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The University of Utah Athletics
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Newcomer Notebook: Cole Becker
8/25/2023 2:00 PM | Football
Final edition of preseason series visits with junior kicker who joined the Utes this past Spring
The Newcomer Notebook is a three-part Q&A series featuring some of the latest additions to the Utah Football team across offense, defense and special teams. With the Utes' season opener less than a week away, we conclude the three-part series with kicker Cole Becker. Becker played two seasons at Colorado before coming to Utah; in just 24 games with the Buffaloes he climbed into the top-seven in program history with 25 made field goals. Out of Rocklin High School in California, he was ranked the No. 1 kicker in his class by Kohl's Professional Camps.
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What led you to choose Utah?
"A big thing for me was that Utah was closer to home. I liked that. The history of the program is great and knowing that they needed specialists, I felt like I could fill that role. Everything just lined up at the right time for me."
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What can you contribute leadership-wise having a few years of college ball under your belt?
"The great thing is, I walked into a specialists room with a lot of established leaders. Jack Bouwmeester owns that room. JT Greep's been here two seasons and played his true freshman year. We've got guys that know what they're doing. At this point, I'm going with the flow and following their lead."
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How would you describe the camaraderie among the specialists?
"It's a great room…this might be the tightest room I've ever been in. Everybody gets along. We all want to spend time together. Camp is normally a grind because you spend all day, all month here. But it makes it a lot better when you have people you want to hang out with outside of meetings and football. Good room; everybody gets along, and skill-wise, we're right where we want to be."
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Is there anything about kicking that's routine for you, but that the average fan might not think of?
"Specialists are very superstitious people. We have a lot of pre-game and pre-practice rituals that, if broken, we don't feel right on the field. We (mostly) don't tackle, so we have a ton of time to work on what we need to work on. That's why we're such good buddies and know each other so well. We get a couple plays a game and we've got to make them count."
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Tell me a little about where you're from.
"I'm from a town called Roseville, California, and went to Rocklin High School. It's about 35 minutes outside Sacramento. Just kind of a local suburb. I have a lot of buddies here from SoCal that don't even consider Roseville part of California; they call it South Oregon. But I love where I grew up. It's not a small town, but it's not a big town. You don't know everybody (personally), but you know of everybody."
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How's it going settling into Salt Lake City?
"Salt Lake is an awesome place. Moving across states, it's not as different as I thought it would be. I've still got the mountains. We definitely got the snow this past Winter. The adjustment was nothing crazy. Once I got settled into the team, everything was a normal day-to-day."
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What led you to choose Utah?
"A big thing for me was that Utah was closer to home. I liked that. The history of the program is great and knowing that they needed specialists, I felt like I could fill that role. Everything just lined up at the right time for me."
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What can you contribute leadership-wise having a few years of college ball under your belt?
"The great thing is, I walked into a specialists room with a lot of established leaders. Jack Bouwmeester owns that room. JT Greep's been here two seasons and played his true freshman year. We've got guys that know what they're doing. At this point, I'm going with the flow and following their lead."
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How would you describe the camaraderie among the specialists?
"It's a great room…this might be the tightest room I've ever been in. Everybody gets along. We all want to spend time together. Camp is normally a grind because you spend all day, all month here. But it makes it a lot better when you have people you want to hang out with outside of meetings and football. Good room; everybody gets along, and skill-wise, we're right where we want to be."
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Is there anything about kicking that's routine for you, but that the average fan might not think of?
"Specialists are very superstitious people. We have a lot of pre-game and pre-practice rituals that, if broken, we don't feel right on the field. We (mostly) don't tackle, so we have a ton of time to work on what we need to work on. That's why we're such good buddies and know each other so well. We get a couple plays a game and we've got to make them count."
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Tell me a little about where you're from.
"I'm from a town called Roseville, California, and went to Rocklin High School. It's about 35 minutes outside Sacramento. Just kind of a local suburb. I have a lot of buddies here from SoCal that don't even consider Roseville part of California; they call it South Oregon. But I love where I grew up. It's not a small town, but it's not a big town. You don't know everybody (personally), but you know of everybody."
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How's it going settling into Salt Lake City?
"Salt Lake is an awesome place. Moving across states, it's not as different as I thought it would be. I've still got the mountains. We definitely got the snow this past Winter. The adjustment was nothing crazy. Once I got settled into the team, everything was a normal day-to-day."
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