{"id":20972,"date":"2025-05-03T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T16:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/20972\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T16:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T16:25:09","slug":"new-ucf-kicker-noe-ruelas-excited-for-opportunity-with-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/20972\/","title":{"rendered":"New UCF kicker Noe Ruelas excited for opportunity with Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noe Ruelas didn\u2019t need an introduction to UCF<\/a> football.<\/p>\n

He received one as a member of the UConn football team in 2021 when the Huskies visited FBC Mortgage Stadium<\/a> in late November. True to its nickname, the Bounce House left an impression on Ruelas all these years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember we were in the locker room as the away team, and you could feel the stadium move a little bit. You could hear the students jumping [on the bleachers] because the visiting locker room is under the student section. You could feel them jumping up and down,\u201d Ruelas told the Sentinel.<\/p>\n

The Knights came away with a 49-17 win<\/a> that day and, while Ruelas didn\u2019t see the field as a true freshman kicker, he remembers it even four years later.<\/p>\n

Now Ruelas should get a chance to experience the full Bounce House effect, albeit this time from the home side after transferring to UCF last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like the right situation and a good spot to do my final college football season,\u201d he said. \u201cThe coaching staff was a big part of that. [Special-teams] Coach [Pete] Alamar<\/a> was a big part of that. He has a lot of experience in college football, being a coordinator for so many years. He\u2019s also well-connected with the NFL and has a couple of guys in the league and that\u2019s something I\u2019m pushing for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Ruelas comes to the program after one season at James Madison, where he served as the Dukes\u2019 primary kicker. He made 80% (16 of 20) of his field goal attempts and 35-of-37 on point-after attempts.<\/p>\n

Ruelas was a perfect 9 of 9 on field goal attempts inside the 40-yard line and 14 of 16 on attempts inside the 50. Twice he connected on attempts of 50-plus yards, with a season-long 52-yarder against Appalachian State.<\/p>\n

He also averaged 60.2 yards on nine kickoffs last season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Before his time at James Madison, he spent three seasons at UConn.<\/p>\n

He was the Huskies\u2019 primary kicker in 2022 after starter Joe McFadden went down with a season-ending injury, connecting on 75% (12 of 16) of his field goal attempts and 28-of-28 on extra points. Ruelas made 3 of 4 field goals and 3-of-3 extra points in 2023 before transferring to James Madison.<\/p>\n

When he entered his name into the transfer portal on April 18, several schools contacted him, but his connection with Alamar convinced him to continue his career in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s genuine and truly wants to be a part of my journey to that next level,\u201d Ruelas said of Alamar. \u201cFirst, we have to have a good season this season, but he wanted to be a part of that journey and help me out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alamar, 64, joined Scott Frost<\/a>\u2019s coaching staff at UCF in December and is now the Knights\u2019 special-teams coordinator. He has honed this role at various schools, including Arizona, California, Fresno State, Stanford and Rice.<\/p>\n

Veteran UCF assistant Pete Alamar preaches opportunities on special teams<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, he\u2019s developed a litany of all-conference kickers and punters, including punters Bryan Anger (Cal\/Cowboys) and Jake Bailey (Stanford\/Dolphins) and kicker Joshua Karty (Stanford\/Rams), who were among the best in the country.<\/p>\n

Ruelas joins the program at the right time, with the Knights searching for a new placekicker.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Grant Reddick, who assumed the placekicker role midway through last season, opted to enter the transfer portal after spring camp. This decision leaves the team\u2019s kicking responsibilities for Ruelas and Noah McGough, a promising late 2025 commitment from Jesuit High School in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Frost has built a team where there\u2019s a lot of talent on the roster, and that was important,\u201d Ruelas said.<\/p>\n

Ruelas primarily played soccer while growing up in Colorado but decided to try out for the football team during his freshman year of high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing soccer at the age of 4 and played up until my freshman year of high school, and that\u2019s kind of when I started playing football,\u201d he said. \u201cI started playing because of my friends. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019ve got to play with us in high school.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While he played wide receiver and safety, he was soon asked to play another position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed a kicker and we had tryouts and they were like, \u2018Who can kick? And I was like, \u2018I can kick.\u2019 We had a couple of kids try out, and I became one of the better ones. So they chose me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After he finishes his studies at James Madison, Ruelas plans to move to Orlando. He\u2019s excited about the opportunity at UCF.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to help the team win,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I\u2019m put in a position where I need to make a kick, my goal at the end of the day is to make every kick. Hopefully, that\u2019s what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noe Ruelas didn\u2019t need an introduction to UCF football. He received one as a member of the UConn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3722,7,944,49,48,10057,10058,9064,4708],"class_list":{"0":"post-20972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-big-12","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-james-madison","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-noe-ruelas","14":"tag-pete-alamar","15":"tag-transfer","16":"tag-ucf-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114444836773509164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}