Vanderbilt Kicker Brock Taylor Aims for 60 Yarders and Lou Groza Award in 2025

Nashville–Brock Taylor says he’s matured enough since his days at Knoxville Catholic high school enough to no longer attempt field goals in practice that he doesn’t believe he’ll have the opportunity to kick during games. In his words, he tries “not to be an idiot.” 

The amount of kicks that aren’t realistic for him nowadays have significantly decreased, though. Perhaps the junior kicker won’t be attempting 70 yarders like he did whenever there was down wind in his high school days, but his in-game kicks could be equally as jarring as it was whenever he made one back in the day.

Taylor believes his “go” line has increased from his 2024 distance of the 39-40 yard line to the 42-43 yard line in 2025. If that’s the case, it means Vanderbilt could send him out there to take one from 63 yards. He’s all for the challenge. 

“Dead wind I’d say comfortably probably back to about 62 or 63 [yards],” Taylor said in regards to his range. “A little bit of wiggle room at the back is when it gets fun, you get a little bit of wiggle room. I think this year the go line has definitely increased a little bit, which is exciting.”

Taylor’s longest field goal–which was a 57 yarder in Vanderbilt’s eventual loss to Missouri in September–was the longest made kick in program history. He’s out to break his own record this season, though. 

The Knoxville, Tennessee, native isn’t as worried about his record as much as he is Vanderbilt’s eventual record, though. If Taylor’s going to help his program reach its national championship aspirations, he’ll have to continue to be steady like he was as he made 18 of his 21 kicks and 39 of his 40 extra points last season. If he does, it could lead to him getting to a place that few Vanderbilt kickers get to.  

“He’s got the talent to be a Groza winner, it’s how can we push that out of him?” Vanderbilt special teams coach Jeff LePak said. “Brock was consistent last year, but I think there’s another level of consistency for him. Obviously 18-21 is fantastic, missed the one PAT [last year], a good rate, but now how can we take him to the next level?”

Perhaps LePak has a shade of bias when he speaks publicly about those within his unit, but those outside of Vanderbilt’s building appear to see what he sees within his starting kicker. Taylor was named to the Lou Groza Award watch list during the second week of Vanderbilt’s fall camp. The award goes to the best kicker in college football at the end of each season and Taylor is one of 30 kickers named to the preseason list.

Taylor knows that his field goal kicking is what got him in a position to be recognized, but he believes that in order to help Vanderbilt get to where it wants to go, his kickoffs have to be stronger. As much as Taylor has worked to improve his consistency and distance, he’s put in the work to get Vanderbilt more favorable field position out of kickoff situations. 

“This offseason I put a lot of time into endurance in my legs,” Taylor said. “If you look at the statistics my kickoffs started getting shorter throughout the season last year so I spent a lot of time with coach Steiner and my trainers, just working endurance and strengthening my lower body. It’s one of those things where I won’t see the true dividends until November-ish, but I’m excited to see how it goes. I feel great right now.”

At this stage, why wouldn’t Taylor feel great? 

The Vanderbilt kicker is on pace to be one of its best kickers in program history by the time it’s all said and done. That will be the case if he repeats what he did last season. He’s out for more, though. He wants to win first and foremost, though. 

If all goes right, he’ll be a key ingredient to Vanderbilt finding a way to do that.

“We have a ton of confidence in Brock and Brock has a ton of confidence in himself,” LePak said. “He’s very, very talented. With the way that we play football he should have some opportunities to kick some big game winners for us and he’s gonna be ready for that moment.”