Elliott Fry’s best guess on South Carolina’s 2017 kicker

When kicker Elliott Fry wrapped up his eligibility in December, it brought the end of an era for the Gamecocks.

Not only did he leave South Carolina as the program’s all-time leading scorer, but the Texan also attempted every one of the team’s field goals and all but one of the extra points in the past four years.

Someone new has to step in, and the last guy had an idea who might do it.

“We’ve got Alex Woznick; he’s a pretty good kicker,” Fry said. “He’s probably going to come in here and start. He’ll end up shattering all my records.”

A Greenville product, Woznick redshirted last season. As a high school senior, he connected on 11-of-15 attempts with a long of 44 yards. He also hit 22-of-24 extra points and had a 5-star ranking by Chris Sailer kicking.

Woznick is the only returning player listed as purely a placekicker. Kicker/punter Michael Almond was a reserve punter last season and started the bowl game at punter. Kicker/punter Joseph Charlton also spent some practice time punting.

But the first name that came to Fry’s mind was Woznick, and the outgoing senior pointed to a key reason why the up-and-comer might eclipse his records.

“He’ll be on a team with probably a really good offense the next four years,” Fry said. “Kind of a really progressive good team, so he’ll end up getting a bunch of points and everything. And he’s a really good kicker, so I don’t have any worries about us kicking in the future.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 10:53 AM with the headline "Elliott Fry’s best guess on South Carolina’s 2017 kicker."