Pineiro anointed Bears kicker
Piñeiro was born in Miami, Florida, to Cuban and Nicaraguan immigrants. His father, Eddy Sr., came to the United States from Cuba at the age of 9 during the Mariel boatlift of 1980 and later had a professional soccer career with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the ASL/APSL.
Piñeiro started off playing soccer like his father; he was a four-time All-Dade County pick in soccer. Despite having grown up only playing soccer, he joined the Miami Sunset Senior High football team in his senior season, handling extra points and kickoffs.
Piñeiro signed with Florida Atlantic on a scholarship to play football, but academic issues prevented him from attending. His dad encouraged him to try on football cleats and pads but with no football scholarship, Piñeiro went on to play soccer for a small junior college, ASA College. In the summer of 2015, Piñeiro went to an open kicking combine at Alabama. Out of hundreds of kickers, Alabama coach Nick Saban narrowed his scholarship offers to Chris Salek and Piñeiro. Piñeiro verbally committed to Alabama, but later tried out for Florida and ultimately that was where he chose to play.
During his final year of college, Piñeiro had the best field goal percentage in the nation, 94.4% (17/18). He finished his career with an 88.4% (38-for-43) field goal conversion rate, which ranks first in school history (min. 35 attempts) as he passed Bobby Raymond (87.8%, 43/49, 1983–84.) His 38 made field goals place him sixth all-time in school history. He also connected on 16 straight field goals to close the 2017 season, which tied Jeff Chandler (2001) for the second-longest streak in program history. He played for the Gators during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
“I’m excited, confident,” Pineiro said. “I’m happy that they chose me to be the guy. I’ve just got to prove them right and show them that I’m the guy and just keep making kicks.”
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