For all the talent the Oregon Ducks have produced at quarterback, receiver and running back since the start of the College Football Playoff era, one position has remained a frustrating question mark: kicker. The Ducks have missed some major field goals recently, including the 2023 regular-season loss to Washington and the loss to Indiana at home this season.
Currently, Ducks kicker Atticus Sappington ranks No. 87 in the nation in field goal percentage and No. 46 in field goals per game, according to the NCAA.
In the entire history of Oregon football, there have been zero kickers to make the NFL – or any other professional league. Since 2010, the Ducks have had seven starting kickers and only two have kicked over 80% on field goals. Currently, most top tier kickers are in the 85% to 100% range.
The most consistent kicker in recent history is Aidan Schneider, who played at Oregon from 2014 to 2017. He went 51-for-60 on field goals and 212-for-215 on extra points during his time with the Ducks according to Sports Reference. Schneider was also a third team All-American and first team Pac-12 All-Conference in 2015.
Schneider was a walk-on at Oregon and earned a scholarship after making over 90% of his field goals in his first two seasons. His longest career field goal was from 47 yards.
The only other kicker over 80% is Sappington, who is 22-for-27 on field goals since he transferred to Oregon from rival Oregon State in 2024. In 14 games last season, he only missed two field goals, but has missed three in half as many games this season.
Sappington only kicked seven field goals during his time with the Oregon State Beavers, where he was five-for-seven. His longest field goal with the Ducks was from 42 yards out.
Head coach Dan Lanning has been supportive of Sappington since he joined the Ducks.
“I told Atticus early on when he missed that extra point that you’re gonna have another opportunity to kick again for this team and it’s going to be the difference for us,” Lanning said at a press conference after the Boise State game last season.
Sappington would go on to make the game winning field goal at the end of the game against Boise State in his second game with Oregon.
Camden Lewis was the Ducks kicker from 2019 to 2023 and left Oregon as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 408 points. Even with all of those points, though, he was inconsistent – 49-for-68 on field goals (72.1%). Lewis missed a potential game-tying field goal from 43 yards out in Oregon’s regular-season loss against Washington in 2023. Earlier that same game, he made his longest field goal of the season from 45 yards out.
Since 2010, the Ducks have made 152 field goals on 201 attempts, 76.8% overall. Looking at the eight programs who have won a national championship since 2010, five of them kicked at a higher rate than Oregon, and the ones who hadn’t over that period had kicked at a similar rate as the Ducks according to StatMuse.
Currently the Ducks have four kickers on the roster, with redshirt freshman Gage Hurych looking like the potential starter for next season.
Hurych, from West Linn, Oregon, missed his only attempt of the year against Rutgers, but is 12-for-12 on extra points this season. He was rated as the No. 13 best kicking prospect by 247Sports coming out of high school and the No. 16 kicker nationally by ESPN.
