Name: Dominic Zvada
Height: 6’3"
Weight: 180 lbs.
High school: Chandler (AZ) Valley Christian
Position: Kicker
Class: Junior
Jersey number: #96
Last year: Zvada played at Arkansas State. He was 17/22 on field goals and 41/41 on extra points.
TTB Rating: N/A
Michigan has had some solid kickers in recent years that made it to the NFL, including Quinn Nordin and Jake Moody. Last year they took a transfer in James Turner from Louisville, who made some key kicks down the stretch and might end up on an NFL roster this season. So despite having homegrown Adam Samaha and Mississippi State transfer Hudson Hollenbeck on the roster, Michigan took a swing for the fences again and landed Arkansas State's starting kicker. Zvada was a Lou Groza Award semifinalist in 2022 as a freshman, and he was still pretty solid as a sophomore, converting all of his extra points and 17 out of 22 of his field goal attempts.
I don't have a ton of confidence in Samaha, who has seemed a little shaky since arriving on campus. Michigan has a tough schedule in 2024 and might need some clutch kicks this season to either ensure victories or tie up some games late. Michigan was blowing out teams in 2023 on a weekly basis - except for Maryland, Ohio State, and Alabama - but that's not always going to be the case this fall. Zvada has a chance to swing a couple games in Michigan's favor this fall, so I think he will be a key player if Michigan is going to make a run for the College Football Playoff.
Prediction: Starting kicker
A very big get in the Portal. I'm glad we have him but I don't see him ranking this high because he's a kicker and we have a lot of other options. Even our backup punter was ranked as a 4.5 star kicker.
ReplyDeleteIn the NFL kicker salaries are pretty small, so it does not seem like football teams value them that highly. As long as you have someone competent you should be OK and the differences between average and excellent are incremental.
Put another way -- a deficient kicker might cost you a game but a deficient left tackle might cost you a season.
Takes exposed! Not even old ones. Helluva debut for Zvoda!
DeleteLOL. Yeah, if not for Zvada, that game is a lot more scary.
DeleteAccording to this guy. Zvada was worth 4.8 extra points in this Fresno state game relative to a "replacement level" player.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/CFB_Data/status/1830750413332546000
Michigan may or may not have replacement-level replacements available (they maybe better, or worse, we don't really know). Also Michigan might not have made the same KICK IT decisions without Zvada to reduce the number. But regardless, he demonstrated the value of a (seemingly) elite kicker in this game.