Lobos’ Bojorquez shows serious punting promise
Weeks of targeted training brought him off the bench, into the spotlight
Every punter lives for those majestic boots that sail high and deep, over the returner’s head for net yardage of 60 yards or more. Corey Bojorquez has had his share of those. Well, more than his share.
For NFL scouts, though, leg strength is a given. They’re looking for consistency, placement, accuracy.
Bojorquez, the New Mexico Lobos’ punter the past two years, is working to prove he can, and should, be punting on Sundays.
“I’m confident I have the abilities to do it,” Bojorquez said in a phone interview. “Sometimes a little luck is involved, (in) whether a team takes a chance on you in the first place. But I’m confident.
“I know I’m capable of getting a starting job somewhere, for sure.”
Bojorquez, a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection last season, already has worked out for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is expecting to work out for the New England Patriots early this week, followed by UNM’s Pro Day on Thursday.
Of his workout with the Jaguars, he said, “It was decent. Definitely really windy conditions, definitely a challenge, not really anything I’d ever played in or practiced in.
“The wind changed direction every couple of minutes, but I just kind of stayed calm and tried to kick through it as well as I could.”
Bojorquez came to UNM on scholarship from Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif., where he was a junior-college All-American.
Initially, he struggled. Through UNM’s first four games in 2016, Bojorquez was averaging 38.2 yards per attempt. The Lobos’ net punting average (punt yardage minus touchbacks and return yardage) was just 28.1. Of his 19 attempts, 11 had been returned.
Coach Bob Davie and special-teams coordinator Apollo Wright actually benched Bojorquez for one game, but he returned in week six — and was a different punter thereafter, averaging 44.7 yards the rest of the season. In UNM’s final eight games, only 13 of his 30 attempts were returned. The Lobos net punting average rose to 35.8.
“The first half of my junior season wasn’t great,” he said. “I was still trying to adjust. I definitely picked it up the second half.”
As a senior, Bojorquez found the consistency that Davie and Wright had been looking for. He ranked fourth nationally and first in the Mountain West with an average of 47.3 yards per punt. The Lobos ranked sixth nationally in net punting average (41.99), and only 11 of his 67 punts were returned.
Bojorquez’s powerful left leg was strikingly in evidence. He had 31 punts of 50 yards or more, including boots of 77 yards against New Mexico State, 71 against Air Force, 78 against Colorado State and 75 against Wyoming.
He also, however, put 32 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line with only 12 touchbacks.
His accuracy and directional improvement, he said, was the product of changes in his training routine.
“I’d set a day where I’d say, OK, I’m only gonna do going-in punts,” he said. “Or, today I’m gonna work on hitting punts from back in the end zone, stuff like that.
“I kind of just broke it down more specific with my training than I was my junior season.”
Though the NFL is always looking for punters, it’s a tight window. NFL teams rarely carry more than one punter on a regular-season roster.
Bojorquez said he’ll try to prepare for any eventuality.
“Basically, I’ll go through the whole draft and everything, and free agency right after,” he said.
If none of that works out, he’ll continue to train in San Diego with kicking/ punting guru Michael Husted — “and just wait for a call.”
PUNTING GENERATIONS: Both at Mayfair High School in Lakewood, Calif., and at Cerritos, Bojorquez followed Osborn Umeh as the punter. Umeh, who punted in college at Indiana State, is the older brother of UNM wide receiver Aneselem Umeh.
“I see (Osborn) every once in a while,” Bojorquez said. “He only lives a couple of minutes down the street from me (in California).
“He’s working full time, so usually on Saturdays, whenever he’s free, we’ll go kick.”