Fred Mitchell Award celebrates placekickers for excellence – 2025 Preseason Watch List

The Fred Mitchell Award recognizes 35 placekickers for their excellence on the football field throughout the 2024 season and for their off-field contributions throughout the year.

The Fred Mitchell Award will recognize kickers that were nominated by their schools or are at the top of their division for terrific performances through Nov. 22, 2025 (regular season statistics only). The recipient of the Fred Mitchell Award will be announced in December based on performance on the football field and in the community. 

The namesake for the award, Fred Mitchell, was a longtime (1974-2015) award-winning sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune and the author of 12 sports books. Mitchell set the NCAA record for career kick-scoring at Wittenberg University in 1968 among “College Division” schools that are now classified as FCS, Division II and Division III. 

“The 2025 Fred Mitchell Award Preseason Watch List includes excellent kickers and community-minded individuals from over 750 non-FBS colleges in America,” said Mitchell. “Our 37-man Selection Committee looks forward to monitoring the seasons of these kickers, as well as those whose names might not appear on this list and yet deserve the utmost attention. Many thanks to FMA co-chairmen Matt Cotiguala and Rob Perry for their efforts in crafting this list. Over the past 15 years, several kickers from the Preseason Watch List wound up kicking professionally. Best of luck to all kickers in the 2025 season!”

The breakdown of the 35 place-kickers is as follows:

• 10 returning list members
• 3 previous list members transferred to FBS programs
• Collegiate Division – 15 FCS, 9 Division II, 7 Division III, 3 NAIA, and 1 3C2A
• Year – 16 seniors, 13 juniors, 6 sophomores

In alphabetical order, the Fred Mitchell Award Preseason nominees for the 2025 season are listed below:

Mathew Bacik – Sophomore 
Grand Valley State University – DII

Jack Barnum – Senior
Villanova University – FCS

Christopher Baldazo – Senior
Arkansas Tech University – DII

Riley Callaghan – Senior
Old Dominion University – FCS

Christian Casillas – Junior
Saint Xavier University – NAIA

Antonio Chadha – Junior
Western Illinois University – FCS

Landon Eaker – Senior
LaGrange College – DIII

Braxtyn Green – Junior
North Carolina Wesleyan College – DIII

Reice Griffith – Junior
Mercer University – FCS

Elijah Guyton – Senior
University of West Alabama – DII

Tyler Huettel – Senior
University of Wisconsin-Stout – DIII

Thien Hoang  – Sophomore
Weber State University – FBC

Dieter Kelly – Sophomore
College of the Canyons – 3C2A

Enda Kirby – Senior
Stony Brook University – FCS

Will Leyand – Senior
South Dakota University – FCS

Job Matossian – Senior
University of the Cumberlands – NAIA

Brett Money – Junior
Aurora University – DIII

Ty Morrison – Senior
Montana University – FCS

Brad Paxton – Sophomore
Johns Hopkins University – DIII

Brack Peacock – Junior
University of the Incarnate Word – FCS

Cameron Pope – Senior
Idaho University – FCS

Hunter Ridley – Senior 
University of California, Davis – FCS

AJ Rhodes – Senior
Ashland University – DII

Ben Rudolph – Sophomore 
Tiffin University – DII

Lorcan Ryans – Junior
Tuskegee University – DII

Myles Sansted – Sophomore 
Montana State University – FCS

Seth Simpson – Senior
Baker University – NAIA

Tyler Simpson – Junior
Shorter University – DII

Matthew Swink – Junior
Carroll University – DIII

Kameron Van Prooyen – Junior
Southern Nazarene University – DII

Luke Vogeler – Junior
Colgate University – FCS

Mathias Uribe – Senior
Portland State University – FCS

Jason Zapata – Junior
Livingstone College – DII

Alan Zhao – Junior
Cornell University – FCS