'His leg talent is crazy': Buzz Flabiano takes hero turn with game-winning kick

In the aftermath of the biggest moment of his football life, a 32-yard game-winning field goal to beat Sam Houston 37-34, Buzz Flabiano by all means should have had a ton of emotions running through his head.

After some early struggles and growing pains, the freshman had just become a hero with a three-for-three night on field goals, kept his team's bowl hopes alive and gave the Miners a two-game road conference winning streak for the first time since 2004.

More: CUSA football standings

Though it would take almost a week to learn this, he had cemented his status as Conference USA special teams player of the week. UTEP goes into its Saturday Sun Bowl game with Western Kentucky with some momentum and a kicker it now knows it can count on when everything is on the line.

So what was Flabiano thinking about as the ball cleared the crossbar?

There were still 3 seconds left and he had another job to do.

"I knew the kickoff, they couldn’t return it, so we hit a little sky kick and almost recovered it," Flabiano said matter of factually. "That would have sealed the game. But it was all a good experience."

The line on Flabiano is that he's made the typical improvement and maturation as a redshirt second-year freshman, going from a player making his collegiate debut to a more veteran kicker with three quarters of a season now under him.

That's definitely true, but there has always been a maturity to Flabiano that had his coaches believing in him even when the ball wasn't always going in.

He just needed to match that belief.

"It’s definitely a confidence booster," Flabiano said of his game winner and CUSA player of the week honor. "But you don’t change in one day. It’s a gradual change, it’s good to know the change is there. It gave me a lot of confidence the rest of the season.

"The biggest improvement has been my confidence. That first game, Jacksonville State, I didn't perform my best. Now knowing I've gotten better with my confidence has really helped with my kicking."

After missing his first two attempts this season, Flabiano has made seven of his last nine. He also had touchbacks on four of his seven kickoffs, with one of the non-touchbacks coming on that unreturnable sky kick with 3 seconds to go.

This is what coach Dana Dimel pictured at the beginning of the season when he made Flabiano his kicker, taking over from Gavin Baechle after Baechle had one of the great kicking years in Miner history in 2022. Dimel stood with Flabiano during his struggles.

"We knew there would be growing pains," Dimel said. "There was one game where we wanted it to be but most of the time he steadily improved. We've got him to the point where he's worked things out.

"He's got some things honed out, but it's just the maturation process. Losing Gavin Baechle and how much success he had, we saw Gavin improve from when he was a freshman and no one knew much about him. For Buzz to be this far along as a freshman is really exciting.

"His leg talent is crazy. His leg talent is as good a leg talent as you're every going to see."

Flabiano credits Baechle with some of his success.

"It's definitely been a roller coaster of emotions," Flabiano said. "Last year was good to watch Gavin Baechle, he was a good mentor. It was nice to have someone like that to guide me."

Flabiano wasn't widely recruited out of Plano East in the Metroplex, kickers usually aren't widely recruited, but UTEP wanted him and that resonated with Flabiano.

"It’s a good feeling to know (Dimel) trusts me," Flabiano said. "When no other school would give me the opportunity, he did. It’s good to know the guy who gave me the opportunity and trusted me when no one else would give me the opportunity to win the game."

Because he did, UTEP kept its bowl hopes alive for another week when it gets to take on Western Kentucky Saturday.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 'His leg talent is crazy': Buzz Flabiano takes hero turn with game-winner