Hawaii’s Kansei Matsuzawa Taught Himself How To Play Through YouTube — Now He’s Out Here Single-Handedly Winning Games

Talk about the American dream …

Hawaii kicker Kansei Matsuzawa knows all about that, especially after he kicked a game-winning field goal at the last second Saturday night to get his Rainbow Warriors the victory over Stanford. It was a glorious way to end Week 0.

And you know what the crazy thing is: Matsuzawa didn’t know how to kick a football until he taught himself to do so through YouTube while back home in Japan. Yeah, it’s pretty wild.

To make it even crazier, Matsuzawa didn’t play football until he was 20 years old, and on top of that, he had zero interest in the sport.

“I had no idea when I was young how to play football. I used to play soccer,” said Matsuzawa, per OutKick. “Growing up that’s what I played.” (RELATED: Wild Video Appears To Show Avery Johnson’s Dad, Brother Getting Into Dublin Street Brawl After K-State Loss)

He got interested when he saw an NFL game for the first time, but being in Japan, he didn’t have a way to work on becoming a kicker. And that’s when he made the move to watch YouTube videos to help him out, and Instagram played a part as well.

Up until that point, Matsuzawa played soccer his whole life, but after teaching himself how to play (while learning the English language), he got some film prepared to play college football, and he ended up getting a few schools interested. But he had to start out in junior college.

He ended up landing at Hocking College, which is located in Nelsonville, Ohio, and Matsuzawa took full advantage by hitting twelve field goals in his second season at the school. His longest field goal was 50 yards.

And this is what led him to Hawaii, who was in need of a kicker, and the game-winning kick over Stanford.

WATCH:

THE KICK IS GOOOOOD!@HawaiiFootball completes the fourth quarter comeback! pic.twitter.com/qnkKIbPF3H

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) August 24, 2025

Absolutely incredible story.