Wieclaw Happy to Give Miami Football Rival the Boot

In a retrospective moment, Jake Wieclaw confessed his surprise.

He didn’t expect to be called on to kick a 36-yard game-winning field goal as time expired in Miami’s 6-3 college football victory over South Florida last November. The ’Canes were supposed to roll in the matchup of neighborhood rivals, right?

“It was one of those games, not much scoring, a defensive game,” said Wieclaw, a former Lincoln-Way Central High School standout and resident of New Lenox. “What was happening at the time—it didn’t hit me until they called the field goal unit to go out there. I wasn’t too conscious of actually having to kick for the win.

“But, then, it was like, ‘Man, this is it. It’s really going to come down to me this time.’ I went out there and they called timeout. I had the whole team around me. They were getting pumped up. It took the pressure off.”

Two seconds remained in a 3-3 deadlock.

South Florida actually called two timeouts in an attempt to ice Wieclaw. He relaxed around his coaches and teammates who were jumping up and down on the Miami sideline at Raymond James Stadium. It was not so much a crazed act but, rather, a recreation of a Hurricanes ritual.

Each week during the final workout before Game Day, the ‘Canes make it habit of getting in Wieclaw’s face, whopping and hollering while he kicks practice field goals. When he looked around and saw coach Al Golden stoking the flames within the Miami ranks, Wieclaw sensed the time had come for him to burn the Bulls.

“It gave me the feeling that I had to win it—not for myself—but for the 110 guys around me,” he said. “They calmed me down, calmed the whole field goal unit down. Everybody was able to focus on doing their jobs. That’s why we were successful.”