Aggie Kicker Eberle Praised For His Success
Sep 12, 2018, 11:05 PM
Utah State junior placekicker Dominik Eberle waits to kick. He tied two NCAA kicking records in the Aggies' 60-13 victory over New Mexico State last Saturday night at Maverik Stadium. (Courtesy: Wade Denniston, USU Athletic Media Relations)
(Courtesy: Wade Denniston, USU Athletic Media Relations)
LOGAN, Utah – In his Monday press conference, Utah State head coach Matt Wells referred to his team’s special teams unit as “the glue of the team”. If that’s the case, then that perhaps makes placekicker Dominik Eberle the super glue of the Aggies.
After an incredible 6-of-6 field goal kicking night in the Aggies’ 60-13 thrashing of New Mexico State, Eberle was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Week. He tied the NCAA record for points by a kicker with 24 and tied another record with three 51-yard makes, just the sixth player ever to do that.
The junior from Nuremberg, Germany had quite the journey to get to football stardom in Logan. He played high school football and soccer at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California. From there, he redshirted his first year at Utah State, waiting tables at night to pay for his college tuition while working on earning a spot kicking for the Aggies. After winning a scholarship prior to the 2017 season, Eberle went on to have a stellar year, finishing as a Lou Groza Award finalist and earning first team all-Mountain West honors.
When asked if he ever anticipated how good Eberle would become, Wells responded no.
“I didn’t not anticipate it, but I can’t say any of us anticipated it,” said Wells. “The neat thing about Dom is he is such a driven young man. He’s structured, his life is structured. The guy is, and I said it the other night, a grinder. I laughed at myself when I said that. A little kicker from Germany being a grinder. But the guy lifts, he kicks, he studies his tape, the way he acts in the offseason gives me kind of that adjective to use with him.”
Wells continued to say that Eberle is very popular with his teammates, something that can be rare for a kicker.
“He cares about being a great teammate,” said Wells. “Just to see the reaction from our guys toward him is priceless. Kickers can kind of alienate themselves at times. Some of that’s the nature of the position because of how they practice and how we practice. That’s very, very natural. I’m not saying all of them do. He is just involved in so much stuff with our guys, and that’s why you see a genuine care and friendship among our guys and their reaction to his success.”
Eberle and the Aggies will host Tennesse Tech Thursday at 6 p.m. at Maverick Stadium.
