NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 01: Lucas Carneiro #17 of the Ole Miss Rebels celebrates a field goal during the fourth quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2025 College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome on January 01, 2026 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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Last week, when Lucas Carneiro was lining up to take a kick that could change his life — and the future of Ole Miss football — Community School of Davidson high school coach TJ Albert was sitting on his sofa watching the game with his older son, Brandon.
Carneiro had already made two big kicks — from 55 and 56 yards — in the national quarterfinals against Georgia, but this one, with six seconds left, would decide the game. The teams were tied at 34. The Sugar Bowl winner would advance to the semifinals Thursday against Miami.
Albert? He wasn’t the least bit worried.
“He ‘blacks out’ in a good way when he plays,” said Albert, who coached Carneiro for three years in high school. “The moment is never too big, and the oddest thing is he’s probably the most humble kid you’ll be around for as much talent as he has. Certain people can compartmentalize like that, and that’s why he’ll kick for a long time on Sundays.
“The kid’s going to be an absolute superstar in the NFL. He’s that talented.”
Lucas Carneiro of the Ole Miss Rebels celebrates a field goal during the fourth quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs at the 2025 College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome on Jan. 1, 2026 in New Orleans. Chris Graythen Getty Images
And just as his high school coach expected, Carneiro came up big.
After breaking a 53-year-old Sugar Bowl record with his first field goal — the 55-yarder — and then breaking his own new record with his second kick, the one from 56, Carneiro nailed the 47-yard kick to win the game with six seconds left.
Ole Miss was awarded a safety on the final play of the game, winning 39-34, to advance to Thursday’s Fiesta Bowl against Miami.
“I was at home for Christmas,” Carneiro said, “and we’re sitting in the living room watching TV. My dad was like, ‘I think it’s going to come down to you for this game.’ I told him that I’d been having that feeling, too. And the closer the game got, I kept seeing that in my mind, and it ended up happening.”
The moment the kick went through, social media exploded. Several Ole Miss fans suggested that Carneiro’s kick had won the biggest game in school history and that he would never have to buy a drink in Oxford, Mississippi, for the rest of his life.
Carneiro said that by the time he turned on his phone after the game, and after his kick, he had about 150 text messages. He said his Snapchat and Instagram accounts had, to use his words, “lit up.”
“Life changes, man,” he said, “when you make it on the big stage.”
And to think Carneiro — whom his college coach calls the “best kicker in America” — very nearly never played the sport.
Growing up soccer
Carneiro was born in Boston and moved to Charlotte when he was 2. He attended Community School, which opened in 2001, from kindergarten to graduation. By the time he got to high school, he was a soccer star and his dad, Jackson, was an assistant soccer coach.
But Albert, the Community School football coach, needed a kicker and noticed how strong a leg Carneiro had when he watched the soccer team practice. Albert’s pitch was simple. He told Carneiro that kicking a football could earn him a free college education, and that soccer likely would not.
Lucas Carneiro of Ole Miss prepares to attempt a point during the first half of the game against the Citadel Bulldogs at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Nov. 8, 2025, in Oxford, Mississippi. Jason Clark Getty Images
“I didn’t want to do it,” Carneiro said. “I was playing soccer from the age of 4, and I love soccer. I still do to this day. My mom and dad were like, ‘You have a big leg for soccer. You should at least try kicking.’ Freshman year, they tried to make me do it, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not doing this.’ And sophomore year, I thought I had gotten myself out of (playing football), but then my mom shows up to school one day and says, ‘Here’s your cleats. You’re trying out today.’”
In high school, Carneiro was an instant success, ultimately finishing his career with just four missed extra points in three seasons. He made 14 of 21 field goal attempts.
When he was recruiting him to play, Albert had Carneiro work out on a 90-yard field that had a house behind it. Coaches would guesstimate where the 40-yard line would be on an actual field, to simulate a high school kickoff.
Albert knew he had found gold when Carneiro kept kicking the ball into the house.
“One of the SEC Network guys called me last week and asked was I surprised,” Albert said. “It’s not surprising. The kid’s an absolute beast. He’s always been a gamer. I’m pretty sure that 98 percent of his kicks went for touchbacks his senior year (of high school). I know when we went to conference meetings that year, the other coaches told me that they didn’t practice kick returns when they played us because they knew the ball would be in the back of the end zone (for a touchback).”
A college gamble pays off
Carneiro suffered a quadriceps injury before his senior season that Albert said hurt his recruitment. He ended up walking on at Western Kentucky.
Carneiro quickly earned a scholarship, Albert said, and redshirted his freshman year in 2022.
In the 2023 season, Carneiro made the Conference USA All-Freshman team, making 9 of 12 field goal attempts and all 47 of his PATs. He also made the game-winning kick in the Famous Toastery Bowl against Old Dominion. That game was played at UNC Charlotte and Carneiro had tons of family, friends and former teammates there watching.
Lucas Carneiro of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers is hoisted after scoring the winning field goal against the Old Dominion Monarchs in overtime during the Famous Toastery Bowl at Jerry Richardson Stadium on Dec. 18, 2023, in Charlotte. Isaiah Vazquez Getty Images
“He kicked that in front of all his old teammates,” Albert said. “That was a bigger pressure moment than the kick versus Georgia, I think, because it was in your hometown in front of all your friends.”
Carneiro, who said that kick gave him confidence, was even better as a redshirt sophomore at Western Kentucky in the 2024 season.
He was named Conference USA Special Teams Players of the year, making 18 of 19 field goal attempts and all 41 PATs. He was 6 for 6 on field goal attempts from over 50 yards, becoming the first conference player to do that in 30 years.
Carneiro entered the NCAA transfer portal after the season. It came down to Ole Miss and Oklahoma, he said.
“It just kind of came up with the year I had,” he said of hitting the portal. “It was like, maybe there’s some opportunities out there. Let’s just see what’s out there. Then the SEC opportunities came around, and that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can’t pass up on that.”
Making a name for yourself
Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding said the Rebels’ coaching staff knew it was getting a gem.
“I think a lot of people think Lucas is the best kicker in the country, so I’ve been meeting with Lucas a lot lately,” Golding said. “I spent a lot of time with him one on one, just getting to know him a little bit more, figuring out what he wants in the future and all that. We knew he was special when (assistant coach Jake Schoonover) was recruiting him last year. We felt like he was the best kicker in the country, coming out of Western Kentucky last year. He’s done an unbelievable job this year. We’ve got all the confidence in the world with him.”
Lucas Carneiro of the Ole Miss Rebels kicks a field goal during the fourth quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2025 College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome on Jan. 1, 2026. in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chris Graythen Getty Images
Carneiro — whose brother, Liam, kicks for Community School now — still sometimes can’t believe how quickly everything has changed: From not wanting to play football, to walking on, to being a bona fide college football hero.
For the season, Carneiro is 27 of 30 on field goal attempts, has put 87 of 98 kickoffs into the end zone for a touchback, and made all 55 of his PATs. He leads the nation in made field goals.
Carneiro has NFL dreams but has already announced he’ll be back on campus in 2026.
For now, he is enjoying the ride and said he’s ready whenever his team needs him.
Already this has been a season he said he’ll never, ever forget. And Carneiro said he’s not ready for it to end.
“It’s like, ‘Wow,’” he said. “This is something every kid dreams about. And obviously, growing up, I didn’t know much about football, and now I’m still learning. But it’s pretty crazy to think that I didn’t want to do this and now, all of a sudden, we have a chance to go to the Fiesta Bowl and have a chance (to reach) the national championship.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
Langston Wertz Jr.
The Charlotte Observer
Langston Wertz Jr. is an award-winning sports journalist who has worked at the Observer since 1988. He’s covered everything from Final Fours and NFL to video games and Britney Spears. Wertz — a West Charlotte High and UNC grad — is the rare person who can answer “Charlotte,” when you ask, “What city are you from.”
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