When Will Stein became the new head man in Lexington, Kentucky football fans heard a coach with passion and a will to win take the stage. He declared that he would go out and get the best players in the country to come into Kroger Field and help turn Kentucky into a powerhouse.
And, so far, the man told the truth, and then some. Stein just landed a commitment from a four-star safety and landed the No. 2 QB in the country, too. But it's one of his latest recruits, Matthew Obermeier, that has the most interesting story.
Obermeier is a kicker from Carmel, Indiana. He grew up wanting to play soccer, having never put pads on and taking the gridiron. But after getting cut from his high school soccer team, a different dream emerged.
An Entirely Different Dream for Matthew Obermeier
Obermeier was crushed that his soccer dream had died, but he called it “a blessing in disguise," per Yahoo Sports. That blessing had him try out for the football team, though things were far from easy at first.
“I could barely make a 30-yarder... it took a lot of practice. I went to the field three times a week and just continued to work. I definitely saw improvement," Obermeier recalled.
That's the key. Kicker is a position that requires loads of practice; it's not as simple as just lining up and swinging your cleat as hard as possible. But soccer gave Obermeier a real shot at being good at it, "It’s definitely a similar enough motion...I always had a strong leg.”
Matthew Obermeier was cut from the soccer team going his freshman year of high school. So, he picked up kicking. And it eventually led Obermeier to accept a preferred walk-on offer from an SEC school. https://t.co/t26vNRwDXB pic.twitter.com/8ZpHeWqPtL
— Kyle Neddenriep (@KyleNeddenriep) April 29, 2026
In the same vein, other soccer players have also found success transitioning to the kicking position. Perhaps the most notable is current Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey.
Patterned After the NFL's Best
Aubrey was a top 20 pick in the Major League Soccer Draft after a solid career at Notre Dame. Eventually, he retired from the sport and became a software engineer. He and his wife, Jenn, were watching an NFL game when a kicker missed a field goal attempt.
She told him that he could make that kick, which started a journey that went through the USFL first, and has now led to him nailing 112-127 field goal attempts and 126-130 extra points for the Dallas Cowboys. A lot happened between then and now, but you get the picture.
I'm not saying that Obermeier will turn into Aubrey, but the precedent is there for a soccer player to turn into a proficient kicking prospect. Although, BBN, it would be nice to have an Aubrey prototype booting the ball at Kroger Field this fall.
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