Florida State has won three straight ACC championships while compiling a 39-3 record over those three seasons with a national championship in 2013. Over that stretch, there has obviously been no shortage of talent as FSU has had a modern record 29 players selected the last three NFL Drafts. Though expectations are not as high for 2015, the Seminoles will again be loaded with talent, but at ACC Kickoff which concluded Tuesday, FSU was the only school represented by a kicker.
Junior Roberto Aguayo earned the chance to represent the Seminoles at the ACC’s media days after winning the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s best kicker in 2013 and being named a Consensus All-American last season. As Clint Eiland pointed out in this week’s Seminole Stand-off, the Seminoles have been unbelievably successful when it comes to finding solid placekickers of late.
During FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher’s Tuesday afternoon press conference in Pinehurst, Fisher said that Aguayo was as respected as any player on the team and one of the best kickers in college football history. Fisher also mentioned the Seminoles’ long line of recent success with placekickers.
Unfortunately for FSU, very few makes stick out compared to the late missed field goals to lose contests to Miami in 1991, 1992, 2000, 2002 and even the Orange Bowl following the 2003 season, but it’s been over a decade since the Seminoles have had to endure that type of agony. The question we should be asking now is whether or not it’s fair to call FSU “Kicker U”.
Since the Lou Groza Award’s inception in 1992, the Seminoles have taken home that piece of hardware four times. Sebastian Janikowski is the only 2-time winner while Graham Gano and Aguayo each won it once. Tulane is the only other school to have more than one Groza Award in its trophy case with two. Most believe that there is a very good chance Aguayo will take home the trophy again this season.
The list of FSU kicking greats however, doesn’t stop there. Aguayo’s predecessor, Dustin Hopkins, was an All-American in 2012 as well as a finalist for the Groza Award. Hopkins is still the FBS record holder for career points by a kicker and is behind only former Wisconsin running back Montee Ball for points all-time.
Perhaps the most notable kick in FSU history was a short field goal by Scott Bentley to defeat Nebraska in the 1994 Orange Bowl. Bentley never quite lived up to his high school hype that landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but would go on to spend time in the NFL. Richie Andrews, who played before Bentley, was one of only three kickers selected in the 1991 NFL Draft, giving FSU five kickers to either play in the NFL or get drafted over the last 25 years.
After helping the Seminoles win the 1999 national championship, Janikowski became the first kicker selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in more than 20 years, going 17th overall to the Oakland Raiders in 2000. FSU would have its kicking woes in the years to come with Matt Munyon, Brett Cimorelli and Xavier Beitia all leaving less than stellar legacies, but Gary Cismesia, who kicked from 2004-07, handled his duties very well.
As a senior in 2007, Cismesia connected on nearly 80 percent of his field goal attempts and was 8-for-13 on kicks of 40 yards or longer including a school-record 60-yard field goal against Florida in Gainesville. Cismesia was named second team All-ACC that season and since, the kicking situation for Florida State has only gotten better.
Though the memory of misses against Miami prevail when kicking and FSU are mentioned in the same sentence, placekicking is an issue Florida State has done a great job of shoring up with four different All-Americans over the last 16 years. Though national titles and ACC titles are much more celebrated, the title of “Kicker U” could easily belong to the Seminoles.
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