{"id":223754,"date":"2026-04-08T19:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:07:13","slug":"will-stones-journey-as-ucfs-new-kicker-and-aspiring-dj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/223754\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Stone’s journey as UCF’s new kicker and aspiring DJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many facets to Will Stone, but one undeniable truth stands out: UCF<\/a>\u2018s new place kicker has a remarkable talent for pumping up his audience. Whether it\u2019s with a long field goal or expertly pinning the opposing team deep in their own territory.<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Stone has captivated fans and teammates alike with his thrilling plays. Yet, beyond the football field, he has found an equally exhilarating passion \u2014 music.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of years ago, I really got into music, house music and I really enjoy it, so I started DJing kind of just as a side hobby, and it was really fun,\u201d said Stone.<\/p>\n

Recently, Stone shared his hobby with his new teammates during a team meeting, revealing another layer of his creative side. \u201cI recently got into sound design, so making my own songs, my own house songs and EDM [electronic dance music] songs, so I made a couple of different remixes of different songs, and I put them together live, and I played them all for the team. They loved it,\u201d Stone said.<\/p>\n

Prior to his time in Orlando, Stone spent the past four seasons at Texas, where he excelled as a kickoff specialist, averaging 63.2 yards per kickoff on 300 attempts. However, outside of a pair of extra point kicks in 2024, the Austin native hadn\u2019t attempted a single field goal as a Longhorn. His last competitive field goal came during his time at Regents School in 2022.<\/p>\n

Seeking a new challenge, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Stone entered the transfer portal and it wasn\u2019t long before he was contacted by UCF\u2019s special teams coordinator Pete Alamar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually met him during a Texas football summer camp,\u201d said Stone, recalling his first meeting with Alamar. \u201cSo when I got into the portal, it was like, \u2018good to see you again\u2019 kind of deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alamar was searching for a replacement for kicker Noe Ruelas<\/a>, who connected on 88% (15 of 17) of his field goal attempts last season. It didn\u2019t take long before the 65-year-old coach zeroed in on Stone.<\/p>\n

\"SpecialSpecial teams coordinator Pete Alamar watches his players during UCF spring football practice, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s played in big games,\u201d said Alamar. \u201cHe had two attempts as a place kicker, both of them were extra points in the [College Football Playoff] semifinal against Ohio State a couple of years ago. He\u2019s been a kickoff guy for four years [at Texas], so he\u2019s got great leg strength and really good leg pop. He\u2019s a guy who\u2019s true to the craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone, meanwhile, was excited about his next challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great four years at Texas and I\u2019m super thankful for everything I did there,\u201d said Stone. \u201cBut I\u2019m just ready to move on to this opportunity and ready to work with Coach Alamar and achieve some goals that I\u2019ve been working on for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was sold on working with Alamar and special teams quality control coach Geron Hargon, Stone also connected with head coach Scott Frost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Frost is also a huge reason that I came here,\u201d Stone said. \u201cI connected with him on so many levels other than just football, which is something that I really valued in having as a head coach, knowing they care about you more than just a football player, but as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone will compete with redshirt freshman kicker Noah McGough, who spent last season as the backup to Ruelas for the starting job. Alamar has made it abundantly clear to his players that nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always say this to the guys that we compete for all positions. So nothing\u2019s handed to you just because you\u2019re the senior from Texas over the freshmen,\u201d said Alamar. \u201cWe don\u2019t have labels in our room. Freshman, senior, junior, walk-on guy getting a ton of Rev money, none of that counts. What counts is that they can get it done between the lines. That\u2019s why no jobs are won in spring; you win your job in fall camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine with Stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve proven anything yet. To be honest with you, it\u2019s all out there. It\u2019s all out there for me to go get and it\u2019s all out there for me to prove right now,\u201d he said.<\/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":"There are many facets to Will Stone, but one undeniable truth stands out: UCF\u2018s new place kicker has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-223754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}