Lou Groza Award “Stars of the Week” for Week 1

Lou Groza Award “Stars of the Week” for Week 1

Sept. 4, 2024 (WEST PALM BEACH) – 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.”

Noah Burnette was the first FBS kicker to tally four field goals, with all four coming in the second half of North Carolina’s 19-17 comeback win over Minnesota on the road. The graduate student from Raleigh, N.C. connected from 52, 42, 29 and what ultimately proved to be the game-winner from 45 yards out. The 52 yarder is North Carolina’s longest field goal since 2016. He added an extra point for a 13-point game, giving him 215 for a career that now ranks inside the program’s top ten in scoring.

In his first game in a Notre Dame uniform, Mitch Jeter scored the Irish’s first six points and then capped off a thrilling 23-13 road win over Texas A&M with his third field goal of the game. Both his first and final kicks came from 46 yards, sandwiching a 26 yarder in the middle that kept the game tied 6-6 at halftime. The graduate student from Salisbury, N.C. joined Notre Dame after leading South Carolina in scoring each of the past two seasons.

It took just one game for Dominic Zvada to reach the top of the Michigan record books, kicking multiple long-distance field goals in a 30-10 win over Fresno State. After making his first kick as a Wolverine from 45 yards, he followed up with makes from 55 and 53 yards out, matching a 2017 Quinn Nordin performance as the only games in program history with two field goals from at least 50 yards. Zvada was a 2022 Groza semifinalist at Arkansas State, where he amassed a career 85.0% career accuracy rate that ranked third among active kickers entering this season.

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.

National College Football Awards Association

The Lou Groza Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association. Founded in 1997, the NCFAA includes college football’s most prestigious awards, and its 24 awards have honored more than 900 recipients dating back to 1935. This season, 12 NCFAA awards will honor national players of the week each Tuesday. For more information about the NCFAA and its award programs, visit NCFAA.org or follow on X at @NCFAA.