Former first-team all-Ivy league kicker at Columbia and American Heritage alum Oren Milstein is intrigued by the Miami football program. Cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph was Milstein’s head coach in high school.

The kicking for the Miami football team has been an abomination in 2019. The Hurricanes are 126th in FBS with a field goal percentage of 46.2 percent. Only Buffalo who has missed eight field goals has missed more than the seven Miami has missed. The Hurricanes and Bulls are connected by more than WR K.J. Osborn.

An article posted by Inside the U publisher Christopher Stock spoke with Oren Milstein about his interest in Miami. Milstein would be a great one-year bridge with the nation’s top-ranked 2021 kicker committed to the Hurricanes. Milstein had a prolific career at Columbia. The Hurricanes need to look for a new kicker in 2020.

Milstein showed he can make kicks under pressure during his career with Columbia. He had three game-winning kicks during his career. Two came as a freshman in 2016 and one as a sophomore the following season. Milstein missed the 2018 season with a groin injury. He scored over 100 points with Columbia.

Milstein made 20 of his 26 field-goal attempts and 42 of 44 extra-point attempts in his first two seasons with the Lions. He set the school record with five made field goals against Wagner in 2016. Milstein made at least three field goals in a game three times through his sophomore season in 2017.

Milstein was the first Columbia Freshman to be named All-Ivy League. Stock had a lengthy discussion with Milstein about his career at Columbia, his desire to compete for an FBS program, his interest in Miami academically, his entrance into the transfer portal and his recovery from a groin injury.

“I want to play for a team that’s going to compete at a high level, play hard, and I’m really interested in the master’s and finance program that they have at Miami. It’s a super intriguing program.

I really like everything that he’s about and everything Miami is about–being a family at the ‘U’ definitely having their own brand, and they play so hard. I really think I could help and contribute–that’s all I’m looking to do. Come in and be an asset to the team and I think that they can do a lot of big things.

I think the core is really good and really tight and they’re definitely in a position to have some big things coming soon. That’s unclear for now. Because I have last year’s medical redshirt and I plan to appeal for a sixth year for this year.

I’m just training because I’m dealing with a little bit of a groin issue. I’ve just been getting treatment and getting back ready to go again. It was cool to have a lot of success early on in my career, but I think being out the last couple of years has helped me gain a better perspective, I’m definitely a lot more mature now.

I have a much better sense of the game and the craft of kicking now that I’ve been able to do it on the field and have been not able to do it and get to watch the art of it from the side. I feel I’m a much more mature athlete now. I have a lot better perspective on the game of football and the craft of kicking.

I feel like it’s definitely helped me grow as an athlete and as a person. I’ve never been to a Hurricanes game, but I definitely followed them. They were the premier South Florida college football team so I was always following them and I’ve always taken an interest in Miami with the whole history of Miami football is huge.

It’s hard not to growing up in South Florida. And when coach Rumph went there, I think everybody around the school took even a greater interest in Miami and following their success and wished him nothing but the best there.”

If Milstein was granted a sixth season that would carry him into 2021. That would conflict with Andres Borreagales who has committed to Miami and the top kicker in the 2021 recruiting cycle. The Hurricanes could have an in with cornerbacks coach Mike Rumph who was Milstein’s head coach at American Heritage.

The kicking problems for Miami are not the Hurricanes’ biggest issue nor their most important. Missed field goals and extra points can demoralize a team. All four of Miami’s losses in 2019 could have been different with a far more reliable field goal kicker.