Here’s how Temple kicker Maddux Trujillo is watching his boyhood dreams play out in real time

When Maddux Trujillo was in middle school, his stepmother was adamant that he would one day answer questions from the media as a star football player.

Trujillo, who grew up in Flowery Branch, Ga., just outside Atlanta, never fully agreed with the sentiment. He lived by the motto of “fly under the radar,” something most kickers are accustomed to.

But on Sept. 21, Trujillo became Temple’s biggest storyline when he nailed a 64-yard field goal just before halftime against Utah State. The kick was the longest field goal in the history of the program, at Lincoln Financial Field, and was the longest kick in all of college football since 2008.

Not taking his foot off the gas, Trujillo struck again when he made a 60-yard field goal against Connecticut two weeks later. Temple’s kicker has quickly transcended into a folk hero, and the man who said he spent his entire life “flying under the radar” is now the center of attention, with his highlights appearing on ESPN and his face on t-shirts sold inside Temple’s NIL Store.

“My whole life story has been kind of flipped on its head,” Trujillo said. “I’m used to having not a bunch of eyes on me. I was kind of under-recruited out of high school, so I didn’t really get much attention there. I didn’t even have a committable offer until March of my senior year of high school so it’s kind of crazy having everything flip.”

Before he transferred to Temple during the offseason, Trujillo spent three seasons at Austin Peay, an FCS program in Clarksville, Tenn., but felt he needed a change and decided to enter the portal. Just an hour after entering his name, Trujillo says he already had full scholarship offers from Temple and Marshall, and a few weeks later, he also received an offer from Arkansas.

“Arkansas offered me a little later and also offered a little bit of NIL money,” Trujillo said. “But one of the reasons that I decided to come to Temple was that I just really liked [special teams coach Adam Scheier]. I knew he wasn’t gonna do wrong by me, and he was going to trust me to do my job, and I really trusted him in that regard.”

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Temple was also the only school that promised Trujillo the opportunity to kick field goals and kick-offs, something Trujillo wasn’t able to do at Austin Peay. The opportunity to kick off, coupled with the fact that Scheier would allow Trujillo to attempt kicks from almost anywhere on the field, was the deciding factor, and Trujillo wrapped up his recruitment after just three weeks in the portal.

Trujillo is more than aware he pulled off feats even NFL kickers aren’t always able to accomplish, but he is making it a point of emphasis not to focus on it. His 64-yarder against Utah State was just two yards shy of the NFL record — a 66-yarder off the foot of Justin Tucker in 2021. Like Trujillo’s kick, that ball hit off the crossbar and bounced between the uprights for three points.

Trujillo’s sights are fully set on putting himself in the best possible position to be on an NFL roster this time next year, and he believes he’s put himself on the right path to make that happen.

“I wouldn’t have come to Temple if I didn’t think the NFL was in my future,” Trujillo said. “That’s where I want to be. [Temple] has been great in promoting me and putting me in the best spot to make that happen. I want to be able to show my worth, and that is something that I asked the coaches about when I was deciding to come here.”

Prior to Trujillo’s kick against Utah State, there wasn’t much chatter on the sideline about whether or not to kick the field goal or punt the ball away, largely because of a kick Trujillo narrowly missed a week prior against Coastal Carolina.

The kick was from just under 60 yards, but Trujillo claimed it was one the best kicks of his life. It had plenty of distance, but the wind blew it just wide of the upright. Trujillo also nailed kicks as far as 70 yards in pregame warmups against Navy, he said.

Following that miss against Coastal, Drayton didn’t think twice about sending Trujillo out to attempt from 64 yards.

“Our players have seen [Trujillo] hit those kinds of field goals quite a few times in practice,” Drayton said. “We’ve seen it so many times that it was actually kind of normal for us, but to see it happen in a game, it is something special.”

Now Trujillo, who was adamant that he would spend his career as a college kicker that would “fly under the radar,” can’t help but think back on what his stepmom told him when he was younger. His face on t-shirts and his clips on ESPN remind him of why he has the opportunity to play football in the first place.

“My family has always been super supportive of me,” Trujillo said. “They have sacrificed a lot for me to get here, and I’m super grateful for both sides of my family. They’ve all been at every single one of my games throughout high school and throughout college, so I’m just really lucky to have such a supportive family dynamic.”

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