CORAL GABLES — During the summer, new Miami kicker Jake Weinberg was training in Tennessee when he hit his longest field goal ever.
The Boynton Beach native boomed a kick from 72 yards out.
"I knew I probably could have hit a little bit further," Weinberg said, "but I was like, 'You know what, that's good for me for today.'"
Weinberg, who transferred from rival Florida State , is one of two transfer kickers the Hurricanes added in the offseason. Miami also signed Northwestern transfer Jack Olsen . They are competing for the starting role as UM's season opener against Stanford on Sept. 4 approaches.
"Jake's a great kicker, so having him side-by-side, being able to compete every day, I think really just pushing each other and it almost creates that game environment where it's every day we're competing against each other for the job," Olsen said. "So it creates an extra pressure. Whereas, if it's not a competition, you're kind of just out there kicking and you don't really care if you make or miss it. So it kind of helps create a game environment where … every kick matters and everything's high pressure."
Each kicker brings different strengths to the team. Olsen was an All-Big 10 honorable mention last year. He was accurate for the Wildcats, making 19 of 21 field-goal attempts last season. But Olsen's longest kick last year was 41 yards, and his career-long in a college game is 47 yards. He has not kicked off since 2023.
But Olsen's chances for long-range kicks were limited by weather conditions. Northwestern played in a temporary stadium for the last two seasons, which was built along the shore of Lake Michigan. The stadium offered scenic views, but it also had strong winds that could play havoc with kicks.
"The Northwestern stadium, being right on the lake, was a super windy place to kick," Olsen said. "So I'm happy to be able to kick in Hard Rock (Stadium) and kick in the south. … It'll say on the weather app (the wind is) 10 miles an hour, but it's usually 15 to 20 pretty consistently. But it was usually always coming right off the lake, so it was always a crosswind."
Although he has attempted only two kicks of 50 yards or more in college (missing both in 2023), Olsen says he is comfortable kicking from 50 yards.
Weinberg has had more recent chances to kick from distance. The American Heritage-Delray alum attempted two kicks from 50 or more yards last year (missing both), but he was one of the nation's best at kickoffs. He forced 56 touchbacks on 64 kickoffs, allowing returns on just 10.9 percent of his kickoffs. That ranked sixth-best nationally among kickers with 30 or more kickoffs — right behind UM's Carter Davis.
"I think kickoffs, nowadays, are a huge part of college football," Weinberg said. "And I think being able to do that helps the team out a lot; it eliminates the return game. And I just feel like being able to do that for a team is super important."
But Weinberg has not shown Olsen's accuracy. He missed seven of his 19 attempts last year.
The Hurricanes could opt to send Olsen out for short-range kicks, while reserving Weinberg for kickoffs and long-range field goals. Or Miami could pick one winner from the kicker competition and use him exclusively, as it did with Davis last year after Davis edged fellow transfer Bert Auburn for the role.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal said it is too early to determine how they will deploy their kickers.
"I think it's also important not to label them and let them compete because what they have both shown," Cristobal said. "… They could both kick it out of the end zone, and they both have excellent range. And we did kick 48 (-yard field goals), 50, 52s — I forget what we got to, but it was close enough to 55 where you feel confident you could do it. And then Will Rocha, who's been here for a bit, is a guy that's really dependable. We feel really good about all three. But we're tapping everything. We're putting them in situations that they have to shine and create separation.
"So I really can't say how it's going to work out yet. We'd rather let it play out but make it as fair as possible, assess and then provide each guy with a path for betterment to give them a chance to be that guy. But I think this will be an ongoing thing all season."
