Rutgers kicker Valentino Ambrosio enters transfer portal

On Friday night, Rutgers place kicker Valentino Ambrosio announced that he had entered the transfer portal after handling the field goal and extra point duties over most of the past two seasons.

Ambrosio began his collegiate career on the Fairleigh Dickinson men’s soccer team after being a standout high school kicker for Cranford. He then transferred to Rutgers in 2019 and started 12 games for the men’s soccer team. It was the fall of 2020 when Ambrosio decided to make the switch and join the football program.

He went on to kick in the final six games of the 2020 season, making 9 of 11 field goal attempts with a long of 42 yards. Ambrosio remain entrenched as the starter over Guy Fava, making 12 of 16 field goal attempts during the 2021 season. After starting the season with on kickoff duty with 29 kickoffs over the first five games, Ambrosio was replaced in that role by Fava over the final eight games.

In 18 games, Ambrosio made 21 of 27 for his career on field goal attempts and 45 of 47 PATs.

Rutgers is set to return Guy Fava, who started the 2020 season as the place kicker, making both field goal attempts, including a 44 yarder in the win over Michigan State. He was also 6 of 6 on PATs. Michael O’Connor is also on the roster and highly touted incoming freshman Jai Patel from South Brunswick figures to be in the mix during training camp as well. It’s also possible that Greg Schiano considers options from the transfer portal as well.