SALT LAKE CITY — Utah place-kicker Matt Gay won’t be a repeat winner of the Lou Groza Award. The senior, who made 21 consecutive field goals at one point this season, isn’t one of the finalists for this year’s accolade.
“I’m definitely disappointed,” Gay said. “I thought I deserved it. I thought I earned it.”
Gay has made 23 of 27 kicks this season, including nine from 40 yards or longer. He connected on a 55-yarder in Utah’s win over Oregon and leads the Pac-12 in scoring (9.7 points per game).
In addition, Gay is second in the nation in field goals made (23) and field goals per game (2.09).
Lou Groza Award ballots were sent to media voters after Week 8, before Gay went on his school-record streak. Two blocks and a miss early in the season left him with a 12-of-15 start when votes were initially sought.
“You can’t judge a season off of two-thirds of it,” Gay said. “I mean, there are four games left in the season and those four games happen to be my biggest and even when they updated the stats, or send out another reminder two weeks later, they still hadn’t updated stats.”
Gay admits he’s “a little frustrated on that part.” Even so, he gave credit to kickers Cooper Rothe (Wyoming), Andre Szmyt (Syracuse) and Cole Tracy (LSU) for being named finalists and “fantastic all year.”
The honor, Gay continued, is well-deserved.
“I’m disappointed in myself,” he said. “I thought I deserved it, but I’m not the one making the decision.
The Pac-12 named Gay as its Special Teams Player of the Week for the second consecutive time after he made three kicks in Saturday’s 30-7 win at Colorado. Gay has won the award four times this season.