Tate Merbitz: Trusting the Process Before the Offer

A 2027 kicker/punter from Mount Juliet High School, Tate Merbitz is learning that the recruiting path requires more than talent. It takes faith, patience, extra work, and the discipline to keep building before the offer arrives.

ATHLETE | Tate Merbitz

CLASS / POSITION | 2027 | Kicker / Punter

SCHOOL | Mount Juliet High School

HOMETOWN | Mount Juliet, Tennessee

COLLEGE | Uncommitted

OTU THEME | Process before the Offer

One Kick Opened the Door

Tate Merbitz did not begin football by mapping out a specialist path.

He was a soccer player first. He started playing soccer when he was two years old and stayed with it until the end of his freshman year. The game gave him more than a leg. It gave him a feel for contact, timing, and the mental side of striking a ball when the moment belongs to you.

Then football created an opening.

In middle school, Tate was playing wide receiver and defensive back when the coaches announced they needed a kicker. He raised his hand, stepped up, and kicked one ball. One singular ball. That was all it took for the coach to tell him he was the new starting kicker.

That kind of start says something about the position. Sometimes the door opens quickly. Sometimes opportunity does not come with a warning. It simply asks whether an athlete is willing to step forward.

Tate did. And once he did, the path started to change.

What Soccer Built

The soccer background mattered, but not only because Tate knew how to kick.

A lot of kickers come from soccer and bring a natural ability to strike the ball. Tate believes the bigger carryover was mental. Soccer had already taught him how to handle moments, how to stay composed, and how to trust a swing when pressure starts to close in.

By eighth grade, he began to see kicking as something more than a spot on the middle school depth chart. It started feeling like a real opportunity.

He still loved soccer. He still respects what the game gave him. But football brought a different kind of atmosphere. The energy, the stage, the team environment, and the process pulled him in.

That is when the position stopped feeling like something he was trying and started becoming something he wanted to chase.

He fell in love with the process. And once that happened, he never gave it up.

The Rocky Part Nobody Sees

Tate describes his journey as rocky but fun.

The rocky part is not hard to understand if you have ever watched specialist recruiting up close. It is the waiting. It is the online noise. It is seeing other athletes get offers, camp invites, and attention while you are still wondering when your moment is going to come.

That can mess with an athlete's head.

For Tate, it brought up the question so many specialists quietly carry: Am I good enough?

That question is part of the path. It does not mean the athlete lacks belief. It means the process is heavy. Kickers and punters can train, chart, post film, go to camps, improve, and still have to wait for the outside world to catch up to the work.

Tate has had to learn how to carry that waiting without letting it steal from the progress already happening in front of him.

Faith in the Waiting

The way Tate has started to handle the waiting says a lot about where his story is headed.

He has learned to let go and trust God through the process. Trusting God's timing has helped him enjoy the opportunities he has already received instead of spending all his energy mourning the ones that have not arrived yet.

That does not mean the goal has changed.

He still wants to play college football. He still wants the offer. He still wants to prove he belongs at the next level. But faith has helped him reframe the chase. Instead of letting comparison take over, he is learning to return to the work.

That is not easy. It is also one of the most important lessons a specialist can learn.

The offer cannot become the only proof that the process is working. Sometimes the proof is in the better swing, the cleaner punt drop, the stronger body, the calmer mind, and the athlete who keeps showing up before the phone call comes.

The People Who Keep the Standard Close

Training camps have become one of Tate's favorite parts of the journey.

He enjoys talking with college players and professional players, hearing what they went through and what they did to reach the next level. Those conversations motivate him. They also relieve some of the pressure, because they remind him that other athletes have chased the same dream, carried the same uncertainty, and kept working anyway.

Ty Long has become a major piece of that development.

Working with Ty has helped Tate recognize that he is becoming a different player. Tate holds himself to a high standard. He says he strives for absolute perfection for himself and for the game of football. Having a coach who shows passion for his progress helps him see the player he is becoming.

Ty has also pushed the details. If Tate's punt drop is not getting up and out, Ty challenges it. If his field-goal swing is not straight through the ball, Ty corrects it. That kind of coaching has helped Tate stay uncomfortable in the right way.

The standard is not just to kick more. It is to kick better.

Built in the Extra Work

Tate knows what work looks like when no one is watching.

He believes that everyone gets better during regular practice, but only the elite get better with the extra work. That is the difference he is trying to live in. Staying after practice. Going out to kick on an off day. Finding ways to build when the schedule does not require it.

During summer practice, the team works Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tate adds extra kicking on weekends depending on camps or training sessions.

That is where the process becomes real. Not in a single post. Not in a single charting score. Not in a single ranking. It becomes real when the athlete keeps choosing the work after the required work is over.

Tate's recognition matters. Being a 4.5-star kicker and 4-star punter means something. But he does not see those stars as a finish line. He sees them as fuel.

He is not at the level of football he wants to reach yet. That is why the ranking pushes him back into the process instead of letting him feel like he has arrived.

A True Combo Mindset

Tate is not trying to be a one-phase specialist.

Right now, he is focused on becoming a true combo. That matters because more college opportunities can open when a specialist can handle more than one job. A player who can kick and punt gives a staff options. He becomes more than a single-use piece.

Tate said it clearly: he wants to be a multi-purpose tool, not a one-trick pony.

That mindset fits where the modern specialist room is headed. Field goals matter. Kickoffs matter. Punting matters. The more a player can do at a trustworthy level, the more ways a program can see value.

For Tate, the combo path is not about doing everything casually. It is about building each part with enough detail that coaches can trust the whole profile.

That is the chase now. Not just to be seen as talented, but to be seen as useful, dependable, and ready for more than one responsibility.

What Coaches Should Notice

When coaches watch Tate, he wants them to notice more than the ball flight.

He wants them to notice his attitude. His body language. The way he handles good and bad moments without letting either one get too big. That is not a small detail for a specialist. Body language speaks loudly when a kick misses, when a punt does not turn over, when a kickoff does not hit the spot, or when a game moment gets tight.

Tate trusts his ability to execute under pressure across field goals, punts, and kickoffs. That confidence is tied to his faith. Isaiah 41:10 sits inside the way he thinks about pressure: Do not fear, for I am with you.

That does not remove pressure from the job. It gives him somewhere to stand when pressure arrives.

The best specialists are not emotionless. They are steady. They learn how to keep the next rep from being controlled by the last one. Tate is working to become that kind of player.

A specialist coaches can trust when the moment gets loud.

The Dad Behind the Work

Behind Tate's path is a father who has been there for all of it.

Tate says his dad has done everything for him. Buying the equipment that helps him get better. Waking up at five in the morning to make sure he has eaten and has his things. Pushing him to be the best he can be. Going through the journey with him, not just watching from a distance.

That kind of support matters in the specialist world.

The work may look individual when the ball is on the ground, but the path rarely is. There are drives, camps, early mornings, equipment, conversations, frustrations, and belief that has to come from somewhere when the athlete is still waiting for the next door to open.

For Tate, his dad has been one of those constants.

The offer has not arrived yet, but the support has. And that support has helped him keep chasing.

What Comes Next

Tate knows football will not last forever.

That perspective gives his story more weight. He wants to give everything he has to football now, but he also understands that the habits being built through the sport have to carry into the rest of his life. If he can put 100 percent into football, he believes he can put 100 percent into his future family, his relationship with Christ, and the person he is trying to become beyond the game.

That is a mature way to view the process.

Playing college football would mean the world to him. After years of training, sweat, and sacrifice, seeing it pay off would bring a relief he says is hard to describe. But the deeper story is not only about the offer. It is about who he becomes while waiting for it.

That is the part he can control now.

Do the little things. Push through what feels too big or too hard. Train the mind and body to execute when the bigger moments arrive. Keep chasing and never stop.

Final Word

"Keep chasing and never stop."

Tate Merbitz's story is not about having every answer before the offer arrives. It is about learning how to keep building while the waiting is still real.

He started as a soccer kid who raised his hand when the football team needed a kicker. One ball opened the door. The atmosphere, the process, and the purpose kept him there. Now he is chasing college football as a true combo specialist, trying to become valuable in every phase while learning not to let comparison steal from the work.

The rocky part has been the waiting. The answer has been faith, extra reps, coaching, family support, and a mindset that refuses to treat recognition as arrival.

That is why this story matters.

Tate is still chasing the offer. But the process is already shaping him. And if he keeps putting everything he has into the work in front of him, he gives himself a real chance to be ready when the next door finally opens.