UTEP Miners

Alan Luna has an interesting story. He is a self-taught starting punter on the UTEP football team, and has been booting kicks for the last two and half seasons following a series of obstacles. Luna's an intelligent individual – a two-time Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll recipient – who tutored himself to kick a football after kicking a soccer ball for most of his life.

Luna, a native of El Paso, is proud to represent his hometown Miners, while he's been one of the top punters in the nation and earned multiple accolades off his foot and sky-high punts.

Luna has been playing football for just over six years, while some youngsters hit the gridiron at the age of six. But he started another sport at a young age, which has helped him become the football star he is today. He also moved around a few times before settling down in the Sun City.

"I grew up in Juarez, playing soccer," Luna said. "I started at age four and really liked it. Then I moved to Monterrey when I was six and kept playing soccer over there. I lived there for 10 years and played soccer the whole time."

Luna moved back to his hometown during his sophomore year of high school in 2011. He attended Franklin High School and tried out for the soccer team, but didn't make the squad. Luna came in late, when the team's roster was already set.

"All of 2011, I didn't play any sports," Luna said. "It felt weird, I've always been used to wearing a jersey and representing a team."

During his sabbatical from organized sports, Luna would run and work out to keep in shape. During his junior year, he was approached by a junior varsity player about trying out for the football team.

"I met this guy who was the kicker for the JV football team," Luna explained. "He didn't like kicking because he was a safety and just wanted to play defense. He told me to try out for the team and he told me it was fun."

Fate would bring football to Luna as he basically shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Why not.'

"I had just one football at my house, which was my dad's," Luna said. "I went to Franklin's football field and thought I'd try it out. The first field goal I attempted ever in my life went wide left. But it was just me out there with a tee to kick off of."

Luna enjoyed going out to the field to practice. He only had a few days to get reps in before talking to the coaches at Franklin.

"It looks easy, but it's harder that it looks," Luna said. "But it was really fun for me. I really enjoyed going out there and kicking. I thought I'd enjoy doing this for the next few years. I went to one of the coaches at Franklin. They said we'd take it a day at a time. They gave me a helmet and shoulder pads and I started kicking for JV my junior year of high school."

Luna's first start at Franklin was the fifth game for the JV team and he was kicking mostly PATs (points after touchdowns) due to the potent offense. He never kicked any field goals and averaged about seven PAT attempts per game.

Luna's football career would take shape when the coaches told him to "stick around and play varsity." Luna, as instructed by the coaches, used the spring and summer to practice.

Since Luna was pretty much on his own with training, he utilized technology.

"I watched a lot of YouTube videos," Luna said. "The first guy I ever watched was Justin Tucker. He was with Texas at the time and is now with the [Baltimore] Ravens. That was where I gained much of my knowledge."

The 2013 high school football campaign was approaching. Luna had to compete with another kicker to win the job, and he did just that. But the coaches wanted Luna to start punting during practice to prepare for a team that used rollout punts.

"I competed with another guy to play my senior year," Luna said. "I ended up getting the job for field goals and kickoffs. They didn't worry about having a punter, but halfway through the year the coaches asked me to do rollouts for the scout team because the team we were playing did rollouts. So, I did it and did it really well. After that, the coaches said we might actually punt now since we have a punter. But we were so potent on offense again that I had seven punts my senior year with a lot of PAT attempts."

Luna was ecstatic to be playing on a team again. He also realized that he wanted to play football at the next level. But since there wasn't much film on him and the team rarely punted, he went with his best option.

"Ever since I joined the football team at Franklin, I knew it was something that I wanted to do in college," Luna said. "But I had two field goals the whole season and really didn't have any film. So, I knew it would be hard to get any offers. Playing at Baker University was my best chance."

The new Baker University football player suited up but never saw the field, as he was the third listed kicker on the depth chart. Luna didn't go all the way to the state of Kansas to ride the bench. He wanted to pursue his dream of playing college football. Prior to the 2014 season, Luna made a call to the football offices and asked about tryouts.

The first one did not go as planned.

"The first tryout was attempting seven field goals," Luna said. "I made two. And then I got a 'Thanks, thanks for coming out' from the coaches."

Luna put more work into the gym and just kept moving forward until he tried out again. It was the same deal, seven field goal attempts. Luna responded with a 7-for-7 effort.  

With the perfect tryout, Luna said that one of the coaches at the time asked him about playing another position.

"I talked to coach [Robert] Rodriguez, and he asked if I was a punter," Luan said. "He then asked if I could punt, and I said 'Sure, why not.'"

Though Luna wanted to make the squad as a field goal kicker, Jay Mattox was coming off a solid 2014 campaign as a kicker.

So the 2015 season opened with Luna being the starting punter. He played in all 12 games, averaging 44.4 yards per punt. His average ranked tied for second in C-USA and tied for 16th nationally. He earned a spot on the Ray Guy Watch List and an All-C-USA honorable mention honor in the process.

In 2016, his junior season, Luna averaged 41.0 yards per punt and earned another honorable mention accolade.  He also ripped off his longest punt, a 69-yard boot against Southern Miss.

But even though he experienced early success, Luna wanted to keep perfecting his craft. He was doing rollout punts during his first two seasons as he did in high school. So, he started kicking a more traditional punt, and again, did the work on his own. Luna viewed videos of former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee and says yoga has been a huge part of his new style of punting.

"He's worked extremely hard," UTEP offensive coordinator Brian Natkin said. "He's put in countless hours, not only working on punting and kicking but also working on getting his body in shape and being physically conditioned. He's a great kid who's worked his tail off."

He's upped his average this season and has put more hang time on his kicks. Luna is also climbing up the program's all-time lists in career punts and punt yards.

Luna will complete his degree in international business, but also thinks about his football future.

"[The NFL] is something I'll start to think about in the next few months," Luna said.

Sky's the limit for Luna when it comes to his future, whether it be in football or business. He'll keep pressing on and working hard to be what he wants.