Ranking kickers in college football (aka the Penn State kicking game is really that bad)

We can get a better picture of a kicker's performance if we evaluate each field goal attempt by the distance. My approach here is to use the average accuracy of kickers from each distance, convert that into points (the field goal attempt is worth 1.5 points if kickers make the field goal 50% of the time), and then subtract that from the actual points earned on each individual kick.

By this metric, Northwestern has benefited the most from the kicking game. Jeff Budzien is 11 for 11 on the season, including 4 kicks over 40 yards. He has been worth 9.7 points to his team (versus the average FBS kicker). Tulane's Cairo Santos has added an astounding 1.3 points per kick on his 4 attempts (all four over 30 yards, two over 40 and one over 50 yards). To put this in perspective, 1/6th of Tulane's 32 points have come from Santos being better than other kickers; from just four plays he is clearly the team's offensive MVP.


At the other end is Penn St. It is appropriate here to note that this metric evaluates kickers only on the kicks they have attempted and doesn't consider the impact on whether or not the team attempts the field goal to begin with. That being said, Penn St's kicking game has cost the team 11.5 points this season and almost 1.5 points per kick. To put this in perspective, the field goal unit costs its team half a turnover (on average) every time they walk on the field. Last year's kicking champ, Texas A&M, has fallen to 105th in both points per attempt and total points.