From FAU Struggles to Miami Hurricanes Glory: Carter Davis’ Redemption Kick

When Miami was driving for its game-winning field goal against Notre Dame on Sunday night, Hurricanes transfer placekicker Carter Davis was keeping his mind focused by simply watching his snapper and holder work with each other on the sidelines. If anything did go through his mind, it was limited to his own process “over and over,” as Davis puts it.

That process is pretty simple: Find something to aim at, run and kick the ball between two vertical pieces of metal in the back of the end zone. So when Davis ran onto the field for what would turn out to be the game-winner from 47 yards away with 1:04 to play, he sought out that aim point.

“It’s pick your target, stay on your line,” Davis said of what kept running through his mind as he was lining up for the kick. “I pick something stationary for infinite time, lettering on the wall, something very tiny.”

His personal game of I Spy With My Little Eye with only the hopes and dreams of every Miami Hurricanes fan on the line settled on a set of cameras.

“It was a clump of cameras, like six and one maybe two feet to the left,” Davis says.

That’s what he aimed at. And bam, it went through.

Later his family shared their thoughts as he calmly hammered it home – his father thought he was going to have a heart attack and his brother “never had a doubt, knew it.” Mom was “ecstatic” once it was all over.

The massive celebration that followed into the wee hours of Monday with friends and family was legendary.

Okay, maybe not.

“I went home and slept,” Davis says.

If he were a superhero, he’d be the one that lives underground and doesn’t want any publicity.

“I’m not a big social media person, but Instagram I gained a lot of followers,” Davis said. “I like being under the radar a little bit, but now everything (blew) up.”

He’s quick to add “I’m just going to stay how I am.”

Maybe humble is the best word to describe him. And when you learn his background, you’ll know why.

The journey to this point once seemed unfathomable for the 6-0, 220-pound redshirt senior.

Like, really unfathomable.

As in he couldn’t even win the starting kicker job in three prior years at lower level FAU. Or at Iowa State when he briefly transferred there for a spring.

He wound up making just four of 11 attempts over his career with the Owls including a long of 51, serving mainly as the kickoff specialist.

What Miami noticed, and why coaches chased Davis in the portal: The ball explodes off his foot on kickoffs. The reasoning went that with a few tweaks his accuracy would improve and he could make kicks up to 60+ yards out … Mario Cristobal was quick to note post-game that Davis made a pair of 63-yarders in practices.

“I grew into (kicking) the end of my  high school career, my junior and senior year developed the power,” Davis said. “It was just everything started clicking. I just tried to use my power and then just had to get consistent.”

Out of Ft. Lauderdale Western High School Davis initially attended New Mexico Military Institute but didn’t play there. He enrolled at FAU in the summer of ’22 and was called into immediate action as the kickoff specialist. Over his three years there he put 109 of 176 kicks into the end zone (62 percent). Field goals? Few and far between. He had two attempts in 2022, making one, and the same situation in 2023. In 2024 he was just two of seven on field goals, a flat awful 28.6 percent make. That’s a career-ending number.

Or is it?

Davis found his opportunity at Miami, enrolling this spring and performing well enough that recruited scholarship kicker Abram Murray transferred.

“Out of high school it was COVID, the only option for me was JUCO – then I had a reach out at FAU, he was like `we see you have good talent, come in as a punter and kickoff guy,’” Davis said. “I told him I’m also a kicker, if I could stick to kicking that would benefit me and the team. I battled for the field goal job but not everything goes your way. I transferred to Iowa State, didn’t win that job, they told me you can stay but won’t play. I wanted to keep playing so I went back to FAU, did a little bit of field goals, long field goals. After that season that coaching staff was released, so I didn’t want to stick at FAU with a whole new coaching staff. I saw what was out there in the portal and wound up here.”

It sounds farfetched for the guy who couldn’t win the job at Iowa State or FAU to be the guy here and show out. But it’s not like Davis wasn’t tested. He didn’t just beat out Murray in the spring, he also got the starting job after Miami added Texas’ Bert Auburn in the second portal window.

Reports are the two were neck-and-neck in fall drills. Both had good moments and bad.

“Now that I’m the guy, I know the whole team is behind me,” Davis says. “It’s not just `Oh, he has a big leg.’ It’s `He has the potential, let him be great.’”

Yes, there were plenty of potential heroes for the Miami Hurricanes in the battle of top 10 matchups on Sunday. And Davis probably wouldn’t have been among the top 20 or maybe even 30 picked prior to the game by any UM fan out there. He wasn’t even listed by himself atop the depth chart entering game 1 – he was in a co-first team listing with Auburn.

It’s safe to say Miami has now found its kicker.

And he’s proven he doesn’t just have a big leg, but also can come through in the biggest moments after making both his kicks vs. Notre Dame.

Let’s just make sure Hard Rock Stadium gets the memo not to move that camera, you know, the one that’s two feet to the left.