Louisiana Kicker Kenneth Almendares Wins the Lou Groza Award

Louisiana Kicker Kenneth Almendares Wins the Lou Groza Award

Palm Beach County, Fla., Dec. 13, 2024 — During Thursday night’s live Home Depot College Football Awards, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission announced University of Louisiana senior Kenneth Almendares as the winner of the 2024 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award.

“I’d like to thank the Palm Beach County Sports Commission for this honor,” said Almendares. “I am proud to be nominated this year along with Ryan and Alex, two very talented kickers. I’m so honored and appreciative of this award.”

With an FBS-leading 27 field goals this year, he set a new single-season record at Louisiana and posted the most ever in a season by a Sun Belt Conference kicker. Coming on just 29 attempts, his 93.1% accuracy rate was by far the best in the country by a kicker with at least 20 tries. That combination of makes and accuracy puts him in rare company: if he can hold the numbers through bowl season, he would become just the third kicker since 2008 to lead the country in field goals while also connecting at 90% or better. He made at least one field goal in every game this year, with multiple makes in a remarkable 10 straight games. That scoring made him a major part of Louisiana’s run to the Sun Belt championship game, as he provided the margin-of-victory in five of their ten victories, with four of those coming on the road. That includes his last-minute winner on the road to beat Wake Forest 41-38 and give the program its first ever victory over an ACC opponent. He finished the year with 127 points, tied for the most among FBS kickers and the highest scoring season in both Ragin’ Cajuns and Sun Belt Conference history. Those are two of a number of records he now owns, including becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer and the conference’s career field goal leader.

Almendares beat out Florida State senior Ryan Fitzgerald and Kentucky senior Alex Raynor for the award. Fitzgerald was the country’s only qualifying kicker without a field goal miss at 13-for-13, while Raynor’s 15-for-16 campaign sees him end his career as the most accurate kicker in SEC history.

Almendares is Louisiana’s first Groza Award winner, the Sun Belt Conference’s first Groza Award winner, and the first Ragin’ Cajuns player to win a national college football award. The national panel of Lou Groza Award voters is comprised of more than 100 FBS head coaches, SIDs, media members, former Groza finalists, and current NFL kickers. Since the first Lou Groza Award was handed out in 1992, 32 finalists, including 17 winners, have gone on to appear in the NFL, earning 13 trips to the Pro Bowl and taking home seven Super Bowls.

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.