Taking a look at the top five candidates to win the 2017 Lou Groza Award, which will given to the top kicker in college football.
With fall camp right around the corner for teams across the country and the regular season under two months away, it’s officially college football awards watch season.
Through next week, the NCAA will release watch lists for 16 different awards in an attempt to give a preview of the nation’s best players at each position. Wednesday’s announcements centered around specialists including the watch list reveal for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the best kicker in college football.
Named after the legendary Ohio State and Cleveland Browns kicker, the Lou Groza has been awarded to the nation’s most outstanding kicker every season dating back to 1992. Zane Gonzalez, currently of the Browns, won last year’s honor for nailing 23 of 25 field goals with Arizona State.
The 30-player watch list features 12 previous semifinalists and all 14 returning kickers who made at least 20 field goals in 2016. While the fortunes of a kicker can turn on a dime, a handful have clearly separated themselves from the rest as preseason favorites based on past performances.
Here’s a look at the five kickers who are most likely to win the 2017 Lou Groza Award.
5) Jonathan Barnes, Louisiana Tech
While Barnes faces the challenge of playing for a less prestigious team than many others on the watch list, he showed enough accuracy in 2016 to deserve a mention as a standout.
The Baton Rouge native joined the Bulldogs back in 2014 and started right away as a freshman, connecting on 12 of 17 field goals and 39 of 42 extra points. Barnes improved enough the next season to be named a Lou Groza semifinalist, in large part because he converted all 60 of his extra point attempts.
An even better campaign followed, as Barnes went 22-of-26 on field goal attempts and 78-of-79 on extra points to lead the nation in kick-scoring with 143 points. Eight of those makes were over 40 yards including a 54-yard strike that ties the longest by a returning kicker, and Barnes closed his campaign by hitting a 32-yarder as time expired to give Louisiana Tech the win over Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Louisiana Tech has won nine games in each of the last three seasons while featuring one of the top scoring offenses in the nation. If Barnes can keep getting those sheer amounts of opportunities and convert as a decent rate, he will be right in the Lou Groza mix.
Only three others on the watch list have been named Lou Groza semifinalists twice, so Barnes earns a spot as one of the top preseason contenders.