Fred Mitchell Award recognizes placekickers for excellence — 2025 Midseason Watch List
The Fred Mitchell Award recognizes 38 placekickers for their excellence on the football field throughout the first half of the 2025 season.
The Fred Mitchell Award recognizes kickers that were nominated by their schools or are at the top of their division for terrific performances through October 11, 2025. 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.
“Our mid-season Watch List includes several kickers who are having exceptional years in terms of both field goal accuracy and distance. Not to mention late-game clutch performances,” said Fred Mitchell. “We also value community service as an essential part of the criteria for choosing a winner, and that might very well be the determining factor at the end of this 2025 season.”
The breakdown of the 38 place-kickers is as follows:
- Collegiate Division – 19 FCS, 7 Division II, 6 Division III, 3 NAIA, 1 NJCAA, and 2 3C2A
In alphabetical order, the Fred Mitchell Award Mid-season nominees for the 2025 season are listed below — NOMINEE STATS THROUGH OCT. 11.
Seth Adams
University of Wisconsin–Whitewater – DIII
Harry Balke
Drake University – FCS
Luke Barnes
Elon University – FCS
Iden Bone
Whitworth University – DIII
Andrew Brown
North Carolina A&T State University – FCS
Nico Cavanillas
South Carolina State University – FCS
Antonio Chadha
Western Illinois University – FCS
Connor Fournier
Minnesota State University, Mankato – DII
Brysen Gardner
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – FCS
Lane Garner
Butte College – 3C2A
Logan Grwinski
Albion College – DIII
Ethan Hess
St. Olaf College – DIII
Levi Hilborn
Louisiana Christian University – NAIA
Samuel Hunsaker
Northern Arizona University – FCS
Marko Jovisic
Mississippi Valley State University – FCS
Dieter Kelly
College of San Mateo – 3C2A
Matt Kling
Sacred Heart University – FCS
Andrew Lastovka
Youngstown State University – FCS
Stephen Leinen
Dordt University – NAIA
Will Leyland
University of South Dakota – FCS
Matt Maldonado
Illinois State University – FCS
Brandon McCary
Minot State University – DII
Jared Navidad
Hudson Valley Community College – NJCAA
Eli Ozick
North Dakota State University – FCS
Harry Radcliffe
PennWest California (California University of Pennsylvania) – DII
Bleu Renfrow
William Jewell College – DII
Ozlo Rigby
Texas A&M University–Commerce – FCS
Brody Rucker
Wabash College – DIII
Layne Ryals
Missouri University of Science and Technology – DII
Trajan Sinatra
Idaho State University – FCS
Michael Stack
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse – DIII
Brett Starling
Hampton University – FCS
Jimmy Tran
Savannah State University – DII
Samuel Tremblay
University of Maine – FCS
Ian Vachon
University of North Alabama – FCS
David Weber
Central Washington University – DII
Caden Williams
Towson University – FCS
