The odds of being drafted to the NFL are not stacked in your favor when you’re a college football kicker. However, Miami kicker Jose Borregales heads to the 2021 NFL Draft having made a career of overcoming the odds to become the best at the position.
Jose Borregales NFL Draft Player Profile
- Position: Kicker
- School: Miami (FL)
- Current Year: Redshirt Senior
- Height: 5’10”
- Weight: 210 pounds
Tony Pauline’s Jose Borregales Scouting Report
Positives: Strong-legged kicker coming off a sensational season. Gets excellent lift on field goals and displays the ability to split the uprights from long distance. Drives his kickoffs through the opposing end zone. Displays the ability to directional kick.
Negatives: Struggled as a sophomore and junior at Florida International. Does not get great hang time on kicks.
Analysis: Borregales got off to a rocky start after transferring to Miami, but he turned in a terrific senior campaign. He possesses the leg strength necessary to play at the next level but must continue to improve upon his 2020 campaign to have a career in the NFL.
Jose Borregales Player Profile
Borregales isn’t your average 2021 NFL Draft prospect. He didn’t grow up watching football on the TV or with family roots in the game. Having moved to America from Venezuela at the age of six, he didn’t discover football until he was nine years old. Once he did, the young Venezuelan went from kicking a soccer ball to booming the pigskin on the football field.
He doubled up as a kicker and punter at the highly successful Booker T. Washington High School. During his time there, the Tornadoes won four consecutive state titles; he found personal success as a first-team Florida Class 4A All-State honoree. Borregales flashed his leg strength by nailing kicks over 50 yards, even as a high school player. He proved accurate, too, hitting 14 of 15 field goals and 48 of 51 extra points as a senior.
Growing up in Miami, the Hurricanes were his dream school. He attended a junior day with the program early in his recruitment, in addition to making unofficial visits to Auburn and Minnesota. Despite his high school success, the three-star recruit was largely overlooked. Only ranked as the 18th best kicker in the 2016 recruiting class, he received just one scholarship offer from Florida International University.
Borregales begins his college football career at FIU
Redshirting in 2016, Borregales’ opportunity to prove his doubters wrong came in 2017. Making his debut for the Panthers against Central Florida, he nailed both extra-point attempts and his only field-goal attempt. Although he missed a field goal in a win over Alcorn State the following week, he would be perfect on field goals in his redshirt-freshman season while going 15 of 18 on field goals.
As a part of a ferocious FIU offense in 2018, he went 54 of 55 on extra points, earning recognition as a finalist for the prestigious Lou Groza Award. He had games with nine, seven, and six extra-point attempts, while his only missed attempt came in a game against Rice where he nailed all three of his field-goal attempts.
An uncharacteristic game late in 2018 where he missed two field goals against Marshall threatened to derail his confidence. That carried over into 2019, where he was only successful on two of his first six attempts. Despite the wobble, he recovered his form as the season progressed — aided by a return to perfection on extra-point attempts. Impressively he went three of four on attempts over 50 yards, including two that meant more to him than any other kicks in his career.
Having been overlooked and disrespected by his dream school, Borregales had his revenge as a kicker over Miami. As FIU completed an unlikely 30-24 win over the Hurricanes, their kicker kicked three field goals, including two over 50 yards, sparking wild celebrations.
Realizing his dream as a kicker for Miami
Miami had suffered terrible inconsistency at the position through 2019. Working their way through three kickers, they’d missed eight kicks under 40 yards. Meanwhile, three defeats were directly a result of missed kicks. Having completed his degree and achieved all his goals for FIU, Borregales opted to transfer as a graduate student, and Miami reached out to the kicker immediately.
Arriving at the beginning of the most disrupted college football season in recent history, the new Miami kicker and his special-teams unit found creative ways to hone their craft in the offseason. Any park, parking lot, any open space of any kind became their practice field. As a result, when the season finally got underway, they were ready to go.
The results for the program and placekicker were phenomenal. Borregales won the Lou Groza Award as the best kicker in the nation — the first player in Miami history to win the award. He also became the program’s first consensus All-American since 2004. He tied a program record 57-yard field goal as part of a career-best 90.9 field goal completion percentage. The Miami kicker was perfect on extra points for the third time in his career, going 37 for 37 on point-after attempts.
Jose Borregales’ best fits in the 2021 NFL Draft
Borregales’ unlikely football journey could see the Miami kicker selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. He’s consistently demonstrated that he has the leg strength to succeed in the NFL. Although his rough stretch early in the 2020 season may cause concern, his extra-point record is undeniable. Additionally, he demonstrated mental fortitude to overcome those early-season issues.
Some potential landing spots for the Miami kicker include the Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Chargers, and Philadelphia Eagles.
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Oliver Hodgkinson is a staff writer for Pro Football Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @ojhodgkinson.