve said from when this first became an issue, they are who we have. We do not have free agency, and we just have to continue to press on.”

There’s only one other kicker that they haven’t used but that might change. Cam Price was warming up during overtime and looked to be ready to kick the extra point should the Hurricanes have scored. Whether or not he will have his chance this Saturday at Pittsburgh will hopefully be addressed before the plane takes off.