Tennessee football: Chase McGrath robbed of spot on Lou Groza watch list
On the same day Tennessee football punter Paxton Brooks was named to the 2022 Ray Guy Award preseason watch list, the Lou Groza Award preseason watch list came out too. Somehow, UT graduate senior place kicker Chase McGrath didn’t make the cut.
Last year, McGrath connected on 75 percent of his field goals, 12-of-16 to be exact, and he hit all 66 extra point attempts. On field goals within 40 yards, McGrath was an impressive 9-of-10, and he was 3-of-5 from 40 to 49 yards.
Simply put, McGrath was a reliable place kicker for Tennessee football. However, he wasn’t deemed one of the 30 players worthy enough to make the Groza list despite having better stats from last year than at least four of them.
Jake Oldroyd of the BYU Cougars, Andre Szmyt of the Syracuse Orange and Brandon Talton of the Nevada Wolf Pack all had a lower percentage than McGrath and were no better or worse from every specific range. Szmyt and Oldroyd even made fewer field goals and missed at least one extra point each.
Jared Sackett of the UTSA Roadrunners, meanwhile, didn’t even play last year, as he transferred from the South Florida Bulls. His last in-game action was 2020, and he only made 5-of-7 field goals, which makes for a worse percentage than McGrath.
Even in 2019, Sackett was 14-of-19, which makes for 73.7 percent, lower than McGrath, and while he was better within 40 and beyond 50, he was 8-of-13 from 40 to 49 yards. That’s not as good as McGrath’s percentage was.
However, Sackett’s spot on here gets to another point. Many of these players made the list because of what they did in previous years. Unless they had an injury, though, that’s an unfair analysis, as McGrath has gotten better each year, his best being last year when he transferred to Tennessee football from the USC Trojans.
Shouldn’t players get credit for actually improving over time? Barring injury being an excuse, shouldn’t the most recent year always be the year that carries the most weight? If so, then McGrath has no reason to be left off this list.
After all, Sackett’s last year that was better than McGrath’s in 2021 was back in 2017. That was his original tenure with UTSA and is carrying a lot of weight. However, let’s not pick on Sackett. Other players on here also had no business being picked over McGrath.
Szmyt was an abysmal 64.3 percent last year, going 9-of-14. He missed a field goal within 20 yards, was worse from beyond 40 and, just like McGrath, was 0-for-1 from beyond 50. Going over 80 percent each of the three years before shouldn’t count.
Talton may have a case, as he attempted nearly twice as many field goals as McGrath. However, he missed two within 40 yards. Oldroyd is the only one with a legitimate case, as he was perfect in 2020 and did actually battle injuries last year.
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Still, with all four guys on the list, Tennessee football’s place kicker deserved to be on there. He’d be in the bottom half of talent on that list, but there’s no denying that McGrath was better last year than multiple players on here. As a result, he got robbed.