Jonathan Garibay was no stranger to kicking during his time at Riverside City College, but he never quite had a game like he had in Texas Tech’s 24-23 win over Baylor.
Coming out of Rubidoux High School in California, Garibay made the decision to stay in-state for the start of his collegiate career, committing to Riverside City College, a short 14 minute drive from where he played his high school ball.
Being the only place kicker on the roster his freshman year, Garibay was immediately thrown into the role of starting kicker and punter. In that first season with the Tigers, he was called upon just eight times to kick a field goal, making six, in addition to 48 punts, averaging 39.3 yards per punt.
His sophomore season those stats improved. Garibay went 9/12 on field goals, including his career long, at the time, at 47 yards. Additionally, Garibay increased his yardage per punt by .8 and nailed his opponents inside the 20 on more than half of his kicks.
Similar to how he was not limited to just one position on the gridiron, the 6-foot, 215 pound athlete was not limited to just one sport. During the spring, Garibay was a member of the Riverside City track and field squad as a javelin thrower, and a successful one at that.
Garibay won two events as a javlineer, even setting a personal record in a four-college meetup with a distance of 54.22 meters.
That javelin throw would not be the last clutch play he had as an athlete.
After riding the bench as the backup to Trey Wolff for the entirety of the 2019 season, Garibay was given a redshirt. However, after the struggles of Wolff to start the 2020 season, Garibay was finally called upon.
His first action as a Red Raider came on Nov. 7, in a road loss to TCU. After going nearly two years without playing in a live game, Garibay’s first kick was shanked out of bounds, warranting a “free kick out of bounds” penalty.
After the game, Garibay was informed he would be taking over the place kicking duties for Trey Wolff moving forward. What he did not know was what was to come for the Texas Tech special teams unit that week.
Sophomore starting punter Austin McNamara, backup punter Cody Waddell, and Wolff were all ruled out for the game, and Garibay was informed on Wednesday that he would be in charge of all three aspects of the kicking game against Baylor, said Head Coach Matt Wells.
Thrown into the biggest game of his career, Garibay and Texas Tech made sure that his family, who had never seen him kick collegiately, was in attendance at the Jones.
“Very emotional night right after our walk through for him to be able to see him,” Wells said. “We might have to get them here for every game.”
With his family in the stands, the legend of Jonathan Garibay was born.
The junior made a career-long 48-yard field goal in the first quarter, a 28-yarder in the 2nd, and a 46-yard boot in the 4th. On the punt game, Garibay was able to control the field position for the Red Raiders with his five punts averaging out to 49.4 yards per punt, including his long of 56 and a 52-yarder in the 4th quarter to nail Baylor inside the seven.
All that led up to the biggest moment of the night. With the Texas Tech and Baylor faithful nervously watching, Garibay nailed a 25-yard field goal to give Tech a 24-23 lead as the clock hit 0:00.
“I feel like as a kicker,” Garibay said, “every kicker thinks about that championship-winning kick.”
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