SEATTLE — Except for that one bad day earlier in the season, it’s been a successful and productive rookie season for former Utah placekicker Matt Gay.
The two-time first team all-Pac-12 selection and Lou Groza Award winner was the first kicker taken overall in last year’s NFL Draft selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were looking to solve a decade’s worth of frustration at the placekicker position.
The Bucs had run through 11 different kickers since 2008 before drafting Gay, who was one of just two kickers taken in the draft and inked a four-year $2.8 million contract with a signing bonus of $325,772.
Matt Gay 2019 statistics with Buccaneers
| FG made | FG att. | Long FG | PAT made | PAT att. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 19 | 58 | 20 | 22 |
After booting a pair of field goals against Seattle last week, Gay is now tied for sixth in the NFL in field goals with 16 on the season, tied for 11th in percentage at 84.2 percent and his 58-yarder against the Rams is tied for the second-longest in the NFL this year.
“Yeah it’s been good, there’s been ups and there’s been downs but overall I feel like I’m adjusting and getting the hang of it,” he told the Deseret News last week after his team lost to the Seahawks in overtime. “It’s kind of come full circle from when I started kicking and I look back to see how far I’ve come. There’s still a long way to go for me. I have high expectations. I need to keep trending up.”
Gay has been trending up since a Sept. 22 game against the New York Giants when he had his biggest down as he missed two extra points (one blocked) and after kicking four field goals in the game, missed a 34-yarder in the final seconds that would have won the game.
After the 32-31 loss, there was speculation in the media and on fan websites that Gay could be fired right then and there, perhaps an overreaction to all the placekicking troubles the franchise had experienced over the past decade. Such a thing has happened many times over the years in the NFL.
However, Bucs coach Bruce Arians was supportive, saying of Gay “he ain’t going anywhere.” As for the Bucs’ bad luck with kickers, Arians said, “This history (expletive) — this is a new team. Just go kick it.”
Since that bad day in September, Gay hasn’t missed an extra point and has made nine of 10 field goals. His only miss was a 50-yarder at the end of the first half against Seattle, his first miss from over 50 yards in four tries.
Of his NFL experience, Gay said “it’s kind of what I expected for the most part,” but he acknowledges that the pressure is much more intense at the pro level.
“Everything is much more serious than college, every kick matters a lot more than it did,” he said. “In college you’re not stressed about missing a kick and then losing your scholarship and losing your job. Here in the NFL, you can have one bad week and you could be sent home.”
Thankfully for him that didn’t happen seven weeks ago.
Not that there was no pressure in college, but Gay said he’s had to adjust his mindset for every minute from practice through the games.
“You want to have goals and I have high expectations for myself. I want to be the best kicker in the NFL. I don’t like to be average in anything I do. I like to strive for perfection, strive for excellence, just taking it one kick at a time, obviously, but the end goal is to become one of the greats.” — Matt Gay
“Every kick matters, every rep matters, there’s more pressure. Even in practice, everyone’s watching your stuff too. You can’t just come out lazy in practice and take a day off. Every single kick in practice and games — it all matters, there’s more on the line.”
Gay’s story, his dramatic rise from college soccer player at Utah Valley University to becoming the national Lou Groza Award winner in one year, has been well-documented. Even to Gay, it’s a blur to remember how he walked on at the U. and quickly rose from third-string and got the job because the starting kicker barely missed a 45-yard field goal in the first game.
“He had a great couple of years here and really came out of nowhere,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. “He just showed up at our doorstep and was a guy that had a lot of natural ability but didn’t have much football experience — and ended up becoming a tremendous kicker, one of the best kickers in the country.”
Gay claims he had big aspirations from the start.
“That was a goal when I started to kick,” he said. “I was going to go for it to be in the NFL, when I set out to do this. I said ‘I’m going to go for it quickly into my career at Utah, I’ve got a shot at this.’ Looking back, I didn’t think I’d actually get here, but here I am.”
This year, the lack of wins — the Buccaneers fell to 2-6 with the overtime loss to Seattle — has been hard on Gay, who was used to winning in his two years at Utah, including last season’s Pac-12 South title.
He was down after the Seattle defeat, lamenting his miss at the end of the first half that could have made a difference in the outcome since the Bucs lost in overtime.
“It was left . . . I pulled it . . . rushed the process and came into it too quick,” he said, dissecting his miss.
The day before, Gay had been on the sidelines a few miles away at Husky Stadium, wearing a Tampa Bay hat, cheering his former teammates to a big victory over Washington.
“It was cool to see those guys — they’re having a great year, a heckuva season,” said Gay, who said he mostly keeps in touch with the Ute specialists as well as star running back Zack Moss.
“I haven’t performed as well as I want to, haven’t performed to my ability, I don’t think,” he said. “As a rookie, you figure out some new things and make some adjustments. I’m happy with where I’m at, but I don’t think it’s up to par with what I think I can do.”
Gay and his wife have a two-month-old son, born the week before the opening game and he said they’ve settled into life in Tampa well.
“We’re loving it,” he said. “It’s a nice city, good people out there, we’re settling into a lot of changes in the last few months.”
Gay is well aware of the life an NFL placekicker lives with two extremes — players who get released after a couple of poor performances or those who last into their 40s like Indianapolis’ Adam Vinatieri or Atlanta’s Matt Bryant.
“You want to have goals and I have high expectations for myself,” he said. “I want to be the best kicker in the NFL. I don’t like to be average in anything I do. I like to strive for perfection, strive for excellence, just taking it one kick at a time, obviously, but the end goal is to become one of the greats.”