Although the South Carolina Gamecocks are having a rough season (4-4) in comparison to the last four years, our dynamic kicking duo of Elliott Fry (29) and Patrick Fish (18) are leading the SEC.
Elliott Fry walked on as a true freshman kicker and teamed up with former punter, Patrick Fish, last season. Together, they’ve missed only 1 out of 80 PAT and missed only 4 FG out of 29 since 2013. This year they’ve had only 1 missed FG and 0 missed PAT, for a combined 71 points this season. That’s a 92.3% FG accuracy and 100% PAT accuracy for those of us not math inclined. That missed FG this season was from over 50 yards, which even the best of the best miss many times from that range. The closest other SEC teams are Kentucky and Tennessee, with FG accuracy of 66.7 and 80 % respectively and 100% for PAT (both teams). South Carolina also has the most PAT kicks at 35, while Kentucky has 31 and Tennessee has 21.
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Elliott Fry is on the watch list for the Lou Groza Award for the Nation’s top place kicker for his performance this season. Obviously he is there because of those on-the-field stats, but you may have also seen this year’s picture posted to Fry’s twitter account of a car windshield being smashed in by a practice kick in August.
While the spotlight is usually on the kicker, Fry makes sure to give credit to the long-haired fiery redhead Fish for being a well rounded ball handler, especially in make or break plays. The first quarter of the Missouri game is a great example of how a high snap was handled perfectly by Fish and allowed Fry to connect and put points on the board. That same type of play (low snap instead of high) being mishandled by Mizzou’s holder cost their kicker, Andrew Baggett, to miss the drive before. Fish went Vine viral last year for his trick kick video where he spins the ball with his foot and then makes it through the upright.
While this is their last season playing together, the Gamecocks have (hopefully) two more years of greatness from Fry. Meanwhile Fish, who has already graduated, will be looking to put his sports and entertainment degree to use and follow his father’s footsteps into coaching. Patrick’s father, Woody Fish, was the head coach at Garner-Webb from 1984-1996.
When asked on twitter what their favorite moment was this season, Fry described an attempted high five after a PAT during the Furman game where he missed because Fish wasn’t looking at him. It may be one of the only things on the field Fry ever misses.