Welch earns spot on Groza Award watch list
July 08, 2011 | Football
July 8, 2011
MADISON, Wis. -- Place-kicker Philip Welch heads into his senior season with the Wisconsin football team on the 2011 preseason watch list for the Lou Groza Award, which was announced Thursday by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.
The watch list for the award, presented annually to the nation’s top place-kicker, includes 30 players from across college football.
Welch was a semifinalist for the Groza Award as a freshman in 2008, when he converted 20-of-24 field goals on his way to Freshman All-America honors. He also was named to the Groza preseason watch list as a sophomore in 2009.
Welch scored 118 points for the Badgers last season, the third-highest total of any of this year’s Groza candidates. That total marked the Badgers’ school record for a kicker and ranks as the fourth-highest single-season scoring total in UW history.
He also set single-season school records for both extra points attempted and extra points made, converting all 67 of his PAT tries in 2010. Welch also was good on 17 of 22 field goal attempts on the season, an accuracy of 77.2 percent.
Those performances led to Welch earning consensus All-Big Ten honorable mention for the second time in three seasons.
For his career, Welch holds UW’s school records for extra points attempted (156), extra points made (153) and extra-point percentage (.981). Welch also ranks No. 2 all-time at UW with both his 54 made field goals and his field goal percentage of .771.
His career total of 315 points stands No. 2 all-time at Wisconsin, as well, trailing only Ron Dayne’s school record of 426.
The Groza Award will announce its 20 semifinalists on Oct. 28. From that list, a panel will select the top three finalists for the award by Nov. 21. That same group then selects the national winner, which will be announced Dec. 8, during The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards Show in Orlando, Fla.
The 20th Annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, presented by the Orange Bowl Committee, recognizes the finalists during a celebration in Palm Beach County that culminates with a gala awards banquet on Dec. 6, prior to joining the ESPN event in Orlando.
The award is named for NFL Hall of Fame kicker Lou “The Toe” Groza, who played 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns. Groza won four NFL championships with Cleveland and was named NFL Player of the Year in 1954.
