Louisiana Kicker Kenneth Almendares Named Lou Groza Award Winner

G5 Football Daily Staff | Dec 13, 2024

Kicker Kenneth Almendares 45 as the The Louisiana Ragin Cajuns take on the Texas State Bobcats at Cajun Field in Lafayette, LA. Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. / SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

For the second straight season, the winner of the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award comes from the Group of Five ranks as Louisiana senior Kenneth Almendares earns the honors for the 2024 season.

The 6-foot-2, 255-pound Honduras-born kicker led FBS with 27 made 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.

"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.”

Almendares is 27-of-29 on the season and his 93.1% accuracy rate was by far the best in the country by a kicker with at least 20 tries.

Almendares’ season has a chance to place him in rare company. Should he end the season above 90% made field goals, he would become just the third kicker since 2008 to lead the country in field goals while also connecting at 90% or better.

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.

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