The Owls will look a bit different on special teams next season, as junior kicker Vladimir Rivas will no longer be attending FAU and will be entering the transfer portal as a graduate transfer.

Rivas played in all nine games last season for the Owls making eight of his 10 field goals and went 20-21 of his extra point attempts. He was also a perfect 4-4 while kicking from 20-39 yards and 4-6 from 40-49 yards.

After redshirting his freshman year in 2017, Rivas began to see playing time in 2018 making 58.8 percent of his field goals. He also converted 95.1 percent of his extra point attempts.

As a redshirt sophomore in 2019, Rivas increased his field goal percentage to 68 percent and made a career-long 48-yard field goal. He also made 93.2 percent of his extra point attempts. 

Rivas has not yet announced which schools he is interested in transferring to, but he recently retweeted a tweet from a Minnesota Gophers fan page advocating for his transfer to the University of Minnesota.

Rivas ends his career at FAU with a 67.3 field goal percentage and 94.2 extra point percentage. He was also responsible for 219 career points.

Sophomore Aaron Shahriari and freshman Morgan Suarez are expected to battle for the starting kicker position next season.

Trey Avant is a staff writer for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @TreyAvant3.