The accolades have been plentiful for Memphis kicker Jake Elliott over the course of his three-plus year career with the Tigers. But perhaps the greatest compliment comes when he misses a kick – because it almost never happens.
Elliott’s lone miss of the 2016 season came in the first quarter of the Tigers’ game against Kansas. He was wide to the right on a 39-yard attempt – hardly a chip shot – on a day that featured 13-mile-per-hour winds at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
No matter, though. Elliott followed that first kick by drilling field goals of 41, 42 and 50 yards in a runaway win against the Jayhawks. He came back the next week to go 11-for-11 on PATs in the Tigers’ record-setting 77-3 win against Bowling Green. That extended his streak to 162 straight PATs without a miss which now sits at 166. When the Tigers score six for a touchdown, the seventh point has been automatic.
Through four games of the 2016 season, Elliott finds himself in a familiar place – in the top three of the American Athletic Conference’s scoring chart. He led the league last year in kicker scoring and broke his own school record with 132 points, and was the conference’s top overall scorer in 2014, when he averaged 9.2 points per game.
Elliott has twice been named The American’s Special Teams Player of the Year (2014, 2015) and is a three-time all-conference selection. He was one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s top kicker last year and is a strong candidate to win the award as a senior. He was chosen as a second-team All-America selection by the Associated Press and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Off the field, Elliott earned a 4.0 semester grade-point average in the Spring 2016 term and is a two-time All-Academic Team selection in The American.