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Jensen: Temple gets crucial lift from walk-on freshman kicker

Temple's regular kicker, a terrific kicker, was hurt, out for the year. The next man up was a freshman, a walk-on. Expectations? Nobody knew. How could you?

Temple's regular kicker, a terrific kicker, was hurt, out for the year. The next man up was a freshman, a walk-on. Expectations? Nobody knew. How could you?

The kid didn't even know.

"I'd never really kicked in a big game," Aaron Boumerhi said this week. "My high school is pretty small. We didn't get too many fans. I've never been in a position where it was too much pressure."

That has already changed. An ACL injury to Austin Jones easily could have sunk the Owls. Instead, the freshman walked onto Central Florida's field in his first start and nailed a third-quarter 47-yarder, in a game that Temple won by a point.

Through two crucial games, Boumerhi is 5 for 5 on field goals and 8 for 8 on extra points. One was a late extra point at Memphis after Jones had gotten hurt.

"It's like throwing a life vest," Temple coach Matt Rhule said of the impact of a freshman backup's coming through. "You're sitting there saying, 'We're going to have to change the whole way we play' . . . He hasn't just made kicks, he's made huge kicks. The timing of when they were kicked - it's really just allowed us to continue business as usual as opposed to change everything we're doing. It's hard to be a running team and not be able to kick field goals."

Boumerhi was sure he wanted to kick in college. His options looked to be East Coast Division II schools or maybe one level up - until an email arrived from another level up, from Temple's recruiting coordinator, Mike Siravo, who liked the leg he saw on tape. Siravo drove out to Philipsburg, Pa., outside State College, to see the leg live. Still liked it. After a campus visit, Boumerhi agreed to walk on.

"The first day we realized what kind of leg he had," said Temple special-teams coach Ed Foley. "We knew he had a very powerful leg. Then the accuracy was very soon thereafter. Ten days after, we said, 'This guy is making some kicks, let's put some pressure on him now, put a little bit of heat on the kid.' "

They didn't see any problems. But it was camp. When Jones went down, everything got real.

"I was watching him kick in pregame," Foley said of the UCF game, Boumerhi's first start. "He was nervous."

Their conversation went something like this:

"My times are slow," Boumerhi told his coach.

"Yeah, they're a little slow," Foley remembers saying.

"How slow?"

"Ahh, you've got to speed it up a little."

"Coach, tell me the time."

Foley said he gave the time from snap to kick, "which was way too slow." So Boumerhi said he was going to speed up. His coach remembers him missing two in a row in the warm-up.

"Now I'm like I should have never told him," Foley said. "I'm like, 'Listen man, you're fine, just go out there and make the kick.' "

First, there was a 32-yarder, then the 47-yarder. The times? Perfect, Foley said. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing.

"It's not just his ability to kick the ball from a leg standpoint," Foley said. "He has accuracy. But he's got something about him that's cool under pressure."

He's got a nickname bestowed by the head coach. Boom Boom. Teammates yelled it at him while he did an interview after practice this week. Boumerhi smiled a little but didn't lose his train of thought.

Rhule mentioned that Boumerhi's kickoffs also helped tremendously, to get a few touchbacks last week against a dangerous South Florida return man.

"To me, it's the next kick," Boumerhi said. "You don't want to get too excited or get a big head. You just think, 'I'm doing all I can. I'm happy I made the kick.' But I don't get overly excited. I hold myself to the level, 'Yes, I should make this.' "

The new man follows in a line of Boumerhi kickers. His older brother Alex took over kicking duties at their high school when the school needed someone and looked at the soccer players. When he went on to kick at Lock Haven, Nick Boumerhi took over for two years, and went on to be a walk-on backup at nearby Penn State for a couple of years, although he has since left the team. When Nick graduated, Aaron took over. He wasn't sure about the sport at first but went to camps after his sophomore year and realized his leg held up.

His 47-yarder at UCF was so impressive that Rhule actually had a tough decision later that game, and was fielding questions on why he had gone for a touchdown instead of sending Boumerhi back out there to get the Owls closer late in that game. He should have, Rhule said publicly, and said he told his team the same thing.

In fact, how much are you supposed to put on a freshman walk-on? That may have been too much. Who knows? Temple scored a game-winning touchdown with one second left, so the Owls, now 5-3 and in the driver's seat of the AAC East at 3-1, will never need to know.

"The more he makes, the more you give him," Foley said. "We're at the point, we're confident he's going to get anything we need."

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus