Senior kicker Tyler Gonzalez used his background in soccer to become the starting placekicker for a Bruin team that has struggled to find consistency at the position all year. In his first appearance, he converted two extra points in as many tries.
Two-sport athletes are common in high school. The soccer player with the golden toe gets recruited to kick for the football team, a quarterback with a big arm goes to the baseball team and the wide receiver with freak athleticism gives the hardwood a try.
But that doesn’t happen in college. Universities have infinite resources to recruit a player at each position and depth is never an issue. At least that’s what UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel thought.
Redshirt freshman Kip Smith is the only scholarship kicker on the roster. When he went down with a hip flexor injury, UCLA’s kicking game was in trouble. Walk-on redshirt freshman Joe Roberts had a leg injury of his own that he was dealing with, and although redshirt junior punter extraordinaire Jeff Locke nailed two big field goals in the third game of the year against Texas, Neuheisel didn’t want to put too much on his plate.
But after Locke missed three out of four extra-point attempts in the next two games, Neuheisel looked to be back to square one. He had one last option.
In the week leading up to the Texas game, a new face was spotted in the specialists’ corner at Spaulding Field. The specialists are a small group, so it wasn’t hard to tell they had grown in number. The new addition was practicing his kicking stroke. Naturally, with all of the kicking injuries, the topic was brought up in Neuheisel’s post-practice media scrum.
“Oh, that’s Tyler,” Neuheisel said. “He’s on a tryout with us. He’s a member of the soccer team so we’re taking a look.”
As it turns out, not even Neuheisel had the whole story on the mysterious new kicker. It was Tyler Gonzalez, former roommate of student football assistant Dimitri Hajimihalis. Gonzalez was in part a “member” of the soccer team, but he was more responsible for setting up practice drills than participating in them as a team manager. He was nowhere to be found on the team’s roster, a two-sport athlete by way of priority enrollment only.
Hajimihalis dragged Gonzalez out to Spaulding Field to kick a few balls in front of Neuheisel. Gonzalez was reluctant to do so as he had not kicked a football in almost five years, since his senior year at Fullerton High School.
Even at Fullerton, Gonzalez was roped into kicking by Gus Martinez, assistant coach of the football team who also doubled as Gonzalez’s golf coach. Martinez had been nagging at Gonzalez to kick since his freshman year, but Gonzalez was fearful of an injury ruining his soccer career. He thought he would play soccer in college, but after getting into UCLA, his dream school, he took on the manager role. He finally gave in to Martinez’s requests and knocked home six field goals for Fullerton as a senior.
“His senior year, I knew we were going to be short a kicker,” Martinez said. “I knew he was a competitive guy and an athlete. I just kept telling him he needed to come out and give it a shot. I had never seen him kick a football but lo and behold, he got out there and he could do it.”
Now here he was, five years later, reluctantly trying out for another coach. Neuheisel liked what he saw.
“Practice is at 3,” Neuheisel said after studying Gonzalez.
Suddenly Gonzalez was faced with a decision: leave the soccer team for a chance to compete as a collegiate athlete himself or remain working with his close friends.
“I was really comfortable on the soccer side,” Gonzalez said. “I enjoyed it. All of my friends were over there and I lived with the guys.”
While Gonzalez wrestled with the situation and what to say back to the coach, Neuheisel thought it was a no-brainer.
“I was surprised because I thought he would want to do it,” Neuheisel said. “I also admired the fact that he felt a commitment.”
For the second time in five years, Gonzalez relented and joined the team the following weekend, a game-day roster addition against Texas.
“It was always a dream of mine to play a collegiate sport, and I hadn’t up to this point,” Gonzalez said. “I still had that competitive edge in me that wanted to get out here and do it. So I said, “˜What the heck. Why not?’ I had the opportunity. I might as well take it.”
Two games passed while Gonzalez sat on the sideline and watched Locke, who was quickly becoming Mr. Everything for the special teams unit. For one game, it appeared that Locke had a firm grasp on kicking off, punting and place kicking.
But soon, Neuheisel’s fears materialized and the weight became too much for Locke to handle. It was Gonzalez’s time to shine. Two days before the Bruins were to take on Washington State at home, Neuheisel announced he would be using Gonzalez for extra points and short field goals.
Gonzalez was only needed for two extra points, converting on both of them.
“I just had a feeling I was going to make it,” Gonzalez said of his first extra point. “It was one of the most exhilarating feelings ever. It was a huge rush.
“People were slapping my helmet. Someone lifted me up. Everyone was screaming. I still think about it. It was awesome.”
Little did Gonzalez know, it was more awesome for someone else. Martinez had a friend who operated the kicking net at the Rose Bowl and by sheer coincidence, his partner backed out at the last minute, forcing him to offer the job to Martinez for the day.
“It was a great moment for me,” Martinez said. “To see his career unfold like it did in high school, it was awesome to see and experience with him.”
Martinez congratulated Gonzalez after the game but someone stopped him just as he was about to leave. It was Neuheisel.
“Hey, I owe you one,” Neuheisel said to Martinez.
Gonzalez has since tried two field goals, a make from 42 yards and a miss from 39, in a blowout loss to Arizona. He’s finally settling into his role as evidenced by the UCLA football gear he can be seen in around campus.
Smith remains at “questionable” on injury reports so Gonzalez could be here to stay.
“It’s working out well and it’s a fun story,” Neuheisel said. “I hope it has a great ending.”