This former Boise State kicker finds chance at pro career — in the newly revived USFL
Editor’s note: The Tampa Bay Bandits season opener was rescheduled to Monday because of weather concerns.
All former Boise State kicker Tyler Rausa wanted was a chance.
He posted videos of himself on Twitter hitting field goals in empty stadiums on a weekly basis last year during the NFL season, hoping to earn his way back on the field.
Rausa didn’t get a call from an NFL team, but he will make his debut in another professional league this weekend.
One of the most productive kickers in Boise State history will take the field with the Tampa Bay Bandits at 6 p.m. Mountain time Sunday on Fox Sports 1. They’ll help the new United States Football League kick off its inaugural season with a game against the Pittsburgh Maulers.
“It’s another steppingstone for where I want to be and another opportunity for me to show what I can do,” Rausa told the Idaho Statesman on Thursday. “It’s everything I’ve asked for.”
Rausa almost gave up on earning a spot in the new league after he wasn’t selected in the USFL draft in February. He said he wasn’t even thinking about the supplemental draft when he got a surprise phone call in early March from a coach he met while trying to make an NFL roster.
Former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley was on the phone. He was hired in January as Tampa Bay’s head coach and general manager, and he was calling to tell Rausa that he was a Bandit.
Haley was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland when Rausa tried to make the Browns’ roster in 2018. Rausa didn’t hesitate to accept when Haley called in March to offer a roster spot, even though he had a week and a half to pack his things in Boise and join his new club.
The most difficult part wasn’t the quick turnaround, Rausa said. It was leaving his wife, Sarah, and their newborn son, Brooks.
“It’s one of those things where I don’t have to get ready to play because I stay ready,” Rausa said. “But leaving them is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. You can’t really prepare for that.”
Rausa said he relies on knowing the separation isn’t permanent. The USFL’s 10-week regular season is scheduled to run through mid-June, with a two-week postseason that culminates in the championship game on the first weekend of July.
He also knows this is his chance to keep his dream alive of one day making an NFL roster.
“I just want to prove I can do it,” said Rausa, who will handle kickoffs and field goals for the Bandits. “I want to put every kick through the uprights and show I can play in this league and beyond.”
Rausa was Boise State’s primary kicker in 2015 and 2016. He set the Broncos’ single-season record with 25 made field goals in 2015. It stood until last season, when former Rocky Mountain High School standout Jonah Dalmas broke it by hitting 26-of-28 field goal attempts.
Relaunching the USFL
The first game of the new USFL’s inaugural season is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday. It will be televised nationally on Fox and NBC, and games are also scheduled to air on FS1, USA and Peacock this season.
This is the fourth attempt to launch the league. The USFL’s most successful run began in 1983, but it folded in 1986. Attempts to create the league barely got off the ground in 1945 and 2008.
This time around, the USFL is made up of eight teams: Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Birmingham, Alabama.
All eight teams will call Birmingham home this season. They’ll play games at UAB’s new Protective Stadium, which seats a little more than 47,000 fans, or at historic Legion Field, a 71,000-seat stadium that hosted UAB football games until last year and was home to the Iron Bowl game between Alabama and Auburn for four decades.
USFL teams are allowed only 38 players on the roster, but eight professional football teams crammed into one city makes for an interesting living situation, Rausa said. He’s residing in a hotel room that’s paid for by the team.
“You have a bunch of alpha males who want to go out and prove they’re the biggest and baddest,” Rausa said. “Some guys have butt heads, but there hasn’t been anything too crazy. We try to stay out of each other’s way for the most part.”
Unconventional rules
This isn’t Rausa’s first experience with an upstart professional league. He signed a free-agent deal with the Washington Defenders of the now defunct XFL in January 2020. The league didn’t even make it through a full season before folding in April 2020.
Like the XFL, some of the rules in the new USFL will differ from those in the NFL. Here’s a look.
▪ After scoring a touchdown, teams have the option of attempting a 1-point kick from the 15-yard line, a 2-point conversion from the 2-yard line or a 3-point conversion from the 10-yard line.
▪ A team has the option of keeping the ball after scoring if it can convert a 4th-and-12 play from its own 33-yard line. If it makes a first down, it keeps the ball. If it fails, the defense gets the ball.
▪ Teams are allowed to throw two forward passes on a single play from behind the line of scrimmage.
▪ Each team gets one replay challenge.
▪ Overtime will be a shootout. Each team gets one chance to score a 2-point conversion from the 2-yard line. After alternating for three rounds, the team with the most points wins. If the score remains tied, overtime will continue under sudden-death rules.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
