Tennessee football’s top five place kickers in history

What qualifies as great? Is it performance relative to the level of competition, or is it performance relative to the totality. To a degree, you have to make things relative because players back in the day would probably be able to keep up with the player of today if those players had access to the same equipment, technology and information.

This is truest when it comes to place kicking. The production there was very mediocre back in the 1960s and 1970s. For context, at the NFL level, place kickers only made 51 percent of field goals in 1967. Now, it’s over 80 percent. This is the context for which we judge Ricky Townsend. In terms of relative production, he is Tennessee football’s greatest kicker ever.

Townsend, a barefoot kicker, was a two-time All-American with the Vols in 1972 and 1973, and he was perfect on extra points in 1972 while hitting 12 of 19 field goals for a rate of 62.3 percent. However, in 1973, Townsend still earned those honors despite missing two extra points and only going 11-of-21 on field goals for a rate of 52.4 percent.

In 1974, Townsend missed three extra points and only went 10-of-21 on field goals for a rate of 47.6 percent. As a result, he finished his career 72-of-77 on extra points and 33-of-61 on field goals. Those aren’t great numbers. They were great for the time, though, which is why he makes this list.