College football’s top kicking award, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award presented by the Orange Bowl recognizes three of the top kickers each week from FBS division teams as the “Stars of the Week.”
Jonathan Kim set the season’s new high mark with six field goals in Michigan State’s 32-20 win over Iowa. The graduate student from Fredericksburg, Va. set a new program record with makes from 55, 46, 43, 42, 36 and 29 yards out. The four shortest kicks accounted for all the scoring by either team in the first half, while the two longest came in the fourth quarter. The six field goals match the modern day Big Ten record set by Groza winner Jake Moody. The 6-for-7 performance moves him to 15-for-16 on the year, shooting up to second on the FBS leaderboard in makes and the only kicker with at least 15 attempts connecting at a 90% rate or better.
LSU retained the Golden Boot trophy thanks in part to four boots from Damian Ramos in a 34-10 win over Arkansas. The junior from Baltimore, Md. set a new career-high with the 4-for-4 performance that saw him connect from 48 and 47 yards along with a pair from 33. It’s the first time since 2021 that LSU made multiple field goals from 40+ in the same game. Ramos also connected on both extra point attempts, pushing his consecutive PAT streak to 114, just four behind the program’s all-time mark. With 61 points so far, he is LSU’s leading scorer.
Georgia was pretty much perfect in the first half of their blockbuster matchup against Texas, and that goes three times over for kicker Peyton Woodring. The sophomore from Lafayette, La. made field goals from 48, 44 and 33 yards out, all in the first half of the Bulldogs’ eventual 30-15 road win over the top-ranked Longhorns. It’s the first time in his career he’s made two field goals from at least 40 yards in the same game, and these came within a five minute span in the same quarter. At 12-for-13 on the season, he’s having the second most accurate campaign in the SEC.
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.
For more information on the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award and to see the “Stars of the Week” throughout the season, please go to www.lougrozaaward.com. For even more updates on the best kicking performances throughout the season, follow @LouGrozaAward on Twitter.
