Oklahoma's Tate Sandell was already deemed the best kicker in college football, and one day, he could earn that same title in the NFL.
Using a metric developed by FanSided to better evaluate kickers, Adam Fromal recently made a list of college kickers already destined for the NFL. The reigning Lou Groza Award winner, of course, topped a group of only four players who met all of Fromal's key requirements to eventually get their name called on draft day in 2027 and succeed in the NFL.
Read more: NCAA kickers who should already be on the 2027 NFL Draft radar
FanSided metrics confirm Tate Sandell is at an NFL level
After transferring from UTSA, Sandell had a historic first season at OU to become the first Sooner to win the Lou Groza Award, given to the best placekicker in college football, and was also named SEC Special Teams Player of the Year, First-Team All-SEC, and a First-Team All-American by FWAA and Sporting News.
Sandell set or tied eight career or single-season school, conference, FBS, or stadium records while making 24 of his 27 field-goal attempts, including 24 in a row, with a long of 55 yards, which he made four times.
Then, instead of heading to the NFL early, Sandell chose to return to Oklahoma for 2026, even if the accolades and accomplishments alone showed he was worthy of the next level. FanSided's kicking evaluation further proves Sandell is destined for a career in the NFL. Thankfully for the Sooners, he's not already there.
First, there's the Kick Value Added (KVA) metric to analyze kickers like no way before. Here's how Fromal described it: "Instead of treating all makes and misses equally, KVA measures how much value a kicker actually adds (or costs) relative to league expectations from the same distances across the field. A long-distance conversion shouldn’t be weighed the same as a chip shot, and a miss doesn’t carry the same meaning everywhere on the field."
With the KVA in mind, Fromal analyzed over 27,000 field-goal attempts and all extra-point data from 2015 to the present in college football, then used what he saw to create the list of college kickers who are NFL-ready. He took into account career KVA, career-long made field goals, average distance of made field goals, and average distance of attempted field goals.
Using a 20-career KVA and having a make of at least 54 yards as the deciding factors, only four kickers remained: Sandell, Lucas Carneiro (Ole Miss), Peyton Woodring (Georgia) and John Love (Virginia Tech). These are guys who will not only get a chance in the NFL, but succeed. Sandell stood above the rest of the elite company with a 24.18 career KVA, a career long of 55 yards and a 40.59-yard average make.
"That type of consistent excellence is literally unprecedented since 2015," Fromal wrote of Sandell. "... Even if he stagnates, he's coming off a season that would've likely already resulted in hearing his name called at the National Mall."
Fromal basically used all that to confirm what OU fans already knew: Tate Sandell is an NFL-level kicker still playing college football. Fortunately for the Sooners, Sandell didn't care enough to move on and instead chose to return for some unfinished business.
Sandell accomplished all he could as an individual in college, but the Sooners still haven't won a game in the College Football Playoff. And they might have if Sandell didn't miss two field-goal attempts in OU's first-round loss to Alabama last year. Those misses ended his streak of 24 makes in a row after he missed his very first kick as a Sooner.
It was infuriating at the time, but Sandell not being perfect revealed how crucial he was in the Sooners even getting that far. Oklahoma wouldn't have made the CFP in 2025 if not for Sandell, and the Sooners also need him to finally win a playoff game in 2026 before he helps a lucky NFL franchise.
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