Miami football makes change at kicker versus Virginia
The Miami football team made an unanticipated change at kicker on Friday night against Virginia. After the Hurricanes scored a touchdown on their first drive, walkon Turner Davidson made the PAT.
Sophomore Bubba Baxa has struggled tremendously as the kicker for the Miami football team in 2019. Baxa has made 17-19 extra points and just 5-9 on field goals in 2019. Baxa was 45-46 on PATs and 9-12 on field goals in 2018. His struggles this season have been routinely noted by head coach Manny Diaz.
The change in kickers was not mentioned by Diaz, special teams coach Jonathan Patke or anyone from the Miami football program in the last week. Baxa missed key field goals against Florida and North Carolina early in the season and an extra point against Virginia Tech that would have given the Hurricanes the lead.
The extra point made by Turner Davidson after the Miami touchdown on the first drive of the game was his first kicking attempt in college on either a field goal or an extra point. According to his bio on HurricaneSports.Com, Davidson is a redshirt sophomore who prepped at Ronald Reagan high school in San Antonio.
Davidson is not very active on social media. His last post was on July 23. The 5’9 160 pound Davidson made 11-15 field goal attempts with a long of 43 yards and all 36 of his PATs with 69 points as a senior at Reagan in 2016. Davidson redshirted at Miami in 2017. He was on the Hurricanes practice squad in 2018.
Davidson does not have as strong of a leg as Baxa. Baxa kicked off following the Hurricanes touchdown and forced a touchback. According to Davidson’s Hurricane Sports’ Bio, he averaged 56.5 yards per kickoff as a junior in high school. His longest kickoff was only 60 yards. His longest field goal was 43 yards in 2015.
I heard pregame that Miami might use walk-on Turner Davidson for extra points and short field goals. Baxa will handle kickoffs. We’ll see if this happens, but came from someone that’s pretty plugged in. Camden Price returns next week.
— Andrew Ivins (@Andrew_Ivins) October 11, 2019
Although Baxa has struggled on PATs and field goal attempts in 2019, he has been elite on kickoffs. Baxa’s 63.97 yards per kickoff is 23rd in the country. Baxa has had 61.29 percent of his kickoffs go for touchbacks in 2019. That is 40th in FBS. Davidson was given 4.5 stars coming out of high school by Chris Sailer kicking.
Sailer grades a five-star kicker as a Division I prospect and four-star as a Division II prospect. In his summary of Davidson coming out of high school, Sailer noted that the Texan has a strong and consistent leg. Based on Sailer’s evaluation and Davidson’s stats coming out of high school he had to work on the distance of his kicks.
"“Turner is an excellent kicker. He has a solid leg and shows nice college potential. Field goals are smooth and consistent. His kickoffs are strong and nearing D1 ready. He is a great competitor that does very well under pressure. I really like his upside. Look for Turner to continue to get better an better as he gets stronger.He has the tools to compete with the best in this class. He is a fine young man that is always a pleasure to work with…Nice prospect.”"
Next. Miami should inquire about Arizona State transfer K Ruiz. dark
Following the kicking situation for the Miami football team going forward will be interesting. Camden Price who was presumed to be Baxa’s backup was not available to kick last week against Virginia Tech and on Friday night against Virginia. Diaz would not specify the reason for Price’s absence.