One of Josh Heupels first additions to the Tennessee football program as head coach is on the special teams front and offsets a key loss. Less than a week after losing place kicker Brent Cimaglia to the transfer portal, the Vols have brought in a graduate transfer at the position.
Chase McGrath announced his decision to transfer to Rocky Top Tuesday night. Over the past four years, McGrath has been with the USC Trojans, but he suffered an injury in 2020 and never kicked a field goal that year.
With McGrath out, freshman Parker Lewis emerged. As a result, he wasn’t going to be the starting kicker his final year with the program and entered the transfer portal back in December. He announced his decision to join Tennessee football on Twitter.
THANK YOU USC ✌️
— Chase (@ChaseMcGrath) February 3, 2021
Blessed to be a Volunteer. #GBO pic.twitter.com/xcJ1HTAsLX
Before his injury, McGrath had emerged as a deadly accurate kicker with solid power as well. He is 32-of-42 on all field goals and a solid 9-of-15 on field goals 40 yards and beyond with two of those misses coming on four attempts from 50 yards and beyond. On extra points, he is 18-of-19 for his career.
However, if you look beyond his freshman year, when many place kickers go through growing pains in college, he’s even more reliable. McGrath was 20-of-25 in 2018 and 2019, and more importantly, he was 14-of-15 on field goals inside 40 yards and perfect on extra points those two years, meaning he was reliable and nearly automatic where a college kicker should be.
Simply put, the guy has gotten more accurate over time and clearly has leg power since he has made two field goals from beyond 50 yards, so he could become a huge advantage for Rocky Top. We should also note that he’s clutch. He kicked a 43-yard game-winning field goal in overtime to beat the Texas Longhorns 27-24 in 2017, which was just the third college game of his career.
As of the McGrath’s announcement, he makes for three place kickers on Tennessee football’s roster. Toby Wilson took over place kicking duties after Cimaglia shut down the season late in 2020, and Marshall Ware is also on the roster. Paxton Brooks technically doubles as a place kicker too, but he’s mainly a punter.