That’s the post!! Congrats to Graham!
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It’s just so rare that mid majors break into these awards let alone win, yet here we are. What a day!
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Great to see the recognition! Great season by Nicholson and the team!
Another season like this one and we’ll be ready to retire 98. Congrats to Graham and Bronowski, first Groza in MAC history.
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Graham Nicholson is so good that he made me forget about Sam Sloman for awhile.
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The EMU Offensive Lineman got the Disney award for emphasis on selfless team building. MACTion, Baby!
I really thought the Bama kicker would win…partly due to the P5 bias but also due to his overall college record. There is a meltdown on the Alabama message boards…so sorry… NOT!
Graham was the best kicker this year in college football and deserved this award! So cool to have a Miami player who will undoubtedly be a first team All American!
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He’s already been memes first team all American on at least four selections!
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Not sure which all American teams are recognized to be a consensus 1st team All American…no matter as this award has brought great distinction to Graham and Miami.
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He’s been named first team All American on the CBS, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, and Walter Camp teams so far.
This is outstanding! Nicholson deserved it, but I was shocked he won. Kudos to the committee/voters that gave it to the kicker with the best season stats, instead of some career achievement award.
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To be a consensus All American pick you must be named on half the lists sanctioned by the NCAA; not sure I can remember them all but they include the Football Writers of America, the AP, the Football Coaches of America, the Sporting News, and the Walter Camp foundation.
So, Graham already has one of these, the Walter Camp.
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For years (and years and years) it felt as if kicking had been a struggle, as in you better score a touchdown because you don’t want to risk having to get a late FG to win it. Obviously there were exceptions (Trevor Cook in the 2010 Fog Bowl at BG, for an example) but struggling seemed to be the norm.
Now over the past few years, we’ve had Sloman, who should have won the Groza, and Nicholson, who has won it. And Graham had to beat out Alabama’s Will Reichard, and the committee must have been salivating over the thought of naming him their winner.
As we saw with Toledo last week, MAC-level special teams can really, really suck. Meanwhile, We’ve had 2 nationally elite kickers in the last few years. That is nuts for any school, especially a G5 program. And overall, our special teams units are truly special. That is a testament to both the coaches and players.
Congrats to Graham. This team continues to collect trophies. Let’s collect one more.
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Agree, Mowch…I thought for certain that they would give it to the Bama kicker for his career kicking.
It wouldn’t have been a travesty if they did (IMHO), but the award is specifically for this year, and in this season Graham was the best, so he was very deserving of the award.
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We actually have a tradition of having some pretty good kickers. Here’s one:
Gary Gussman played for the Miami RedHawksfrom 1984 to 1987. He was named All-MACthree consecutive seasons, including First Team and All-American honors as a senior in 1987.[2]
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Yup, was it Gussman who could also kick 50 yarders with his opposite leg?
Chad Seitz was another excellent placekicker.
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Yep. Seitz was good. I remember Dave Draudt, too. He saved us a few times.
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Honestly, I had almost forgotten about Seitz,he kicked for Miami 3 years and kicked the winning FG against B10 champ NW in 1995 to win 30-28.
He had two very good years in which he led the MAC in successful FG conversion % but regressed his senior year making only 12 of 21 FG’s but was perfect on PAT"s.
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I was reminiscing about the days when we wondered why Miami couldn’t find a kicker that could kick off past the 20.
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When do they announce the eddie Robinson coach of the year
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