ECU's Miller Named Lou Groza Award Semifinalist
November 05, 2002 | Football
Dustin Bell of Houston, Nick Browne of TCU, Nick Hayes of UAB and ECU's Miller are C-USA's representatives on the list of semifinalists, which will be paired to three finalists on November 18.
Miller, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., is a semifinalist for the third time in his career. He is 8-of-10 on field goal attempts this season, with his only misses coming from 47 and 50 yards. Miller is currently on a streak of 23 consecutive made field goal attempts from within 41 yards. He ranks second on ECU in scoring this season with 44 points and is five points shy of the school career scoring record.
Bell has emerged as a steady offensive force for the Cougars, who attempted only four field goals during the entire 2001 season. The Houston native has connected on 8-of-9 field goal attempts and is 23-of-25 on PATs. His 47 total points are 11 points higher than his closest competitor on the team. In addition, he became the first kicker in school history to connect on his first eight field goals to open the season.
Browne has hit 19-of-21 field goals this season and has converted all 29 of his extra point attempts. The 19 field goals are the second-highest total in Division I and his 2.38 field goal per game average leads the nation. Browne ranks sixth in the country in scoring, averaging 10.75 points per game. His 86 points on the season already ranks third on the TCU all-time list for kickers, behind only Chris Kaylakie's 98 points in 2000 and Michael Reeder's 89 points in 1995 when he won the Groza Award.
Hayes has not missed a kick this season, going 9-for-9 on field goal attempts and 20-for-20 on extra point tries. Six of his nine field goals have been from 40 yards or longer. He has now made 12 of 13 career attempts of 40 yards or longer.
Conference USA has produced the winner of the last two Lou Groza Awards. Tulane's Seth Marler won the award last season, while Cincinnati's Jonathan Ruffin took the honor in 2000. Both Marler and Ruffin were on the preseason watch list for this year's Groza Award, although neither made the list of 20 semifinalists. The four 2002 semifinalists combined with the past two winners speak favorably to the strength of placekickers in C-USA.
It is noteworthy to mention that future Conference USA member South Florida, which joins the league in 2003, placed sophomore Santiago Gramatica on the list of 2002 semifinalists. Santiago is the brother of Arizona Cardinals kicker Bill Gramatica and Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Martin Gramatica, the 1997 Lou Groza Award winner.
Started in 1992, the Lou Groza Award is named after Lou "The Toe" Groza, the Cleveland Browns Hall of Fame placekicker who is credited with elevating the role of placekicker to one of an offensive weapon and scoring machine. Groza, who played 21 seasons in the NFL, set NFL records for field goals and extra points in a season as a rookie and he ended his career with 10 league records and 24 Cleveland Browns marks.
Previous recipients of the award included Memphis' Joe Allison in 1992, Judd Davis of Florida in 1993, Arizona's Steve McLaughlin in 1994, Michael Reeder of TCU in 1995, Kansas State's Martin Gramatica in 1997, Sebastian Janikowski of Florida State in both 1998 and 1999, Ruffin in 2000 and Marler last season.
2002 LOU GROZA AWARD SEMIFINALISTS
Joey Ashcroft, Jr. ,Air Force
Asen Asparuhov, Sr. ,Fresno State
Xavier Beitia, So. ,Florida State
Dustin Bell, So. ,Houston
Billy Bennett, Jr. ,Georgia
Nick Browne, Jr. ,TCU
Santiago Gramatica, So. ,South Florida
Nick Hayes, So. ,UAB
Curtis Head, Sr. ,Marshall
Aaron Hunt, Jr. ,Clemson
Mark Jensen, Sr. ,California
Nate Kaeding, Jr. ,Iowa
Dane Kidman, Sr. ,Utah State
Kevin Miller, Sr. ,East Carolina
Nick Novak, So. ,Maryland
Mike Nugent, So. ,Ohio State
Dane Nystrom, Sr. ,Minnesota
Jared Parseghian, Fr. ,Miami (Ohio)
Jared Siegel, So. ,Oregon
Shaun Suisham, Jr. ,Bowling Green
