Second on the all-time scoring list
Holder of the fifth, sixth and eighth longest field goals (45, 44 and 42 yards, respectively)
Villanueva hopes to make a professional roster as a punter but knows that his numbers--which include a 39.3-yard average this year and a 38.7-yard average for his career--won't help.
"The wind and weather work against me a lot," the Los Angeles native says. Another problem, he adds, is that "Coach Restic is very concerned about field position. He's never willing to try 45-yard or longer field goals."
If he doesn't catch on in the pros right away, Villanueva has other plans. "The idea of wandering from pro camp to camp doesn't appeal to me," he says. "I might try out one year." But if that doesn't work out, he says, his family's Spanish language television business is, after business school, the logical alternative.
"Kicking would just pre-empt those plans," he says.
If he does catch on with the pros, Villanueva would become one of the few straight-ahead kickers left in the NFL. That fact bothers Jim little and Danny less.
"He was kicking soccer-style," Danny recalls. "But he borrowed my shoe one day and has stuck with the straight-ahead style ever since. That's all right, though, because he's big."
Jim Villanueva--now 6-ft., 2-in., 195 pounds--was big enough to play wide receiver and defensive back in high school. He has even run the ball twice for the Crimson this year--once on a fake punt and once on a fake field goal. Both times he has made first downs.
The last time he tried it, though, he injured his thigh. The injury in this year's Holy Cross game three weeks ago forced him to sit out the Penn game--the first contest he missed in his Harvard career.
Villanueva was replaced by Rob Steinberg, a sophomore who attended Villanueva's Los Angeles alma mater, Palisades High School.
Not needing much specific coaching, Villanueva spends most of his time practicing with Steinberg and the squad's other kicking specialists. The absence of coaching, however, is no problem for Villanueva. "The perfect kicking coach lets you kick your style and helps you with your confidence," he says. "The adjustments have to come from within."
Despite his position, Villanueva does not feel isolated. "I feel like a big part of the team," he says. "The kicking game has made a lot of difference. If there was any feeling (of isolation) it has been erased--particularly now that I'm a senior. A big part of that is success. You're an outsider to begin with, but if you're successful, they take you in."
And few people have been as successful as Jim Villanueva.