Notre Dame kicker Spencer Shrader named to Lou Groza Award Watch List
Notre Dame graduate kicker Spencer Shrader was named to the Lou Groza Award Watch List, the award announced Wednesday.
The Groza Award is given annually to the best placekicker in the country. Its watch list was 30 players long, ranging alphabetically by first name from Buffalo’s Alex McNulty to Alabama’s Will Reichard. Twenty semifinalists will be announced Nov. 9, and from that list, three finalists will be announced Nov. 28.
A group of more than 100 FBS coaches, team spokespeople, media members, former Groza finalists and current NFL kickers will vote on and select one candidate. ESPN will announce the winner in December during its College Football Awards show.
Recent Groza winners include NC State’s Chris Dunn and Michigan’s Jake Moody. No Notre Dame kicker has won the award in its history, beginning in 1992, but David Ruffer was a finalist for the Irish in 2010.
Shrader, a graduate transfer from South Florida, was the Bulls’ primary kicker for two seasons. In 2022, he made nine of his 13 field goal attempts, good for a field goal percentage of 69.2. In 2021, Shrader converted 11 of his 13 tries, which is 84.6 percent.
That 2021 season made Shrader a semifinalist for the Groza Award, which went to Moody.
In his first two seasons, Shrader made eight of his 15 field goal attempts. He was named the American Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week on Nov. 9, 2020 after hitting four of his four field goal attempts, all from over 40 yards out.
Regarding distance, Shrader is 10 for 16 in his career from 40 to 49 yards. He has only made one from 50 or more yards out in five attempts. Shrader has also never missed an extra point in his college career.
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Reporters got their first look at Shrader during Friday’s Notre Dame practice, with graduate student Michael Vinson long snapping and sophomore quarterback Dylan Devezin holding.
Blue & Gold tallied Shrader at six makes on eight field goal attempts, with his longest being a 49-yarder. Of his misses, both went wide left, from the perspective of the kicker. One miss was a short field goal that was very close, while the other was a longer field goal that missed by a wide margin.
At no point during practice did Shrader struggle with distance, as all of his kicks had more than enough leg to go through the uprights.
Before USF, Shrader spent time in Brazil and Canada in 2018 to pursue a career in professional soccer.
