The Arizona State Sun Devils have picked up a crucial piece of need in the transfer portal, adding Jesus Gomez from Eastern Michigan. Gomez committed after his weekend recruiting visit to Tempe. He has at least one remaining season of eligibility.
The woes for Arizona State in the kicking game were prevalent this season. Arizona State was the worst field goal kicking team in the Big 12 this season, making only 9 of 17 attempts, good for 53%. That’s well below the 15th ranked Big 12 team, UCF, which was a 60%. From outside of 30 yards, the Sun Devils only hit 5 of their 12 attempts.
It got so bad during the season that the Sun Devils gave a chance to a walk-on student to make the team as a kicker. The decision from Kenny Dillingham came after a 24-14 loss to Cincinnati, one of only three losses on the season for the Sun Devils.
Arizona State did not add a kicker following the try outs.
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Meantime, Gomez was a second-team All-MAC player as a junior. He connected on 26 of 29 field goals inside of 40 yards, 14 of 18 from 40-49 and 6 of 11 from 50 and over during his four years at Eastern Michigan.
During his 2024 campaign, Gomez made 20 of his 25 field goal attempts, with two of his misses coming from over 50 yards His career-long came this past season from 57 yards out and he was 27 of 29 on PATs.
Now, Arizona State gets set to play in the College Football Playoff after winning the Big 12 Championship. As the No. 4 seed they will await the winner of No. 5 Texas vs. No. 12 Clemson.
As for ASU’s current kicking game, redshirt freshman walk-on Carston Kieffer earned his first start and went 1 of 1 on field goal attempts while also converting all seven of his PATs.
