ASU bolster its kicking department with Jesús Gómez

(Photo Courtesy of ASU Rivals)

TEMPE – In a surprising 2024 campaign, Arizona State football had many great players emerge, but replacing kicker Dario Longhetto proved to be one of the few holes on the ASU roster last season. In 2025, Arizona State looks to have its program guy in redshirt senior kicker Jesús Gómez, who comes from Eastern Michigan.

“If we get to a fourth down around the 48 probably gonna go for it,” ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said March 29. “Then I saw Jesús’s face I’m like, ‘unless you can make it Jesús’ and he was like ‘I got you’ as confident as can be and the whole room went crazy and got excited about it.”

The Sun Devils had significant kicking woes in 2024, including a blocked field goal in their loss to Texas in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. ASU’s kickers went an underwhelming 11 for 20 on field goals and 56 for 58 extra points. Gómez looks to help rectify that.

“I feel like I’m in a good position,” Gómez said. “I’m loving it.”

Following ASU’s 24-14 defeat against Cincinnati last season, Dillingham gave post game press conference that sparked controversy, making headlines for calling out the disappointing kicking display shown when kicker Ian Hershey missed two second half field goals by a wide margin.

“Our kicking game’s atrocious, so if you can kick and you’re at Arizona State, email me,” an aggravated Dillingham said.

He later apologized for his word choice after the fact, but the 2024 ASU program rarely opted to kick field goals for the remainder of the season, with Gómez there is optimism that script may flip heading into the fall.

“I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Jesús,” ASU Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator Charlie Ragle said. “I expect him to have a really good season.”

At Eastern Michigan, Gómez had an award-winning career, totalling 233 career points. He recorded a 95 extra point percentage and 79.3 field goal percentage with a career-long of 57 yards. After taking a redshirt his freshman year, Gomez attempted at least 40 kicks a year for the Eagles across his next three years.

In his redshirt freshman year, Gómez received Second Team All-MAC honors. He made 14 of 17 field goals and converted all 47 extra-point attempts.

Gómez’s performance dipped in his redshirt sophomore year. He made 12 of 16 field goals and went 21 for 24 on extra points.

Gómez rebounded in redshirt in his redshirt junior season, making 20 of 25 field goals that included his career long at Washington, where he made a 57-yard kick. He went 27/29 for extra points.

ASU fans are likely familiar with Gómez as he played a role in Eastern Michigan’s 30-21 win over Arizona State in 2022, which was the final game that the Sun Devils were led by Herm Edwards. He went three for three in field goals and made all three extra points.

“It kind of made it easy to commit here,” Gomez said. “My first field goal was here, hopefully, my last field goal is going to be here.”

Gómez has a history of making clutch field goals. In 2023, Gomez made a crucial 32-yard kick in cold weather against Akron that tied the game with ten seconds left and sent the game into overtime. The Eagles went on to win the game.

In 2024, Gómez had a walk-off 34-yard kick in double overtime against Jacksonville State. That was preceded by a critical 40-yard kick that put the Eagles up in overtime.

“It’s just like progress,” Gómez said. “Getting better every day, learning something, which I feel like I’ve been doing.”

The move to ASU means Gómez will kick in much fairer weather. The average game temperature has been around 60 degrees Fahrenheit throughout Gómez’s career. His percentages should go up with the warmer weather.

On Thursday, Gómez made all of the few kicks that were in front of the media with ease. He did not attempt any kicks outside of 45 yards.

Gómez feels that his being in the special teams room will help raise the level of the other kickers. He feels that the level of competition will be raised, helping everybody.

“He just brings a professional approach, (he) knows why he’s here,” Ragle said. “I think the one thing that they can glean off of him, if you will, is his approach every day to come out here and really focus to be better.”

ASU will want to lean on his experience to help others. The Sun Devils want their other kickers to learn his process, starting with practice and into games.

Ragle described Gómez with a “workmanlike attitude.”

Gómez appears to have gotten used to the changes as he feels it is very similar to EMU. He loves the warmer weather and has taken to ASU like a duck to water.

“Here it’s a business,” Gómez said. “It’s obviously more money, more involved, more pressure I guess, but nothing different just to kicking the ball through the uprights.”

Gómez has kicked in big stadiums and performed before coming to ASU. In power four stadiums, he is a perfect 8-8 on field goals and 3-3 on extra points.

Gómez has played in two bowl games: the 2022 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and the 2023 68-Ventures Bowl . He went a perfect two for two in field goals and five for five in extra points.

Gómez’s successes have raised his confidence, and it could lead him to a productive season. He can help the team turn around its kicking, arguably the team’s biggest weakness last season.

“The confidence he showed, so we put him out there on the 38-yard line and had him kick the field goal and made it,” Dillingham said last Saturday. “It was pretty cool, and guys got excited.”