{"id":401407,"date":"2026-01-09T06:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401407\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:26:08","slug":"why-ole-miss-lucas-carniero-is-better-than-all-but-10-nfl-kickers-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401407\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ole Miss&#8217; Lucas Carniero is better than all but 10 NFL kickers right now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/ole-miss\/news\/why-ole-miss-kicker-lucas-carniero-better-all-10-nfl-kickers-right-now\/6fcf1ac29be5b577113554c0?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Why Ole Miss&#039; Lucas Carniero is better than all but 10 NFL kickers right now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Why Ole Miss&#8217; Lucas Carniero is better than all but 10 NFL kickers right now<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro is doing things in the College Football Playoff that only a handful of NFL specialists can match \u2014 and the numbers back it up.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Despite a miss off the left upright from 52 yards in the third quarter of the Fiesta Bowl, Carneiro still extended his CFP record by drilling another kick from 55-plus yards. His 58-yard field goal at the end of the first half at State Farm Stadium was one yard shy of the playoff record set by Jake Moody in 2022 and tied for the second-longest kick in Ole Miss history. He added a 54-yarder in the third quarter as well.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a one-off. Carneiro is the only college kicker with four field goals of at least 55 yards this postseason. Only 10 NFL kickers have even matched that total in 2025, putting the junior squarely in rare company and growing NFL draft intrigue.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 6 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/ole-miss\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ole Miss Rebels;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ole Miss Rebels<\/a> have leaned heavily on his leg during their playoff run. Carneiro was the hero of the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, connecting from 47 yards to seal the upset after earlier makes from 55 and 56. He entered the Fiesta Bowl 29-for-32 on the season woth elite range.<\/p>\n<p>A Cornelius, North Carolina native, Carneiro transferred from Western Kentucky before the season and has quickly become one of the most valuable weapons in college football.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>With NFL kickers celebrating record attempts like Cam Little\u2019s 68-yarder last weekend, Carneiro has quietly shown he already belongs in that conversation and better than all but a select few in the league right now.<\/p>\n<p>More college football news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Ole Miss&#8217; Lucas Carniero is better than all but 10 NFL kickers right now originally appeared on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,48777,3376,213422,89490,213421,593,27966,85],"class_list":["post-401407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cam-little","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-fiesta-bowl","tag-jake-moody","tag-lucas-carneiro","tag-nfl","tag-ole-miss","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}