Cole Tracy of LSU named semifinalist for Lou Groza award

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s Cole Tracy has been selected as one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Collegiate Placekicker Award, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission announced on Thursday.

The award is given annually to the top placekicker in college football.

Tracy, a graduate transfer from Division II Assumption College, currently leads the nation in field goals with 21. In eight games with the Tigers, Tracy has connected on 21-of-23 field goal attempts. Tracy has yet to miss a field goal inside the 50-yard line as his only two misses this year came from 53 yards against Auburn and Ole Miss.

Tracy, a native of Camarillo, California, joined the Tigers during the summer after graduating from Assumption College. Since taking over the kicking duties for LSU, he’s been named the Southeastern Conference Special Teams Player of the Week a league record four times.

Tracy leads the SEC in scoring (87 point), points per game (10.9), field goals (21), field goal attempts (23), field goals per game (2.6), and field goal percentage (91.3).

Tracy drilled a 42-yard game-winning field goal at the buzzer in LSU’s 22-21 win over Auburn in September for the first “walk-off” game-winning kick in school history. He goes into the Alabama game riding a streak of 12 consecutive field goals, a stretch that dates back to the Ole Miss game.

Semifinalists will be voted on by a panel of more than 100 FBS head coaches, SIDs, media members, former Groza finalists, and current NFL kickers to select the three finalists. These finalists will be announced on November 20th and honored at the 27thannual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Awards Banquet on December 3rd in Palm Beach County. The same panel then selects the winner, who will be announced live on ESPN at the Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Thursday, December 6th.

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.

2018 Lou Groza Award Semifinalists

John Baron II                      San Diego State

Tyler Bass                            Georgia Southern

Massimo Biscardi             Coastal Carolina

Rodrigo Blankenship      Georgia

Jose Borregales                   Florida International

Matt Coghlin                      Michigan State

Dominik Eberle                 Utah State

Matt Gay                              Utah

Clayton Hatfield               Texas Tech

Cole Hedlund                    North Texas

Logan Justus                      Indiana

Connor Limpert                Arkansas

Chase McLaughlin           Illinois

Evan McPherson               Florida

Cooper Rothe                     Wyoming

Jared Sackett                       UTSA

Andre Szmyt                      Syracuse

Ryan Tice                             Central Michigan

Cole Tracy                           LSU

Matthew Wright               Central Florida

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