The countdown is officially on.
Starting today, there are less than 100 days until the return of Minnesota Golden Gophers football.
The Golden Gophers will begin their 2024 season on August 29 when the host the ACC's North Carolina Tar Heels at Huntington Bank Stadium. With the countdown on, Gophers Nation will take a look at one Gophers' standout each day, taking a look at their careers as a whole, their 2023 season, and what should be expected in 2024.
Today, we start with one of the Gophers' top performers in 2023, kicker Dragan Kesich.
Kesich is coming off his first season as the Gophers' starting place kciker after spending his first there years on campus as a kickoff specialist, attempting just one field goal attempt between 2020 and 2022.
With Matthew Trickett's departure following the 2022 season, Kesich won the place kicking battle last offseason and proceeded to run away with the opportunity.
2023 RECAP
The 2023 season was one of the best seasons out of a Minnesota place kicker ever.
In his first start as the Gophers' placekicker, Kesich would start the Gophers' season with a 47-yard game winning field goal to defeat the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the program's season opener.
He would go on to make 23-of-27 field goal attmepts while hitting all 27 extra point attempts, finishing with 86 points, the ninth most in program history. Additionally, Kesich was 5-for-6 from 40 through 49 yards in 2023 and three-for-four in attmepts of over 50 yards including making a pair of 54-yard attempts against the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes.
For his performance, Kesich was named the Big Ten Bakken-Anderson Kicker of the Year, an All-Big Ten First Team selection, an AP First Team All-Big Ten selection, and a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award.
2024 OUTLOOK
After being the Bakken-Andersen Kicker of the Year in 2023, Kesich returns in 2024 in hopes of reclaiming his title. The Wisconsin native should once again be one of the top kickers not just in the Big Ten but in the country this upcoming season. Expect another big season for the 6-foot-4 placekicker.
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