Kickers have long been football’s loners. They practice by themselves, play a tiny number of snaps and, for years, many weren’t even on scholarship. Now they’ve found the most powerful play in the sport’s new era of player pay: the group chat. Kickers are swapping pay numbers through group texts, Instagram DMs and kicking camps, then using them to land some of the biggest raises in college football.
Kickers Compare Notes
“They basically self-created their own market,” said the father of a recent Power Four conference kicker. His son started at $40,000 a few years ago but knew about 20 other kickers from recruiting and the camps they’d attended since about age 15. When his school made an offer before his senior season, he pointed to a kicker elsewhere with a bigger deal and worse stats. He landed $225,000, without an agent.
Specialists, a group made up mostly of kickers and punters, now average $225,000 as Power Four starters. Their pay grew 60.9% this season, trailing only tight ends, by Opendorse’s estimates. A former walk-on, tipped off by his outside coach, negotiated a deal worth about $500,000. He called it surreal. The top-paid kicker this season makes $600,000, says Rob Roche of the 1 of 1 Agency.
A Short Career, Fast Money
Top kickers have real leverage: they can transfer and help a new team immediately, no new playbook required, says Opendorse co-founder Adi Kunalic, a former Nebraska kicker. Results still rule, though. Nathanial Vakos, who kicked at Wisconsin last season, says he was paid between $50,000 and $100,000 and that his late-career struggles didn’t help. Dominic Dzioban, a Miami of Ohio kicker last year, made about $24,000, “which in Oxford, Ohio, that is like a million dollars.” He now works for a beverage distributor.
Dzioban’s joke has a sequel: seeing today’s paychecks, he wonders if he has another year of eligibility. That’s the catch with money that shows up fast on a short career. The window closes, and the checks stop. A young earner’s first moves are dull on purpose: learn how the money is taxed, set cash aside for any tax bill, build an emergency fund — cash for surprises — then invest for the long run. Kickers check the wind before the snap, not after the ball sails wide. Treat the umbrella the same way: bring a recent statement, and fifteen minutes will sketch where a windfall goes first.