With one more year of playing eligibility left, grad transfer kicker Andrew Strauch decided he needed a change of scenery from Los Angeles that would also allow him to continue his school path. That’s how he came to be a Ute for a single season, and so far Strauch has been enjoying his short time in Salt Lake City with his new team.
“It was definitely long,” Strauch said. “It was a good process though. I started off four years at UCLA and then to be able to come here was really, really fun. It’s been a good experience for me to get out of California and kinda see what else is out there. Utah is beautiful and I’ve loved every second so far. Just grateful to be here.”
While with the Bruins, Strauch didn’t see much playing time outside of one game in 2016 during his sophomore season. Ironically enough it was against his future team who absolutely crushed his current team that day. Despite the score Strauch is fond of that game, the opportunity it gave him to showcase his talent, and makes for an amusing story now that he plays for the Utes.
“It’s very full circle,” Strauch said. “I think I said this a while ago—that was one of the best days of my career at UCLA and just to be able to come here and have that same opportunity to make an impact is huge. Just to be able to stay Pac-12 was something I wanted to do. I was just happy to be able to come here.”
Being able to continue his education and get the masters degree he wanted was a huge driving force in Strauch’s decision to come to Utah. The fact the Utes value and typically boast one of the best special teams units in the country was an added bonus.
“I wanted something more to follow with my undergrad mainly and that was my M-RED here and then football,” Strauch said. “There is no better special teams place in the country to go to with coach Whitt, coach Shah and everybody here. It was for me an amazing opportunity.”
Strauch decided to pursue an M-RED (short for masters of real estate development) because of the work his mother, Jane is currently doing selling property and flipping houses. Seeing how well that business is doing in California and recognizing the big opportunity to get a degree at the University of Utah and start doing the same thing in Salt Lake City was huge for Strauch.
“I was a political science major at UCLA and my mom is actually a real estate agent in the bay area and recently got into flips,” Strauch said. “I wanted to learn about budgeting and being able to basically go through the process on my own and make sure I could help in that type of arena. That’s where I kind of got into it– watching her do all of this stuff for the first time in flipping houses and trying to make money doing that. I think that was kind of the driving force to do this. I know there are a lot of great opportunities. Especially in Utah for development—it’s the number one place in all the country for housing development so big opportunities here.”
Football opened it’s doors for Strauch after suffering a pretty gruesome injury in high school that ended his soccer career earlier than he would have liked. Strauch says his parents were actually the ones who encouraged him to look into kicking for football as a way to stay active in a sport, but take less of a beating.
“It was either my freshman or sophomore year of high school I broke my leg in three places playing soccer,” Strauch said. “My parents were like ‘you’re kinda done playing soccer’. It took me over a year to come back from that and they wanted me to go into kicking. So I tested it out and I remember going to Chris Sailer’s kicking camp my sophomore year of high school and I was like the smallest kid out there. I thought I was going to be ok and everyone was so much better than me. It inspired me to work harder and that’s what pushed me into football a little bit.”
Strauch is not the only former soccer player turned kicker that has come through Utah’s doors. Matt Gay was a soccer player at Utah Valley University before becoming a prolific kicker for the Utes in 2017 and 2018. Naturally, it begged the question as to what kind of advantages soccer players have getting into kicking and Strauch was more than happy to give his take on the similarities and differences.
“I would say the technique is for sure different, but when you are striking the ball there is really nothing like it,” Strauch said. “There is no difference. You’re coming into contact with the foot in the same spot on the ball. It’s like being a goalie in soccer where you get to blast it down the field a little bit. It’s kind of like that, but more accuracy is a bigger part of that. Soccer players make great kickers I think.”
Aside from football, Strauch says his main focus right now is getting through his masters course work in his spare time. However, when school and football aren’t factors Strauch is very passionate about being outside and active.
“Right now I’m mainly focused on school and getting that completed hopefully by the end of the summer,” Strauch said. “There is a cool trip around the world opportunity with the M-RED program here. I guess free time I’m mainly- I love the outdoor stuff. Snowboarding will be super fun in the winter. I came here a few times while I was actually still at UCLA on trips to go skiing out here. I love snowboarding, wakeboarding. I go to Lake Tahoe a lot. Anything outdoors, anything athletic I love doing.”
When it’s time to focus back in and get ready to play Strauch has a clear go-to with a cool personal tie-in.
“So one of my best friends growing up—his dad is actually Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day,” Strauch said. “I listen to a lot of Green Day. Before every game day there is one song I have to listen to and that’s Holiday. After that I guess it’s a little bit of hip-hop, a little rap and then a little bit of country in there as well just to mellow out a little bit. Green Day for sure is my go-to.”
Despite not being with the Utes for too long Strauch already has some experiences he says will stick with him long after he graduates.
“I would say my favorite memory here was that 41-yarder against BYU,” Strauch said. “Just silencing the crowd. There is nothing like that and then also—I don’t know. There are so many out there. The first home game, being in front of the MUSS in a packed stadium was huge for me. We didn’t really have that at the Rose Bowl. There’s 90,000 something seats—to see Rice-Eccles filled every single weekend just shows how much people love football, love this team and love this university.”
Strauch also has a pretty good feel for what it means to be a Ute even though he only has a single season of eligibility to be one. For him it really boils down to a single concept- personal responsibility.
“That’s a loaded question,” Strauch said. “It’s doing the little things right and making sure you’re accountable for yourself. It’s not like people are going to be on you—it’s making sure you have that internal drive to push yourself and be the best you can every single day.”
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