Freshman K Ruiz living up to hype
Brandon Ruiz is poised and confident. He believes he can be the best kicker in the country, even as a freshman.
But even Ruiz feels the weight of expectations on him.
“Sometimes it kind of scares me how much faith they have in me,” he said. “But I go out there and perform well for them.”
Like Zane Gonzalez for four years, who left ASU as the NCAA career record holder for field goals and points by a kicker and as a senior won the Groza Award winner as the nation’s premier kicker. The pressure comes in replacing Gonzalez with no appreciable drop-off, something that’s too often assumed because of Ruiz’s success in high school.
“You have everybody telling you that you have to be just like him (Gonzalez) or better than him,” said quarterback Manny Wilkins, who understands the burden that comes with major responsibility for an entire team. “He has to learn to quiet his mind from those things and I think he’s doing a really good job of that. He’s handled his situation pretty good.”
Ruiz was more than good last week. He went 3-of-3 on field goals including a 41-yarder with 2:33 left that stood up as the game winner. He also perfectly executed an onside kick that he also nearly recovered, leading to a first-quarter field goal. Six of his seven kickoffs were touchbacks, limiting Oregon’s dangerous Tony Brooks-James to 25 yards on kickoff returns.
All contributing to ASU’s 37-35 upset of then-No. 24 Oregon and Ruiz being named Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week, an award Gonzalez won a school-record four times last season.
“He did everything we expect him to do,” special teams coach Shawn Slocum said Tuesday. “He’s very consistent. He’s really coming around with his mentality. He’s getting in a place where he can be very productive for us. That was high pressure kick and showed the focus he’s got. Not to worry about the outcome but worry about the process. The elephant in the room is you need to make a kick. We’ve done that for a long time where we emphasize the process.”
Ruiz said he was stressed in the hours before the Oregon game thinking about the onside kick, which he knew was coming at some point.
“We’ve been practicing it for a few weeks,” he said. “I thought we were going to do it the very first kick (to start the game) then we pushed it back to the second and the third,” after ASU took a 14-7 lead. “I haven’t really done it too much on grass so I was glad Evan Fields was there to pick up the ball.
“It was supposed to be recovered by me, but it was a little behind me when I dove. I tried to dive again and probably would have got it, but Evan was right there so it all worked out.”
The game-winning field goal was more standard for Ruiz, who converted up to 58 yards as a senior at Gilbert Williams Field High School and was ranked first to fifth nationally among kicking prospects by various recruiting sites.
Even before the ASU’s drive began after Oregon took its first lead with 6:41 left, Ruiz began thinking, “This is going to come down to me.”
When the Sun Devils faced thirdand-6 at the Oregon 36, Ruiz was preparing for a 50-plus-yard attempt. He made a 52-yarder in the season opener after missing on his first college try from 56.
Wilkins completed a 10-yard slant to Jalen Harvey for a critical first down, then on fourth-and-7 from the Oregon 23, Ruiz routinely delivered from the middle of the field to the middle of the south uprights at Sun Devil Stadium.
“I made all my game winners in practice so I was extremely confident,” Ruiz said.
“I thought it was like God’s way, this is your destiny. It just seemed like a normal kick. No one seemed too pumped up so that really calmed me down too.
“I’m kind of glad there was more time on the clock,” rather than a few seconds. “That way I didn’t feel rushed. It was like in the movies when it’s slowly going backwards farther and farther.”