ORLANDO, Fla. - Randy Bullock, a Ray Guy Prokicker.com alum, became the first Texas A&M player to win the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the nation’s top collegiate kicker, at the College Football Awards Show at Disney World.

Bullock was 25 of 29 on feld goal attempts this season and scored 127 points, one shy of the school record set b Joel Hunt in 1927. Bullock was also named to the Walter camp All-American team.

He has scored a school-record 349 points and has made 77.3 percent of his field goals.

Florida State's Dustin Hopkins and Florida's Caleb Sturgis were the other finalists.

Bullock is the first Texas A&M player to win the Groza.

Alabama long-snapper Carson Tinker, who is also a Prokicker.com alum, captured the Spirit Award at the awards show.

Also, Shawn Powell of Florida State was named punter o the Walter camp All-American team. Powell also has ties with Prokicker.com.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest junior placekicker Jimmy Newman has been named one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza College Place-kicker Award presented by the Orange Bowl Committee. The Groza Award is given annually to the nation's top placekicker.

Newman, a native of Oxford, Ala. has connected on 14 of 15 field goal attempts this season and is currently riding a school record streak of 13 straight conversions. He missed one field goal in the season opener at Syracuse but has been perfect on every attempt since then.

In 2010, Newman missed one field goal attempt in the opener before converting 12 straight. Over the last 20 games, he has made 25 of 26 field goal attempts. He is 37 of 45 for his career.

The Lou Groza Award is determined by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission. Semi-finalists will be voted on by FBS Head Coaches and SIDs, along with national and regional football writers, past Groza winners and others who will select the three (3) finalists. These finalists will be honored at the 20th annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Awards Banquet on December 6 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The presentation will be featured on The Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday December 8, 2011.

The award is named in honor of one of the all-time great kickers in football history, Lou Groza. Groza played 21 seasons for the Cleveland Browns setting numerous franchise records, including most games played, most points scored, and an amazing 107 consecutive games in which he scored a point. Groza was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

Past Groza finalists include current NFL kickers Nate Kaeding, Sebastian Janikowski, Mike Nugent, Mason Crosby, Graham Gano and Dan Bailey.

STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford kicker Jordan Williamson is one of 20 semifinalists for the 2011 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Award, presented by the Orange Bowl Committee.

A redshirt freshman, Williamson has made 11 of 12 of his field goal attempts this season, with a long of 45. He is 4-4 from 20-29 yards, 5-5 from 30-39 and 2-3 from 40-49 yards out.

Semi-finalists will be voted on by FBS Head Coaches and SIDs, along with national and regional football writers, past Groza winners and others who will select the three (3) finalists. These finalists will be honored at the 20th annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Awards Banquet on December 6 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The presentation will be featured on The Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday December 8, 2011. The award is named in honor of one of the all-time great kickers in football history, Lou Groza. Groza played 21 seasons for the Cleveland Browns setting numerous franchise records, including most games played, most points scored, and an amazing 107 consecutive games in which he scored a point. Groza was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

The Lou Groza Place-kicker Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game's predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association's official website, ncfaa.org.

The presentation of the Lou Groza Place-kicker Award will be featured on The Home Depot College Football Awards live on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. The show, hosted by ESPN's Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard will feature the live presentation of nine player awards, along with the recipients of Disney's Spirit Award; The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, the NCFAA (National College Football Awards Association) Contributions to College Football Award; and student-athletes selected to the Walter camp All-America Team. Fans can visit the show's dedicated Web site http://www.espncollegefootballawards.com to find the latest college football awards news, including show details, previous winners, fan voting, a photo gallery and video highlights.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Danny Hrapmann, David Ruffer and Blair Walsh, all finalists for previous Groza Awards, head up the 30 player watch list released Thursday by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.

The only previous Groza winner to repeat is current Oakland Raider kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who received the honor in 1998 & 1999, while playing for Florida State.

Kickers on the Lou Groza Award Watch List were chosen based on statistics from the 2010 season and 2011 pre-season expectations. Nine semi-finalists are returning from 2010, including Michigan State junior Dan Conroy, who was twice the recipient of the National Placekicker of the Week award and whose 93.3% field goal percentage was fifth in the nation in kicking accuracy. Duke Universitysenior Will Synderwine, a two-time Lou Groza Award semi-finalist, is first among active kickers nationally in career field goals made per game (1.65) and third in career field goal percentage (0.864). Sophomore Ross Krautman of Syracuse University, named a freshman All-American by Sporting News and Rivals.com, lead the Big East in field goal accuracy by converting on 18 of his 19 field goal attempts.

The Big 12 leads all conferences with five kickers on the Pre-season Watch List. The Big 10, ACC, and Big East each have four kickers on the list. The SEC and Pac-10, both represented in the 2011 BCS National Championship, have three kickers each on the list.

The Groza Committee will be watching all FBS kickers during the season, and releasing a weekly “Stars of the Week” feature on www.lougrozaaward.com.

Accomplishments are tabulated throughout the season and the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Award announces its 20 semi-finalists on Friday, October 28, 2011. From this list, a panel of over 300 experts selects the top three (3) finalists for the award by Monday, November 21, 2011. That same group then selects the national winner which will be announced Thursday, December 8, 2011, during the Home Depot ESPNU College Football Award Show, broadcast live from Orlando, FL.

The 20th Annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Award, presented by the Orange Bowl Committee, recognizes the three (3) finalists during an early week celebration in Palm Beach County, culminating with a gala awards banquet on December 6, prior to joining ESPN in Orlando.

The Award, is named for National Football League (NFL) 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, Groza ushered in the notion that there should be a place on an NFL roster for a kicker.

For more information regarding the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-kicker Award and to follow the season progress, please go to www.lougrozaaward.com.

The National College Football Awards Association will name the preseason watch list for the Lou Groza Award and the Ray Guy Award on July 7.

The Lou Groza Award is presented to the nation's most outstanding placekicker by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.

The Ray Guy Award is presented to the nation's most outstanding punter by the Augusta (Ga.) Sports Council.

The NCFAA will unveil their preseason watch lists over a 13-day period beginning July 5. Fifteen of the association's 21 awards select a preseason watch list and this is the first time the NCFAA has spearheaded a coordinated effort to promote each award's preseason candidates.

First published by Ryan Menezes with The Daily Bruin.   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kevin McDermott doesn’t have a single word in his UCLA biography.
And, if the rising redshirt junior does his job perfectly, he will remain virtually unknown.

That’s a long snapper’s life, a role that McDermott embraces going into his first full year as a starter.

While the eyes of the crowd were on the drills taking place on the main turf of Spaulding Field on Tuesday, McDermott was tucked away on the adjacent grass field, quietly practicing snaps with rising redshirt junior punter Jeff Locke.

That scenario hardly indicates how difficult McDermott’s job is during the season. All the attention will be on him if but one snap goes awry.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” McDermott said. “If a tight end has one play and messes up, there’s always the next one. With any special teams player, there’s just that one play.”

McDermott isn’t the only one settling into his new role. The Bruins have to replace all three parts of what special teams coach Angus McClure calls “the battery” – the long snapper, holder and kicker.

McDermott is succeeding four-year starter Christian Yount, while rising redshirt freshman Kip Smith is replacing Lou Groza Award winner Kai Forbath as kicker. Locke and rising redshirt sophomore safety Alex Mascarenas are currently training to be Smith’s holder.

“Kickers can be as talented as anything, but if the ball is not consistently put in the right place with the laces away, it’s a hard game,” coach Rick Neuheisel said.

The experience of McDermott, who has been long snapping since middle school, will be key for a UCLA team that often needs to bring on the special teams – the Bruins converted on third down just 35.3 percent of the time in 2010, third-worst in the Pac-10.

“Kevin is experienced,” McClure said. “He got a lot of reps the last couple of years, and he’s a very good snapper. He’s probably faster than Christian, so I feel very confident in him.”

A recruited walk-on, McDermott has to give up his preferred spot of tight end to be the full-time snapper, but understands the importance of the job. The last thing he wants is to get some attention.

“It’s more of an injury bug they don’t want me to catch,” McDermott said. “Long snappers, their hands are their business.”

Jumping the gun

The referees’ whistles were a-chirping Tuesday.

The reason? Multiple false starts by the offense and offsides by the defense as a result of the hard counts by the Bruin quarterbacks.

“Eager, but we’ve got to clean all that up and understand that’s where you have to be at your level-best,” Neuheisel said. “Crowd noise is a factor, and we didn’t have that as a factor today.”

Dye to undergo MRI

After safety Tony Dye sat out Monday with what Neuheisel termed a “knee bruise,” Neuheisel said Tuesday that the injury is “worse than I guess we initially thought.” Dye is scheduled to undergo an MRI.

The rising senior was named to the 42-man Lott Trophy watch list on Tuesday. The award is annually given to the top collegiate defensive player.

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First published by: Aaron Wilson- RavensInsider on twitter!

The San Francisco 49ers are scheduled to conduct an individual workout with UCLA kicker Kai Forbath on Friday, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation.

The second-team All-Pac 10 Conference selection is graded as a later-round draft target.

He finished with 85 career field goals in 101 tries, tying the school record set by John Lee in the 1980s.

He ranks second in school history with 357 points.

Last season, Forbath connected on 13 of 18 field goals and made all 27 extra points.

As a junior, he won the Lou Groza award and achieved All-American status and first-team All-Pac-10 as he hit 28 of 31 field goal and 24 of 25 extra points. He made all of his kicks under 50 yards.

For more, go to www.nationalfootballpost.com/Kai-Forbath-to-work-out-for-49ers-on-Friday.html