KANSAS

Kansas Football Kicker Laith Marjan Named to Lou Groza Award Preseason Watch List

Kansas Jayhawks kicker Laith Marjan was selected to the watch list for the Lou Groza Award, an annual honor given to college football's best kicker.
Dillon Davis|
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Kansas Jayhawks

Kansas redshirt-senior kicker Laith Marjan has been named to this year’s Lou Groza Place-Kicker Award Preseason Watch List, as announced by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission last week. The award is given annually to college football top’s kicker.

He is one of 30 Division I kickers from across college football to be named to the list and one of six from the Big 12 Conference, including Upton Bellenfant (Texas Tech), Will Ferrin (BYU), Jesus Gomez (Arizona State), Kyle Konrardy (Iowa State), and Gabe Panikowski (Oklahoma State).

Marjan – who first started his college career at East Carolina – was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award last year while playing at South Alabama.

During the 2024 season, Marjan was 16-of-17 on field goals and 42-of-44 on extra points, including a made 49-yard field goal at LSU last September. His performance earned him Second Team All-Sun Belt honors.

His presence on the KU roster this year should be a welcome one as the Jayhawks have struggled at times to make clutch field goals in close-game situations.

Marjan’s field goal percentage of 94% last year would easily top the field goal percentage of any kicker KU has had during the last 10 years. And he will be needed this year if the offense struggles at times due to the loss of skill players like Devin Neal, Luke Grimm, Lawrence Arnold, and Quentin Skinner.

In addition to being named to the Lou Groza Award watch list, Marjan has also earned preseason Second Team All-Big 12 recognition from Athlon Sports and Phil Steele.

About the Lou Groza Award

The award – now in its 34th year – is named in honor of NFL Hall of Fame kicker Lou “The Toe” Groza, who played 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns. He revolutionized the position and was instrumental in getting it added as a full-time position on NFL rosters.

The Groza Award Committee monitors all FBS kickers throughout the season before narrowing the field down to 20 semifinalists on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

From that list, a panel of more than 100 FBS head coaches, SIDs, media members, former Groza finalists, and current NFL kickers will select the top three finalists for the award. Those finalists will be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 25.

That same group will then select the winner who will be announced on Friday, Dec. 12, during the Home Depot College Football Awards show on ESPN.

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Dillon Davis
DILLON DAVIS

Being a Kansas Jayhawks fan was never a choice for me. I grew up in Topeka, Kansas, surrounded by a family full of Jayhawks. I was even born during a Kansas basketball NCAA Tournament game, so I guess you could say it was fate for me to be a Jayhawk too. When it came time for me to go to college, there was only one place I applied and only one place I wanted to go – KU. I've since turned that passion into sports writing. I've written about KU sports for more than seven years and produced hundreds of KU news articles in that time. I love storytelling, I love KU and I love interacting with my fellow Jayhawks. Rock Chalk!

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