Not surprisingly, the reigning winner of an award who returned for another season will have the opportunity to claim the hardware in back-to-back years.
Thursday, the Palm Beach Sports Commission released its list of 20 semifinalists for the 2018 Lou Groza Award, given annually since 1992 to the nation’s top place-kicker. Leading the way for this group of semifinalists is Utah’s Matt Gay, the 2017 winner of the Groza.
In addition to Gay, 2017 finalist and Utah State junior Dominik Eberle is a 2018 semifinalist as well. Another three have been semifinalists for previous awards and are up for it again -- Georgia junior Rodrigo Blankenship and UTSA sophomore Jared Sackett in 2017, San Diego State senior John Baron II in 2016.
The 15 new semifinalists are as follows:
Georgia Southern junior Tyler Bass
Coastal Carolina freshman Massimo Biscardi
FIU sophomore Jose Borregales
Michigan State sophomore Matt Coghlin
Texas Tech senior Clayton Hatfield
North Texas senior Cole Hedlund
Indiana junior Logan Justus
Arkansas junior Connor Limpert
Illinois senior Chase McLaughlin
Florida freshman Evan McPherson
Wyoming junior Cooper Rothe
Syracuse freshman Andre Szymt
Central Michigan junior Ryan Tice
LSU senior Cole Tracy
UCF senior Matthew Wright