Football: Drew Edmiston was named to the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award watch list

Edmiston Named to Watch List

Football 08/29/2007 Courtesy RaginCajuns.com

Drew Edmiston was named to the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award watch list.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.–Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns place-kicker Drew Edmiston was named to the 2007 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award watch list as announced by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.

Last season, Edmiston earned First Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors. He finished the year 11-for-14 on his field goal attempts including a perfect 7-for-7 mark between 40-49 yards. Edmiston had a long field goal of 51 yards on the season.

The Owasso, Okla. native was also 27-for-28 on PAT attempts en route to being named the Brian Mitchell Special Forces MVP at the Cajuns’ post-season banquet.

Edmiston becomes the second kicker in the Rickey Bustle Era to be added to the watch list. Former Ragin’ Cajuns kicker Sean Comiskey was named to the Groza Watch List in 2005.

The Watch List is comprised of the top 30 preliminary candidates for the 16^th Annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, presented by the FedEx Orange Bowl. The top three finalists will be honored during the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award Banquet on Tuesday, December 4, 2007. The award will be presented Thursday, December 6, 2007 during the ESPN Home Depot College Football Award Show broadcast live from Orlando, Fla.

Five former winners or nominees, Mason Crosby, Martin Gramatica, Sebastian Janikowski, Nate Kaeding and Mike Nugent became successful NFL kickers.

Weekly updates of the nominees results can be found at www.lougrozaaward.com beginning September 4,2007

Kickers on the Lou Groza Award Watch List were chosen based on statistics from the 2006 season and 2007 preseason expectations. However, all Division I-A kickers are eligible for consideration for the award.

A panel of over 300 experts vote on the award, including Division I-A head coaches, sports writers and sportscasters, conference representatives, professional kickers and all previous Groza Award finalists.

The 20 semi-finalists for the Lou Groza Award are announced on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 followed by the naming of the three finalists two weeks later on Tuesday, November 20, 2007.

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.

The Lou Groza Award is presented by the FedEx Orange Bowl and is also sponsored by The Breakers, Continental Airlines, Discretion Entertainment LLC, Enterprise rent-a-car, ESPN Radio 760, ESPN Regional Television, Florida Coca-Cola Bottling, Hartless Foundation, JBS Destination Solutions, Palm Beach Kennel Club, The Palm Beach Post, Parallax Productions, Romano Law Group, Rooney’s Public House, World Class Transportation Inc.

For more information regarding the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, please go to www.lougrozaaward.com.

2007 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award Preseason Watch List
Sergio Aguayo, UNLV
Connor Barth, North Carolina

Ben Bell, Houston

Arthur Carmody, Louisville

Gary Cismesia, Florida State

Treavor Cook, Miami (Ohio)

Brandon Coutu, Georgia

Drew Edmiston, Louisiana-Lafayette

Garrett Hartley, Oklahoma

Jeremy Ito, Rutgers

Dan Kelly, Hawaii

Conor Lee, Pittsburgh

Taylor Mehlhaff, Wisconsin

Chris Nendick, Northern Illinois

Matt Reagan, Memphis

Jason Reda, Illinois

Jason Ricks, Oklahoma State

Louie Sakoda, Utah

Tom Schneider, California

Alexis Serna, Oregon State

Patrick Shadle, Syracuse

Jared Strubeck, San Jose State

Ryan Succop, South Carolina

Sam Swank, Wake Forest

Brett Swenson, Michigan State

Jarod Tracy, Tulsa

Alex Trlica, Texas Tech

Cole Wilson, UL-Monroe

Jeff Wolfert, Missouri

*Palm Beach County Sports Commission Contributed to this Release*