Most college kickers struggle to inspire feelings of calm when they trot onto the field for a crucial field-goal opportunity. These are not those kickers. They're instead the ones, through Week 4 of the 2026 NCAA season, who have already compiled resumes that should lead to at least some consideration for the 2027 NFL Draft — or, in the cases of our younger semi-featured specialists, future editions of the league's annual prospect pageant.
In our first look at the NCAA kicking landscape, we established a pair of gates that correlated with opportunities at the professional level. Reaching 20 kick value added (KVA), our proprietary kicking metric that looks not just at a kicker's makes and misses but also at the distances from which they kicked and the overall league's level of success from each area, leads to, at the very least, cups of NFL-flavored coffee. Failing to make a collegiate kick from at least 54 yards is basically a death sentence for a specialist's Sunday dreams.
As we continue trying to expand the collective understanding of kickers at all levels, whether in the form of NFL preseason rankings or weekly deep-dive notebooks, we're also interested in the next wave of NFL kickers. Those two gates factor heavily into the selection process, but so, too, do consistency, average kick distance, ability to overcome the elements, high-leverage kicks, and plenty more.
Complete guide to kickers you should know for the NFL Draft
- Top 10 kickers for the 2027 NFL Draft
- Full 2027 NFL Draft kicker big board and honorable mentions
- Prospects already on the radar for future NFL drafts
Top 10 kickers for the 2027 NFL Draft
Career KVA: 22.3118 (-1.86 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 55 yards
Career Under 40: 21-of-23 (6.36 KVA)
Career 40-49: 16-of-20 (8.00 KVA)
Career 50-54: 6-of-9 (2.98 KVA)
Career 55+: 4-of-5 (4.71 KVA)
2026 Stats: 3-of-5 FGs; 9-of-9 XPs; 33-yard average make; 34-yard long
Oklahoma's left-footed kicker had already put together a downright awe-inspiring resume heading into his final season of collegiate eligibility. He's made four kicks from 55 yards, thrived from the mid-range zones, excelled on other kicks in the 50s and, whether with the Sooners or at UTSA, generally racked up points without needing to rely on short-range chip shots. Tate Sandell is, without a doubt, going to kick in the NFL, and only a disastrous season should prevent him from joining the exclusive fraternity of drafted specialists.
Sandell is the reigning Lou Groza Award winner and should be especially motivated to succeed in 2026 after finishing the prior campaign with misses from 36 and 51 in Oklahoma's first-round CFP loss to Alabama. He has the leg strength and repeatable mechanics necessary to thrive in the NFL after putting the finishing touches on a stellar amateur career.
In Week 1 of the 2026 NCAA season, Sandell buried 32- and 33-yard kicks in a 51-0 blowout of UTEP. Both kicks went right down the center of the uprights and were absolutely crushed into the top of the netting, which serves as a strong signal of the unabashed confidence with which the kicker is operating in his senior year. But that signal hasn't continued through the early portion of the schedule. Sandell missed from 41 and 54 yards in consecutive weeks — not disaster territory yet, but a cold enough stretch that he doesn't quite have a complete stranglehold on the No. 1 spot four weeks into the season.
Career KVA: 30.4487 (3.97 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 58 yards
Career Under 40: 33-of-37 (3.57 KVA)
Career 40-49: 20-of-23 (14.91 KVA)
Career 50-54: 8-of-11 (5.03 KVA)
Career 55+: 4-of-4 (6.57 KVA)
2026 Stats: 7-of-9 FGs; 15-of-15 XPs; 44-yard average make; 57-yard long
Lucas Carneiro is the king of clutch kicks, as he proved yet again in the opening game on Ole Miss' 2026 slate. The 48-yard walk-off game-winner to beat Louisville was his third career game-winner from at least 45 yards, made even more impressive by the mental fortitude necessary to bounce back from a rare 46-yard misfire earlier in the outing. The previous two came with Western Kentucky in November 2024 and at the conclusion of the Sugar Bowl when he chased 55- and 56-yarders with a 47-yard winner to eliminate Georgia from the CFP.
The senior kicker also made a 58-yarder in 2025 as part of his FBS-record-tying 31 makes and, should he receive such an opportunity, thinks he has the leg necessary to leave that in the dust. As he said this summer, per On SI's Zion Trammel, "I was actually in Charlotte for the Rebel Tour, and I made a little comment about maybe a 65-yarder. Hit one from 62 in camp last week, so my biggest thing is being ready whenever. It's obviously up to coach Golding, and the offense has their choice to do what they want. But for me, it's whenever I'm called upon, is to go out there and do my job."
Submitting consecutive double-digit-KVA campaigns in 2024 and 2025, Carneiro should already be a fixture on the draft boards of kicker-hungry teams. A third such season — or a make in the 60s — would give him the combination of upside and consistency to challenge for the No. 1 spot. He's well on his way after drilling a 57-yard moonshot without breaking a sweat against Charlotte in Week 2. Had his unsuccessful 53-yarder not sailed outside right against LSU, he might be sitting at 1a instead of 1b.
Career KVA: 32.02 (3.52 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 55 yards
Career Under 40: 40-of-42 (14.66 KVA)
Career 40-49: 16-of-18 (13.34 KVA)
Career 50-54: 5-of-7 (3.05 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-3 (-2.02 KVA)
2026 Stats: 3-of-3 FGs; 28-of-28 XPs; 44-yard average make; 49-yard long
The Georgia Bulldogs' Mr. Reliable, Peyton Woodring has ensured that his fanbase doesn't feel the least bit worried when No. 91 steps between the hashes, but he also hasn't put together the same big-leg resume as the top two kickers on the board. Most notably, he's just 1-of-3 from the deepest zone, making a 55-yarder that had plenty of leg and glanced in off the left upright against Clemson in August 2024 but missing from the same distance in last season's Sugar Bowl loss (between the uprights but just short) and during an October 2024 victory over Mississippi State (wide left just before halftime).
Woodring does have the leg strength to submit those marquee moments. He even drilled a Louisiana-record 60-yarder as a high schooler. But the Bulldogs offense hasn't afforded him too many opportunities to strut that type of stuff — and has even squandered some chances, like a 38-yarder negated by a penalty for two players having the same jersey number, followed by a botched hold on the subsequent try in Georgia's 2026 opener against East Tennessee.
To this point, consistent excellence has been more of the driving force for his professional prospects. Woodring has made all 201 of his PATs in college. He's 21-of-25 on kicks between 40 and 54 yards. He's submitted at least five KVA during each of his completed seasons. And when draft season rolls around, that'll count for a lot at a notoriously volatile position.
Career KVA: 22.90 (2.00 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 60 yards
Career Under 40: 41-of-43 (13.96 KVA)
Career 40-49: 14-of-18 (7.20 KVA)
Career 50-54: 2-of-4 (-0.5 KVA)
Career 55+: 3-of-5 (1.17 KVA)
2026 Stats: 6-of-6 FGs; 19-of-20 XPs; 30.83-yard average make; 45-yard long
Was John Love's 60-yard bomb against Minnesota in the January 2025 Duke's Mayo Bowl a wind-aided kick? Sure. Does that matter? Only to an extent because he still put his NFL-caliber leg strength on display while sending it straight down the pipes from the left hash despite a rather shaky snap-and-hold sequence. Plus, Love has also made from 56 and 57 during his impressive collegiate career.
Now, he has to display more consistency on his three-point tries (certainly not on his PATs given that he's 133-of-134 in his career and the lone miss came on a Sept. 19 Maryland block). Love misfired from 45, 45, 49, 54, and 59 yards during the 2025 season, which cancelled out some of the reputation strides he'd made during the two prior go-rounds. So far, so good in 2026 as Love has hit on all six attempts. That said, five short kicks and a 45-yarder does not consistency make.
Love checks the necessary boxes for an NFL draft candidate. He has the career production, the long-range makes, and the big moments that put him on the radar. But he's also standing on a shakier foundation than the other prospects in this territory; a big season would move him into what's currently a three-man top tier, while questionable accuracy could doom his chances of receiving anything more than a Laith Marjan-style opportunity to give an entrenched NFL kicker some faux competition.
Career KVA: 19.21 (2.65 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 57 yards
Career Under 40: 20-of-21 (9.52 KVA)
Career 40-49: 10-of-13 (4.84 KVA)
Career 50-54: 5-of-6 (3.95 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-1 (1.24 KVA)
2026 Stats: 5-of-6 FGs; 12-of-12 XPs; 40-yard average make; 47-yard long
If Brock Taylor can put together more tape in 2026 like he did in 2025, he'll have a serious chance to continue his ascent up the board. He earned the Vanderbilt job as a sophomore in 2024 and has done nothing but excel since, setting all sorts of program records for the Commodores. That includes the longest made kick (57 yards at Missouri) during a 2024 effort that also featured four other makes from 50-plus yards.
In 2025, however, the Vanderbilt offense was too good for Taylor to shine as brightly. Diego Pavia ensured that the ball moved efficiently enough that Taylor was trading field goals for PATs and receiving fewer opportunities to make long-range boots. He went from 21 field-goal attempts and 40 extra-point tries in 2024 to 14 and 61, respectively, in 2025, though he capitalized on the opportunities he did receive.
Taylor has only missed two PATs and one kick from inside 40 yards to date, and his 2026 showing is off to a strong start. Though he was on the wrong end of a blocked 48-yarder, he's successfully converted from both 45 and 47 with a whole bunch of high-profile games remaining on the SEC schedule.
Career KVA: 11.33 (-3.11 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 55 yards
Career Under 40: 42-of-46 (5.19 KVA)
Career 40-49: 20-of-26 (8.30 KVA)
Career 50-54: 1-of-4 (-3.86 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-1 (1.59 KVA)
2026 Stats: 6-of-8 FGs; 12-of-13 XPs; 28.17-yard average make; 33-yard long
Aidan Birr is no stranger to adversity. During the 2025 season alone, he made a walk-off 55-yarder to beat Clemson and a 33-yarder to force overtime against Wake Forest. Both came in what the Georgia Tech program calls a "Toro" situation — no timeouts with the clock running, which forces the field-goal unit to scramble on the field and emphasizes the mental composure of the kicker.
That mental game has come into play after a brutal opener to the 2026 season. Birr pushed a 35-yarder from the left hash well outside the right upright and then had a potential walk-off 45-yarder swallowed up by an impressive Colorado rush from the right side. It's hard to pin the blame for the blocked kick on the senior kicker, but it's forcing him to fight an uphill battle to submit an impressive conclusion to an otherwise strong collegiate career.
Birr already has a lot of success under his belt, including his positive work in the kickoff game. That two-miss 2026 debut won't define him as an NFL prospect; how he bounces back will. So far, though, Georgia Tech just hasn't given the opportunities to showcase any resiliency. Over the three weeks that followed that tough opener, Birr hasn't attempted anything longer than a 33-yarder.
Career KVA: 10.67 (3.24 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 56 yards
Career Under 40: 19-of-20 (6.50 KVA)
Career 40-49: 8-of-10 (4.53 KVA)
Career 50-54: 2-of-4 (-0.6 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-2 (0.42 KVA)
2026 Stats: 5-of-5 FGs; 11-of-11 XPs; 34.6-yard average make; 42-yard long
Leg strength, leg strength, leg strength. Moving up the board will require Jackson Kleather to prove his 10.44 KVA with Bowling Green in 2025 is a better signal than the -3.02 KVA in a small 2024 sample. That comes from added consistency to go along with the massive power because the senior transfer has missed six field-goal attempts in 19 career games as a kicker. Kleather's limited sample is a result of spending his freshman season as a full-time punter and an injury that ended his '24 efforts after six games.
Kleather made his first two attempts at Northwestern in Week 1, pumping 36- and 38-yarders right down the center of the uprights with plenty of room to spare. He employs a compact follow-through that makes it easier for him to maintain a perfectly still upper body that's, dare I say, eerily reminiscent of a certain kicking superstar for the Dallas Cowboys even while showing easy power on kicks in 50-yard territory.
As he attempts to provide a worthy encore to his tremendous final season at Bowling Green, Kleather will have to deal with the added difficulties that come with his transfer to Northwestern: increased pressure, Big Ten rushes and the brutal weather conditions that await deep in the Windy City schedule. If he handles those hurdles adroitly, then he'll have the resume to earn a legitimate NFL opportunity.
Career KVA: 7.94 (1.20 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 58 yards
Career Under 40: 16-of-16 (5.24 KVA)
Career 40-49: 7-of-10 (2.13 KVA)
Career 50-54: 1-of-3 (-1.46 KVA)
Career 55+: 2-of-3 (2.19 KVA)
2026 Stats: 4-of-5 FGs; 19-of-19 XPs; 32.25-yard average make; 45-yard long
Another member of the Big Leg Clubâ„¢, Stone Harrington is going to lick his chops every time the Texas Tech Red Raiders ask him to put his membership ticket on full display. They didn't quite do that in the 2026 season-opening victory over Abilene Christian, so he followed a 23-yarder with a 28-yarder with a 33-yarder with a 45-yarder. Given that pattern, it's only a matter of time before he tops his career high of 58 yards with something that easily clears the crossbar from 60-plus. He received his first chance to do so in Week 2 but left a 63-yarder short right before halftime.
That statement about progressive distances is still actually not as facetious as it sounds. Harrington needs to reduce the right-to-left sidespin on his kicks to achieve the consistency craved by NFL organizations, but he's already shown off practice-field power that yields easy makes from 64 yards and won the 2026 Kohl’s College Elite Camp competition with a tee-aided 67-yard missile.
Can that translate to kicks that go into the official NCAA annals? That's what Harrington needs to prove as he looks to keep on the glass slippers and complete the ultimate kicking Cinderella story. He was on the scout team at Texas Tech in 2022 and 2023, earned some field time in emergency kickoff duty against Oklahoma State in 2024, and then, after winning the starting job from Upton Bellenfant with the 2025 season in progress, went 22-of-28 with makes from 55 and 58 yards while becoming one of the NCAA's premier kickoff weapons. Funnily enough, that's a career trajectory awfully similar to the crescendoing kick distances of his 2026 debut.
Career KVA: 12.29 (1.71 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 55 yards
Career Under 40: 30-of-33 (5.99 KVA)
Career 40-49: 15-of-23 (1.23 KVA)
Career 50-54: 3-of-4 (2.5 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-1 (1.59 KVA)
2026 Stats: 6-of-7 FGs; 22-of-22 XPs; 37.17-yard average make; 52-yard long
Kudos to Kyle Ferrie for making a 55-yarder against Southern Miss in August 2025. He capitalized on the longest opportunity of his career. But his profile is one propped up more by volume and consistency than a leg that frequently showcases NFL-caliber power. Ferrie did make a 52-yarder in Week 2, but he's still at just four collegiate makes from 50-plus, and the latest snuck just inside the left upright on the way through.
That said, we don't want to undersell Ferrie's consistency. His 2026 debut, which featured eight made extra points and a pair of field goals from 26 and 32 yards in a beatdown of the UL Monroe Warhawks, serves as a microcosm of his entire career. Ferrie doesn't experience the same degree of difficulty as the top-tier collegiate kickers, but he boots the ball through the uprights whenever he's asked to do so.
Since missing six field-goal attempts as a true freshman, he's misfired just six more times — and the last was a 20-yarder stuffed by Minnesota. Pair that with near-perfection on extra points (one miss in 2024 is the lone blemish), and you can understand why he at least deserves to be on the radar. His KVA has improved each year of his career, peaking at 8.62 on an average attempt distance of 39.45 yards as a junior, and continuing that trajectory is, while quite difficult, paramount for his professional prospects.
Career KVA: 19.22 (1.49 KVA in 2026)
Career Long: 55 yards
Career Under 40: 29-of-30 (10.23 KVA)
Career 40-49: 12-of-15 (7.42 KVA)
Career 50-54: 2-of-4 (-0.13 KVA)
Career 55+: 1-of-2 (0.29 KVA)
2026 Stats: 4-of-6 FGs; 14-of-14 XPs; 46.25-yard average make; 55-yard long
Joining the top 10 at Mateen Bhaghani's expense in our post-Week 4 update, Alex McPherson has shown off the show-stopping power he needs to flaunt in order to get an NFL opportunity.
In Week 2, the Auburn standout finally made a collegiate kick longer than 53 yards, knocking in a 55-yarder with room to spare (and making a 70-yarder in warmups). But after sandwiching a below-average season between his stellar 2023 (10.19 KVA) and solid 2025 (6.04 KVA), he needs to string together a second consecutive great season. Now two years removed from ulcerative colitis and the surgical removal of his large intestine, he entered camp stronger than ever, per Adam Cole of the Montgomery Advertiser, and those results are already manifesting as live-action production.
He followed that career-long kick with a 40-yarder in Week 3 and then, in the subsequent outing, came up just short on a 61-yard bomb that had the necessary accuracy. Auburn clearly believes in the power of that right leg, and a few more shots near midfield would give his stock the shine it needs to keep climbing.
Full 2027 NFL Draft kicker big board and honorable mentions
Rank | Kicker | School | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tate Sandell | Oklahoma | Tier 1 |
2 | Lucas Carneiro | Ole Miss | Tier 1 |
3 | Peyton Woodring | Georgia | Tier 1 |
4 | John Love | Virginia Tech | Tier 2 |
5 | Brock Taylor | Vanderbilt | Tier 2 |
6 | Aidan Birr | Georgia Tech | Tier 3 |
7 | Jackson Kleather | Northwestern | Tier 3 |
8 | Stone Harrington | Texas Tech | Tier 3 |
9 | Kyle Ferrie | Mississippi State | Tier 3 |
10 | Alex McPherson | Auburn | Tier 3 |
This is where it's important to remember the gates. Each of our honorable mentions has managed to hit from at least 52 yards, but few have strung together the big power with the consistency NFL teams crave. They might have one big season, sure. But two in a row? That's harder to find.
Boston College's Luca Lombardo doesn't have the necessary long-range portfolio to join the top 10. He's only missed once from 40-plus yards, but he's also taken just seven kicks in that range — none longer than a 52-yarder. Mateen Bhaghani sat in our top 10 for the first four weeks but falls outside now that he's struggled to overcome a missed 43-yarder with any kicks of note for UCLA in 2026.
Stephen Rusnak put himself on the radar with a strong 2024 showing at Charlotte, and then he struggled after transferring to Cincinnati. A career-high 54-yarder puts him back in the mix, but that's also the longest attempt of his career. He, Jonah Delange and David Olano all haven't been tasked with any attempts from 55-plus, and that's a tough sell to any NFL scout despite their impressive bodies of work.
Antonio Chadha drilled a 58-yarder for Pittsburgh in Week 2 to prove that his 53-yard long at Western Illinois didn't fully showcase his power. And while Drew Klein toils away in relative obscurity at North Dakota State, he's now the NCAA's KVA leader through four weeks after making all seven field-goal attempts from an average of 41.71 yards, highlighted by a 56-yard boot.
Last, but certainly not least, Gianni Spetic keeps impressing at Texas. He's still fighting to overcome his disastrous 2023 efforts, but he's making quite an impression for the top-ranked Longhorns in 2026. He sits at No. 8 in KVA thanks to makes from 22, 23, 34, 37, 44, 48 and 52.
Prospects already on the radar for future NFL drafts
Though we're intentionally limiting the 2027 NFL Draft pool to seniors — since 2020, only Evan McPherson, Cade York, Gabe Brkic and Cam Little have declared early — that doesn't mean we're not already keeping an eye on some of the younger standouts at the kicker position. We'll break it down by current class, beginning with the juniors and working our way back to the freshmen who have already done enough to merit a mention.
The junior kickers worth knowing
Rank | Kicker | School | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kyle Konrardy | Iowa State | Tier 1 |
2 | Nico Gramatica | South Florida | Tier 1 |
3 | Nolan Hauser | Clemson | Tier 1 |
4 | Patrick Durkin | Florida | Tier 1 |
5 | Spencer Porath | Notre Dame | Tier 1 |
6 | Connor Hawkins | Ohio State | Tier 2 |
7 | Cooper Ranvier | Tennessee | Tier 2 |
8 | Ryan Barker | Penn State | Tier 3 |
9 | Kyle Lemmermann | TCU | Tier 3 |
10 | Derek Morris | Massachusetts | Tier 3 |
11 | Luis Rodriguez | Kansas State | Tier 3 |
12 | Tyler Robles | Washington | Tier 3 |
A four-make showing highlighted by a 50-yarder in Week 2 helped Nolan Hauser turn the leading quartet into a quintet. The Clemson kicker entered the NCAA ranks as a marquee kicking recruit and is now on pace to have, rather easily, the best season of his career. He already has a personal-best 5.17 KVA, and that's even with a missed 48-yarder in his most recent outing.
Kyle Konrardy has the biggest leg of the quintet, though, drilling a 63-yarder against South Dakota during a 2025 season that also featured makes from 54 and 55, but he has to prove his mid-range consistency (-6.34 KVA from 40-49 yards) and misfired from 54 in Week 3. South Florida's Nico Gramatica has both a last name NFL fans will recognize and another big leg. He's made from 58 yards and has already added six 50-plus kicks to the family legacy. Though Patrick Durkin hasn't showed quite the same range with a 53-yard long, he had the best 2025 of the bunch, posting 9.85 KVA at Tulane to finish eighth in the country before transferring to Florida. The Gators have to be pleased that he's already connected from 49 and 53.
They're all joined by Spencer Porath, who got off to a hot start in 2026 with a 52-yarder in Notre Dame's first game and continued to show that his lackluster 7-of-11 showing at Purdue in 2024 is but a distant memory.
Connor Hawkins had a chance to make it a tier of six but instead misfired on a 45-yarder that started left and stayed left, failing to seal a win for Ohio State and instead facilitating an improbable comeback victory for Texas. He'll have plenty of chances to turn it around, but that's a tough mental blow to overcome.
The sophomore kickers worth knowing
Rank | Kicker | School | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Manaki Watanabe | Fresno State | Tier 1 |
2 | Dillon Curtis | Utah | Tier 1 |
3 | Scott Starzyk | LSU | Tier 1 |
4 | Brody Boehm | Ball State | Tier 1 |
5 | Trey Butkowski | Michigan | Tier 2 |
6 | Connor Calvert | Wake Forest | Tier 2 |
7 | Carson Hilbert | Louisville | Tier 3 |
8 | Rhett Armstrong | Baylor | Tier 3 |
9 | Sam Keltner | Oklahoma State | Tier 3 |
10 | Caden Chittenden | USC | Tier 3 |
11 | Oliver Hautanen | Buffalo | Tier 4 |
12 | Matthew Schramm | Akron | Tier 4 |
13 | Jacob Bonilla | Texas State | Tier 4 |
Trey Butkowski and Connor Calvert have gotten early starts on building up compelling resumes with strong 2025 numbers, but they have just two makes from 50-plus between them (both Calvert 50-yarders). They're on the cusp of joining the top sophomore tier, but that's a spot reserved for four players thus far.
Manaki Watanabe joined Fresno State on the heels of a season with Ashland University in which he led all Division II kickers in made field goals by going 21-of-22, including a career-best 59-yard make. He debuted with a 51-yard bomb in Week 2 and has continued to prove his stuff translates to the top collegiate level. Watanabe has gone 7-of-8 through four weeks, misfiring from 44 but already making three kicks from 50-plus — more than any of the other sophomores on the radar.
Dillon Curtis, the top-rated prospect by Chris Sailer in 2025, has the pedigree but not the NCAA resume at this stage of his burgeoning collegiate career. That's changing as he gets more opportunities at Utah, though. A missed 31-yarder in Week 4 put a damper on the growth, but it can't cancel out him drilling a 54-yarder seven days earlier.
They're joined by Scott Starzyk and Brody Boehm. The former was the No. 1 kicker in the 2025 edition of the prestigious Kohl's Rankings and has responded by making a 53-yarder in his true-freshman debut for Arkansas, completing a solid first season for the Razorbacks (3.14 KVA) and transferring to LSU. The latter was a somewhat less-heralded recruit but wound up on Bruce Feldman's "freaks" list for The Athletic and immediately showed off his big leg and top-tier athleticism with a 54-yarder in his collegiate debut for Ball State. They already have three misses between them, but they're still brimming over with talent.
The freshmen kickers worth knowing
Rank | Kicker | School | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Cooper Helmke | Tulane | Tier 1 |
2 | Malik Orsan | South Carolina | Tier 1 |
3 | Asher Murray | Texas A&M | Tier 1 |
4 | Daniel Kinney | Kennesaw State | Tier 1 |
5 | Sean Leonard | Kent State | Tier 1 |
6 | Jacobo Echeverria Lozano | Purdue | Tier 2 |
7 | Jack O'Connor | UCONN | Tier 2 |
8 | Jorge Diaz Nicolas | Marshall | Tier 2 |
9 | Shay Barker | Syracuse | Tier 3 |
10 | Harran Zureikat | Georgia | Tier 3 |
We're firmly in speculative territory here because even the best kicking prospects aren't guaranteed to earn playing time as true freshmen — or as redshirt freshmen, for that matter. We're only focused on the young players who have stepped onto the field in some capacity during meaningful action, weighing both high school scouting reports and those early results. As such, this section will change materially as the 2026 season progresses with players quickly earning nods or falling off the radar. For now, at least.
Cooper Helmke is a perfect example. A highly ranked kicker in multiple services, he burst onto the scene by making 53- and 58-yarders, the latter of which broke Cairo Santos' program record at Tulane. That's enough to skyrocket all the way to the top of the pack and place him just above Malik Orsan. The South Carolina freshman debuted with a 4-of-4 outing in Week 3, highlighted by sccessful conversions from 51 and 52 yards.
Asher Murray made a 47-yarder during his Texas A&M debut. Daniel Kinney went 7-of-8 during a redshirt 2025 season at Kennesaw State, highlighted by a kick good from 50 yards, but missing his first PAT of 2026 takes off some of the shine. He at least rebounded in Week 2 with a successful 29-yarder. Sean Leonard is just 2-of-3 in his young career at Kent State, but a 53-yard make supersedes a 43-yard misfire by a freshman.
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