College football’s top kicking award, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award presented by the Orange Bowl, recognizes top kickers each week from FBS division teams as the “Stars of the Week.”
Griffin Kell’s three field goals were crucial in TCU’s come-from-behind 43-40 double overtime defeat of Oklahoma State in Big 12 action in Ft. Worth, Texas on Saturday. The Horned Frogs are 6-0 for the first time since 2017. Kell, a senior from nearby Arlington, Texas, connected from 47, 35 and 34 yards out. His two second quarter field goals kept the game in reach after the Horned Frogs trailed 24-7. He was 4-for-4 on extra point tries for a 13-point game. Kell has only had five field goal attempts this season, but he has made them all while also going 27-for-28 on extra points.
2021 Lou Groza Award winner Jake Moody kicked four field goals in Michigan’s 41-17 Big Ten defeat of Penn State in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Saturday afternoon. The graduate kicker from Northville, Mich. was perfect on the day with makes of 37, 29, 24 and 23 yards out, with three of those coming in the first half to give the Wolverines a 16-14 lead at intermission. His 13 field goals this season tie him for 5th in FBS. Moody converted his three extra point attempts for a 15-point game which ties him for the second-most by a kicker this week. He has made all 33 PATs for a 72-point season that ranks second among FBS kickers.
Freshman Nathanial Vakos made four field goals including a career-long 55-yard bomb in Ohio’s 33-14 defeat of Western Michigan in MAC action in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Saturday, the Bobcats first road win of the season. The Avon, Ohio native also scored from 35, 33 and 26 yards out. He was 4-for-5 on the day with the miss being the first of a career that now stands at 10-for-11 on field goals. He made his three extra point attempts for a 15-point game, tied for second among FBS kickers this week. His 56 points for the season lead the team in scoring.
The Award is named for National Football League Hall of Fame kicker Lou “The Toe” Groza, who played 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns. Groza won four NFL championships with Cleveland and was named NFL Player of the Year in 1954. Although an All-Pro offensive lineman as well, Groza ushered in the notion that there should be a place on an NFL roster for a kicker.