Proper reaction made Price right kicker
CORAL GABLES — It’s not just that he’s making kicks. It’s how he responded after missing one.
Camden Price took over place-kicking duties for the Miami Hurricanes by necessity after Bubba Baxa started the season 5-for-10 on field goals with two extra-point fails, and Turner Davidson was 1-for-3 with two critical misses in the devastating Oct. 19 loss to Georgia Tech.
When Price, a redshirt freshman walkon, missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt wide right early in the fourth quarter at Florida State on Nov. 2, it looked as if it was going to be more of the same from Miami kickers.
It kept the Hurricanes just a touchdown ahead of the Seminoles, who had momentum at the time. But after a defensive stop and Jarren Williams’ long touchdown pass to Dee Wiggins gave UM some breathing room, Price had another opportunity. He made it a three-possession game when he calmly knocked a 32-yarder through the uprights to give the Hurricanes a 17-point lead.
“My most proud moment of Camden was actually after the miss in Tallahassee,” UM coach Manny Diaz said. “Because that had been our issue. All three guys can do it, but
to have that self-confidence that should you miss one, which is going to happen, I can come back in and make the next one. … I was more proud of him for responding after a miss than just the ones that he made.”
Price then proceeded to make all eight of his kicks — seven extra points and a lone field-goal attempt — in the 52-27 win over Louisville on Saturday. Before the miss at Doak Campbell Stadium, he made an earlier try at FSU and connected on his lone fieldgoal attempt the previous week at Pittsburgh. Price’s mental approach got him over the miss. “I was a little bummed about the first one, but I like to just focus on my technique and throw the last one away,” he said. “It’s kind of hard sometimes at an away game, especially Florida State, to get that out of your head, but I just refer back to my form.”
Price would’ve been the first backup option to Baxa, the sophomore kicker on scholarship, but he was unavailable for unspecified reasons for the games in which Davidson got his shot.
Price has a quiet confidence about his ability from competing at kicking camps coming out of Archbishop Spalding High in Maryland, including one at Miami when he was contacted by former special teams coach Todd Hartley.
“I knew I could hang with a lot of the top kids just from going to camps,” Price said.
He said that in high school, where he also played wide receiver and ran track, his coach was very aggressive on fourth down, so Price didn’t get many in-game kicks. He said he can make field goals from 55 yards out in warmups.
Price’s improvement since landing at Miami put him in position to get Diaz to say, “He’s solved the problem for us.”
“I think the neat thing about Camden is he continued to improve as the year went on and got to a point where he became our best guy out here on Greentree Practice Field,” Duiaz said. “And then the confidence from doing that translated to him going to the game.”
Before Price took over kicking duties, he had to earn it in practice and even pregame warmups, which Diaz said after multiple games determined who would handle field goals and extra points. Place-kicking only initially became an issue because of Baxa’s misses earlier in the season, which drew boos from Miami fans at Hard Rock Stadium.
“It is a little tough to see your friends [go through that],” Price said. “Being a kicker, you know how that feeling is when you aren’t successful, but you can’t really think about the fans.
“You can’t think about what happens if I miss. You have to just think about here and now.”
Price had praise for Baxa.
“He’s great,” Price said. “He’s a really positive kid and he pushes me a lot. I push him, and he’s still kicking the ball real well.”
Baxa has remained on kickoff duties since being removed from place kicking.
Miami has a kicker committed in its 2021 class, Chaminade-Madonna’s Andres Borregales.
Asked whether the Hurricanes pursue a scholarship kicker for next season, Diaz said, “We don’t know yet. We’d have to see how we finish the season.”