Today the 20 semifinalists were announced for the 2019 Lou Groza Award, given to the nation’s top kicker as voted by a panel of writers, kickers, and coaches. Three of the 20 are past semifinalists: UGA’s Rodrigo Blankenship, Indiana’s Logan Justus, and Arkansas Connor Limpert. Rodrigo has been a semifinalist the past three seasons.
I’ll narrow down the field based on various criteria.
Seven semifinalists have missed extra points. While there could have been a bad snap or hold, how can you give the Groza to someone who’s missed an extra point? Koehnke may have kicked a 57 yard field goal in the rare air of Colorado, but he’s missed three PATs. Rodrigo has never missed a PAT in his college career.
The categories below: FG made/attempted, percentage, FG 50+ made/attempted, long FG, PAT made/attempted, total points, class, name, school
12/12 99.9 1/1 50 34/35 70 SR Logan Justus Indiana
14/15 93.3 0/0 49 38/39 80 SR Matt Ammendola Oklahoma State
13/14 92.9 1/1 53 25/26 64 SR Justin Rohrwasser Marshall
13/14 92.9 0/1 46 37/38 76 SO Blake Grupe Arkansas State
14/16 87.5 1-2 56 18/19 60 FR Brandon Talton Nevada
11/13 84.6 2/3 50 43/44 76 JR Riley Patterson Memphis
09/09 99.9 1/1 57 34/38 61 SR Jake Koehnke Air Force
Oklahoma’s Brkic has a fine resume: perfect for the season kicking for a top ranked team. But he’s a freshman, and the announcers will have trouble pronouncing his name.
10/10 99.9 1/1 50 27/27 57 FR Gabe Brkic Oklahoma
Four sophomores haven’t missed extra points. Wake’s Sciba is perfect for the season, but his longest make is only 34 yards. Washington’s Henry is also perfect, with a long of 49. And Washington State’s Mazza is perfect with two 50+ yard field goals. Pretty good for a sophomore.
13/13 99.9 2/2 51 41/41 80 SO Blake Mazza Washington State
15/15 99.9 0/0 49 37/37 82 SO Peyton Henry Washington
15/18 83.3 0/2 43 22/22 67 SO Christopher Dunn NC State
15/15 99.9 0/0 34 36/36 81 SO Nick Sciba Wake Forest
Duke’s Reed is perfect for the year, and made his only 50 yard attempt – but has only attempted nine field goals. His competition has attempted twice as many.
09/09 99.9 1/1 50 27/27 54 JR AJ Reed Duke
Of the remaining, five have at least two misses within 50 yards. Cut.
18/20 90.0 2/2 53 24/24 78 JR Brent Cimaglia Tennessee 2 misses
15/18 83.3 2/3 53 17/17 62 SR Sam Sloman Miami of Ohio 2 misses
19/23 82.6 0-2 47 20/20 77 JR Jake Verity East Carolina 2 misses
12/15 80.0 1/2 54 24/24 60 SR Connor Limpert Arkansas 2 misses
19/22 86.4 0/0 49 18/18 75 JR Keith Duncan Iowa 3 misses
That leaves two. Mazza makes the three finalists.
Perhaps we’ll look at the total kicking stat as well, which includes kickoffs.
15/16 93.8 0/0 40 29/29 74 SR Jonathan Song TCU
15/17 88.2 3/4 50 31/31 76 SR Rodrigo Blankenship UGA
Rodrigo has also been nominated for the Heisman Trophy for academic football players. Blankenship more than deserves the Lou Groza Award for the nation’s top kicker.
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