Cougar Q&A: Humble Houston Kicker Jonathan Dimas

Houston Football kicker Jonathan Dimas has started the season a perfect 6 for 6 on field goals and was named Big 12 Conference Special Teams Player of the Week following a career performance. Get to know Dimas following Houston's 27-17 win over UCF.

Q: What are three things you want people to know about you?
Jonathan Dimas: I'm a very fun guy, very calm, and very respectful.

Q: How do those correlate to your strengths at football?
JD: It always keeps my mind cool. As a kicker you need to be cool, always. You can't really get hot and kick the ball at the same time, you always have to be cool and composed. I feel like that makes me more relaxed, makes me feel confident in myself and in every kick that I have.

Q: What do you do to get your mind right and get yourself in the right headspace when time is running down?
JD: I get my mind right even before the kick. Coach [Willie] Fritz always says, "you have to be mentally all in before the game". So, every that the offense is past the 50, I'm always ready to kick a field goal, I don't wait until the last minute. I'm always locked into the game no matter what the situation is, no matter where the ball is at. If it's inside the 50, in my mind, it's always a field goal opportunity. So, I'm always mentally ready for that.

Q: What do you tell yourself and what is the process to get your mind right?
JD: I always tell myself that I'm the best on the field, that I'm going to do great, because as a kicker, you need to be confident in every kick that you do. As a kicker, you can go in and not feel confident, and that is when you start overthinking and doing stuff that you aren't trained for. Whenever I go in, I remember all the stuff that we did throughout the week, all the stuff that I did beforehand, and I feel like that gets me mentally prepared to go into any field goal I need to do and make it."

Q: What helped you be successful this past week, and what can you continue to do to help the team?
JD: First, all glory to God for giving me the strength and a lot of credit to my holder, my snapper, and the line for protecting me. I'm only as good as they are. We work with our snappers and holders every day, so I feel confident in them to do their job. They make my job easier, so I can just go up there and bang the kick in. It's also building trust with my snapper and holder, which is something that I've been building up since spring ball, and they are doing an amazing job, and they make my job 10 times easier.

Q: What goals do you have for your field goal kicking for the season?
JD: For the season, I want to be 95% and better and be at least a Lou Groza semifinalist. That's one of the goals that I have for myself, but the team goal to make it to the Big 12 Championship, win it, and going as far as we can in the playoffs, that's the main goal.

Q: What's one thing that someone who hasn't kicked wouldn't know about your position?
JD: I feel like they do know something about it since football is slowly growing in Central America, last time I went I told them about American football and they knew a little bit about it, but as too much, but they did know what a kicker was since every kicker plays soccer or has a soccer background, which is the same story with me. I played soccer growing up even when I was going into football. So, they know a lot about American football, just not all the rules and stuff, but they definitely know what a kicker is now.

Q: When did you get introduced and wanted to pursue American football in college and potentially beyond?
JD: What got me into football was my big brother. My big brother was a high school kicker, and with me being the little brother, I've always wanted to do what my brother wanted to do. He introduced me to football when I was seven years old, when he was also a kicker. So, we went to a park one time and we saw a football team practicing there, then me, my dad, and my brother went and asked them, "Hey, do y'all need a kicker?" and they said, "Sure, why not." So, that's when I really started getting into kicking, but obviously I was already doing soccer and football during that time at a young age. I would have a soccer game the same day as a football game. So, I would have a game at 10am for soccer, and then I would have a 2 p.m. game for football. I give a ton of credit to my dad and my brother for getting me into football.

Q: How has your upbringing shaped who you are?
JD: Obviously, me being first-generation here out of my whole family, it's a really big blessing to be one of the first generations of my family to even go to college. I really take a lot of pride in that because there's not that many Hispanics playing college football, so I really take a lot of pride in that and I really want to play for other Hispanic people and show them that it's possible, that you can go into a sport that isn't really a thing in their country, that you can come and do it as good or even better than the kickers here.

Q: Where are your parents from?
JD: There from a little town called Molineros. It's a really small town in El Salvador, I went there this past spring, and going there and seeing where they came from and where lived was a very humbling experience.

Q: What was it like growing up in the United States with other family immigrating from El Salvador?
JD: It's a humbling experience. My parents came to a new country not knowing the language, not knowing how the United States works. So, seeing them do that, it pushes me knowing that they came here to do what's best for me and my brother. So, I can't give up because I do it for them and because they came here to give me a better life, so I got to take advantage of that.

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