by Lee Brecheen
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| Chris Boniol when he was with the Dallas Cowboys |
March 23, 2011 - I grew up a fan of many kickers growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s to today from the NFL level, high school level, and the College level. I would like to share with you my favorite kickers of all time and some history of Top kickers to come out of Louisiana either as natives from Louisiana or not from Louisiana, but played college football in Louisiana.
My favorite Louisiana high school kickers all Time are Wade Richey from Carencro High School, John Corbello from St. Thomas More, the late John Marino from Covington High School, Chris Jackson from John Curtis High School, and Drew Alleman from Acadiana High School. These guys are my favorites because I watched these kids in person make big time kicks at games and I was able to see and experience for my own eyes. I saw Wade Richey kick his 61 yard field goal in person while he was at Carencro, I saw John Marino make some incredible kicks in the pouring rain as well as John Corbello from St. Thomas More which were amazing to do with a wet heavy ball over 45 yards in range in hurricane type weather.
My favorite college kickers are Eddie Murray from Tulane, David Browndyke from LSU, Colt David from LSU, Chris Boniol from La Tech, Matt Stover from La Tech, Seth Marler from Tulane, Josh Jasper from LSU , Blake Bercegeay from McNeese State, Rafel Septien from USL, Josh Scobee from La Tech and John Marino from McNeese State.
My favorite Louisiana connected kickers in the NFL, current or former, are Rafeal Septien from the Dallas Cowboys and Eddie Murray from the Detroit Lions who are both retired, and currently Garrett Hartley of the New Orleans Saints and Josh Scobee of the Jacksonville Jaquars.
The Louisiana kickers to have the most success in the NFL, to do a little history you have to go way back to Tommy Davis from LSU, who kicked from 1959 to 1969 for the San Francisco 49ers. Tommy was selected to the NFL Pro Bowl in 1962 and 1963 seasons. Tommy made 130 field goals while playing for San Francisco 49ers and had a punt of 82 yards. Most people don’t ever mention this, but Tommy Davis was the kicker on the National Championship 1958 LSU Tiger football team.
Eddie Murray played college football for Tulane, but was from Victoria, British Columbia. Eddie played with the Detroit Lions from 1980 to 1991, and then retired with the Washington Redskins in 2000. Eddie made 352 field Goals in the NFL out of 466 attempts which is a 75.5 percentage. Eddie made the All NFL decade team for the 1980’s and was the 1981 Pro Bowl MVP.
Rafael Septien kicked for the USL Ragin Cajun football team in Lafayette, which is now called UL Lafayette. Rafael kicked for the Dallas Cowboys from 1978 to 1986, having scored a total of 960 points in a 10 year career. He led the Cowboys in scoring 9 out of his 10 seasons in the NFL. A little trivia for the readers, Rafael was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 1977 but was cut. Rafael is from Mexico City, Mexico.
Chris Boniol from La Tech played for the Cowboys from 1994 to 1996, the Eagles from 1997 to 1998, and Bears in 1999. Chris tied the NFL record at that time with 6 field goals in a game in 1996 for the Dallas Cowboys. Chris played his high school football at Alexandria High School. He currently works for the Dallas Cowboys on staff.
Wade Richey from Carencro and LSU played in the NFL from 1998 to 2001 with the San Francisco 49ers and in 2003 for the Baltimore Ravens.
Matt Stover holds more records and ranks in every kicking stat you can think of, of any former Louisiana kicker. He played high school football in Dallas, Texas, but kicked for LA Tech in Ruston. He kicked in the NFL from 1990 to 2009, and set many NFL records. Matt owns the NFL records for most consecutive extra points with 469, most consecutive games with a field goal with 38, oldest player to participate in a Super Bowl at 42 years, 11 days old and oldest player to score in a Super Bowl at 42 years, 11 days old. Stover was known for kicking the football through the goal posts on kickoffs at LA Tech during his college days.
Seth Marler of Tulane won the Lou Groza award given to the Nation’s top kicker in 2001, and was named First Team All American while at Tulane in 2001. Marler holds Tulane records for most field goals with 66, field goals attempted with 91, and points with 333. Seth is from the state of Georgia.
Colt David from LSU from Grapevine, Texas, made 201 out of 204 extra points in his 4 year career. He kicked 18 field goals over 40 yards in his career. He did hold the LSU record for field goals in a season, but Josh Jasper broke that in 2010.
Josh Scobee is from Longview, Texas, and played at La Tech, and is currently still kicking for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Scobee made six career field goals over 50 yards at La Tech which is a school record. He made 66 out of 92 field goals at La Tech, and is La Tech’s all time leading scorer with 343 points. Scobee is one of the top kickers in the NFL and has one of the strongest legs, making a field goal over 58 yards to his credit with the Jaguars.
Blake Bercegeay and John Marino both played at McNeese State and both made over 65 percent of their field goals in their career and both are All Americans in IAA at McNeese State. Blake played high school football at East Ascension and Marino played for Covington.
Josh Jasper from LSU, and a Memphis, Tennessee, native finished this past season as LSU’s most accurate kicker of all time. Get these mind boggling stats. Josh made 47 out of 56 field goals in front of 92,000 plus pressured packed fans every game in four years. His 83.9 percent percentage is first in LSU history and second in SEC history. He holds school record with 28 field goals in 2010 for most field goals in one season. I thought this kid should have won the Lou Goza award in 2010. He’s the best college kicker I’ve ever seen with Louisiana ties.
Finally the best kick I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of following football in Louisiana was New Orleans Saints kicker Garrett Hartley on January 24th 2010 when he hit a 40 yard field goal to send the Saints to the Super Bowl over the Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre in overtime. Garrett was also 3 for 3 in the Super bowl win over the Colts, hitting field goals from 46, 44 and 47 yards.
What do Garrett Hartley, Josh Scobee, Colt David, Matt Stover, and David Browndyke all have in common? They’re all from the State of Texas and most of them are from the Dallas area. I would say keep finding kickers from Texas, because the past shows they put out great ones.
Please write in with your favorite kicker of all time with Louisiana ties. I did not mention everyone, but these were my favorites. Write in your favorites and tell us why, and if you were able to see them play in person like I did with most of players I mentioned above. You can send comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or leave them on our facebook. I hope you enjoyed the article.
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