Today we begin highlighting the former Texas Longhorns currently playing in the United States Football League (USFL), starting with 28-year-old Nick Rose.
Rose, a 6-foot-2, 178-pound kicker from Oahu, Hawaii, was picked up by the New Jersey Generals in the 32nd round of the 2022 USFL Draft.
And although things haven’t gone exactly as planned for Rose in the USFL this season, he entered the league with a plenty of professional experience — including going 11-for-14 (78.6 percent) in field goals at the NFL level (long of 55) with 32 touchbacks.
Back to that later.
As a freshman for the Longhorns in 2012, Rose played in all 13 games for Texas as the team’s kickoff specialist (30 touchbacks on 82 kickoffs); as a sophomore, he returned to the same role for the Horns and was also a reserve place-kicker in all 13 games (32 touchbacks on 75 kickoffs).
In 2014, as a junior at Texas, he also became the team’s primary kicker, making 14-of-21 field goal attempts with a long of 51 yards in 13 games played (44-of-61 kickoffs for touchbacks); as a senior in 2015, he remained in the same role for the Horns and made 13-of-17 FG attempts with a long of 53 yards in 12 games (47-of-63 kickoffs for touchbacks).
After signing as an undrafted free agent with the Atlanta Falcons in 2016, Rose bounced around on multiple NFL teams in both 2017 (San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles Chargers) and 2018 (New York Jets, Houston, Chargers again) before signing with the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) in early 2019 prior to the league ceasing operations in April 2019.
Brining us to 2022, where thus far for the Generals, Rose is merely 3-for-10 on field goal attempts (long of 54 yards) and 100 percent on extra points (19 points) through the first four games of the season.
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However, the former Longhorn found himself on the inactive/DNR (did not report) roster in week five of the USFL season as New Jersey signed former Alabama kicker Austin Jones to the team.
At this time, it’s uncertain what the future holds for Rose with the Generals heading into week six (as of publication, he is still on the team’s official roster).
Fun facts: Rose was a three-year letterman in both soccer and track in high school and didn’t begin playing football until his junior year at Highland Park; he also broke his high school’s 40-yard dash record at 4.42 seconds.
Up next for Rose and the New Jersey Generals (4-1, 1st place in North): a showdown against the Houston Gamblers (1-4, 4th place in South) on Sunday, May 22 at 3 pm Central Time on FOX.
Due up next for the Texas Longhorns in a USFL profile snapshot: Chris Nelson.
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