AUSTIN (KXAN) — Most 18-year-olds, if they won $1.2 million, would probably buy a new car or house, take an international trip, or buy a private jet. But not Connor Kacena-Merrell.

Kacena-Merrell, a freshman electrical engineering and business student, camped out for most of the day Friday, Sept. 11, just for a shot at getting into College GameDay’s setup on the University of Texas at Austin campus ahead of the Longhorns game against Ohio State on Saturday.

He said the first 300 people to arrive were entered into a raffle for a chance to participate in the “College GameDay” “Kicking is Easy” contest to win $1 million. From there, in his words, the stars aligned.

Before Kacena-Merrell even touched the ball, he told Pat McAfee and Matthew McConaughey that, if he made it, he’d donate half of the proceeds to Building Tomorrow, a charity in his hometown of Indianapolis that supports educational opportunities in East Africa.

He missed the first kick. But McConaughey convinced McAfee to give Connor a second kick, throwing in $100,000, along with Kirk Herbstreit throwing in another $100,000.

Kacena-Merrell made the second one, winning $1.2 million; half of which would go to Building Tomorrow, and half he gets to keep.

When asked why he chose to donate half of his winnings, the first thing he said was that he was grateful for the opportunities he’s been given.

“I heard this quote last summer that really stuck with me and hits home for me. And it’s, ‘The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is right now.’ And so with the super generous $1.2 million for the kick at GameDay, I felt like I had been put in a position where I would be able to give back to the community a little bit,” Kacena-Merrell said.

“So being able to support Building Tomorrow and all of their great efforts, it really stuck with me. And not just, you know, kicking the can down the road and saying, ‘Hey, I’ll do some philanthropy work when I’m 40 years old,’ but taking action on that right now.”

But that’s not where the story ended.

Love, Tito’s heard about Kacena-Merrell’s kick and his decision to donate half of his winnings. Being the philanthropic arm of the Austin-based Vodka brand, they wanted in.

Love, Tito’s added another $1 million pledge, half to Central Texas Food Bank and half to Building Tomorrow, if Kacena-Merrell could make a 35-yard kick during a break in the first quarter.

Lindsey Bates, the senior director of philanthropy at Tito’s Vodka, said that giving back has been part of Tito’s and Love, Tito’s for more than 30 years.

“When we saw Connor’s kick and before he even made it, he decided that he was going to donate half of his winnings to a nonprofit that he was really passionate about, we just knew it was something that we really wanted to continue to amplify, and so we’re really appreciative of the opportunity to help spread that impact even further and be able to support Building Tomorrow and Central Texas Food Bank here in Austin,” Bates said.

“It was really a no-brainer for us,” Bates added. “We’re always looking for ways to make an impact and so the opportunity to do something at this scale alongside UT as well was really incredible.”

Kacena-Merrell made the kick on the DKR field on the first try.

“You know, I was confident in my abilities because 35, 33 yards is a feasible distance, but when you have 100,000 people in the stadium watching you and then a ton of people like family and friends back home, there’s definitely that added pressure,” Kacena-Merrell told KXAN on Friday. “I was confident, but you never know.”

He played soccer throughout his youth and said his dad tried to get him into kicking for the football team, but it didn’t really stick. Those skills definitely came in handy for him last weekend, though, helping him secure more than $1 million for charities.

Love, Tito’s is donating $500,000 to Central Texas Food Bank, which will help provide more than a million meals to people in need, and $500,000 to Building Tomorrow thanks to Kacena-Merrell’s successful kick.

So what about the money he gets to pocket?

He said with the money he gets to keep, his highest priority is paying a big portion of his out-of-state tuition. Beyond that, he said he wants to “be smart with a lot of the rest of it, so lock it in some high-yield savings or put it in the S&P index, compounding interest to do its work.”

“In terms of probably the answer you want, I’m thinking about maybe some sort of vacation this summer, sort of as my big spend, and just have a fun time with my friends this summer,” he added.