Graham Gano
From NCAA College Football Information & Resource
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Graham Gano (born April 9, 1987 in Arbroath, Scotland) is a punter/kicker for the Florida State University Seminoles in the NCAA college football tournament. After joining the Noles' football team in 2005, Gano patiently bided his time and learned the ropes from his more experienced teammates until his opportunity as a starting punter (sophomore) and placekicker (senior) finally arrived. But the time he spent playing back-up was time well spent as he was able to hone his skills resulting to a much improved performance on FSU's special teams. At one stretch, Gano converted 18 consecutive field goals and ranked within the top five in scoring in the nation.
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[edit] Personal Life
Graham (last name pronounced as ga-KNOW) is the son of Merle and Brenda Gano. He was born in Scotland and lived in Newfoundland and Germany for some time before the family came to the U.S. when he was in the third grade. He grew up in a military family with his father, who served in the Navy, and his brother, Stewart, who served with the Marines in Iraq. When his brother was on duty overseas, Graham would send him DVDs of FSU games.
According to his roommate, quarterback Christian Ponder, Graham "plays too many video games." Graham has written the word P-A-I-N-? on each knuckle on his right hand to remind himself of the injuries he has sustained and of the sufferings that people around him are going through. Written on his other hand is his girlfriend's initials. Graham majored in criminology at the Florida State University.
Graham's first sport was actually soccer, in fact, he dreamed of playing professionally when he was younger. He played the sport for 13 years and never even thought about kicking field goals until he was in high school.
[edit] High School
Gano studied high school at J. M. Tate High in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida where he graduated in 2005. His career in football started when a couple of his friends approached him to give kicking a pigskin a shot. Eventually, he made it to the football team and played for coach Charlie Armstrong, son of Florida State's first ever baseball coach. During his senior year, Gano sank a 65-yard field goal to set the state record. That conversion was one of the three kicks he nailed from beyond 55 yards, after also hitting a 57-yarder, and a 64-yarder against New Orleans Cohen. He actually converted a 67-yarder that season but was nullified by a penalty. He completed all but one of his 12 extra-point attempts and went 7-for-15 on field-goal tries. Gano also handled kickoffs and punts for Tate, sending 36 of his 38 kicks to the endzone for touchbacks while averaging 42 yards per punt. His performance netted him first team All-American accolades from USA Today and EA Sports in addition to being ranked as the nation's No.3 kicker by Rivals.com. He was invited to play for the CaliFlorida All-Star game where he kicked a 50-yard field goal.
[edit] College
A three-star prospect, Gano chose Florida State over Florida, Central Florida, and Southern Miss.
[edit] 2005
As a true freshman, Gano played as a back-up kicker to sophomore starter Gary Cismesia, splitting kickoff duties before eventually taking over as the kickoff specialist in the last six games of the season. That year, he had a total of five touchbacks in 26 kickoffs, including two in his first postseason appearance against Virginia Tech at the ACC Championship game and two other in his first ever bowl game appearance against Penn State in the 2006 Orange Bowl. With Gano handling the kickoffs, the opposing teams had an average starting position of their own 24 yard line. Only twice did opponents assumed position beyond their own 40 yard line after his kickoff. He also made a heads-up play in the 35-27 victory over Maryland after making a solo tackle on Jo Jo Walker at the 38-yard line after a 60- yard return to prevent a Terrapin touchdown.
[edit] 2006
With Chris Hall's departure, Gano took over as the Seminoles' starting punter. In his punting debut, he attempted seven times for 244 yards with two punts landing inside the 20-yard line to pin Miami (Fla.) deep in their own territory. After averaging 37.2 yards per punt on 16 punts in his first three games of the season (including the win over Troy and the loss to Clemson), he went on to average 43.7 yards per punt on 49 punts during the final nine games of the season. He only attempted once in the 55-7 win over Rice that went 48 yards then punted six times for 242 yards or an average of 40.3 in the 20-24 loss at N.C. State. At Duke, Gano attempted three times for an average of 44.3 yards per punt in a 51-24 win before averaging a season high 47.5 yards on four punts in a 19-24 loss to No. 22 Boston College. In a 24-27 defeat at Maryland, he had four punts but only had a season low average of 32.0 on 128 yards. In a shut-out win over Virginia the following week, he bounced back with a better performance, punting 8 times for an average of 40.6. He also had one of his best games against No.18 Wake Forest where he had season highs in punts (9) and yards (400) for a 44.4 average in the 0-30 shut-out loss. Three of his punts against the Demon Deacons went beyond 50 yards, including a season long 63 yarder. He also had a 44.4 average on five punts in a 28-20 win over Western Michigan before ending the regular season against No.4 Florida with a 44.0 yards per punt average on five attempts. In a 44-27 win over UCLA in his first bowl game as a punter, he only averaged 38.8 yards per punt on six punts at the Emerald Bowl.
Gano ended the season averaging 40.8 yards on 67 punts without a block while recording 22 touchbacks on 68 kickoffs. He also had 11+ punts of 50 yards or more and killed 17 of 63 punts (27 percent) inside the 20-yard line, with a career-high three inside the 20-yard line against the Tigers. In addition three of his punts that season went out of bounds. Like the previous season, he also handled all but two kickoffs, kicking 68 times with 22 (32.4 percent) reaching the endzone for a touchback. As a first year-punter, he was included into the Watch List of the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation's top punter.
[edit] 2007
For the second straight year, Gano handled the punting and kickoff duties in all 13 games. In the season-opening loss at Clemson, Gano punted a season high 9 times but only averaged 37.1 yards per punt (one of only two games he averaged below 40). In the Noles' first win of the season, he only punted twice for a season low 94 yards in a 34-24 victory over UAB. In a 16-6 win at Colorado, three of his eight punts traveled 50 yards or more for a season high 374 yards and a 46.75 average. Against Alabama, he punted five times but averaged a season low 35.4 yards per punt in a 21-14 win. Against N.C. State, he attempted thrice for a 45.3 yards per punt average in the 27-10 win. In the 3-point loss at Wake, four of his eight punts marked inside the 20 yard line with a 42 yards per punt average. After averaging 43.67 yards on three punts in the second straight loss to Miami, he turned over the punting duties to Brent Moody in the 25-6 win over Duke. In the 27-17 upset win over No.2 Boston College, he launched two punts of 60 yards or better for the first time in his career, one for 61 and another for a career long 64 yards, with a 49.5 average. In the loss at No.11 Virginia Tech, he averaged 43.2 yards on six punts, then recorded the longest run by a punter during the Bobby Bowden era after rushing for a career high 24 yards on a fake punt. In the 24-16 win over Maryland, he averaged 46.0 yards on three punts then ended the season with a 41.5 yards per punt average in the regular season finale at No. 12 UF.
In his second straight bowl appearance, Gano had a season high 57.0 average on three punts, with one of those three going for 63 yards in the 28-35 Music City Bowl loss to Kentucky. He ended the season as the 17th best punter in the nation with a career-high 43.4 yards per punt average, marking the second straight year he averaged more than 40 yards a punt. A career high 19 of his 58 punts went inside the 20- yard line, with three or more punts going inside the 20 yard line in four different games. In addition, a career high 16 of his punts traveled 50 yards or more during the season. In terms of his kickoffs, he handled 63 of Florida State's 69 kickoffs during the season and accounted for 12 touchbacks with no kickoff returns for TDs for the 2nd straight year. Gano's performance that season was of great aide to the defense as the opposing teams managed to score only in 17 drives (about 69 yards per drive average), or 29% of the time, after his punts.
[edit] 2008
With Cismesia---the 5th-most prolific kicker in school history---graduating, Gano had the chance to battle for the kicker spot which he eventually won, beating out Delaware transfer Zach Hobby. He became the first player in school history to handle all of the kicking duties (punting, placements and kickoffs) with his "promotion." During the offseason, he worked with former Cincinnati kicker Jonathan Ruffin, who won the Lou Groza Award in 2000.
Unfortunately, his first season as the starting placekicker did not begin as he envisioned as he was forced to miss the first two games of the season after damaging the cartilage and tearing the meniscus in his right knee with about three weeks left before the season kicked off. He underwent surgery but still managed to return in mid-September, finally getting his first place-kicking opportunity against No.18 Wake.
After missing his first career field goal attempt from the 52, Gano returned to kick a 37-yarder for the Noles' only score of the game in the 3-12 loss to the Demon Deacons. The following week against Colorado, he sank three unanswered field goals from the 36, 52, and 44 while going 4-for-4 in PATs in the 39-21 home win. At Miami, he went 2-for-2 on field goals (from 53 and 35 yards), 5-for-5 on extra points, and kicked off twice for a 67.5 average as FSU escaped with a 41-39 victory. At N.C. State, he sank all four of his field goals (from 37, 37, 44, 53) and two PATs in a 26-17 win to claim his first ACC Special Teams Player of the Week for the season. In a 30-20 victory over Virginia Tech, Gano not only converted all three of his field goals (from 50, 29, 56) and added three more PATs, he also shared the punting duties with freshman Shawn Powell and averaged 51.67 yards on 3 punts to bag a second consecutive ACC weekly accolade. At Georgia Tech, he made his first career start of the season as a punter and normed 40.3 yards on 3 punts and scored on 2 field goals (29 and 45 yards) and 2 PATs in a 28-31 loss. He also kicked off four times against the Yellow Jackets and got 2 touchbacks with a 69.0 average. Against Clemson, he scored on two first half field goals (52 and 37 yards) and a season high 5 PATs in the 41-27 victory to receive his third weekly honors from the league. He also kicked off 8 times for a 66.3 average with three touchbacks while averaging 41.3 on 3 punts against the Tigers. Against BC, Gano's streak of field goal conversions came to an end after he missed a 50-yard attempt early in the third quarter but not before hitting a 39-yarder in the 2nd period to set his personal best at 18 straight field goal conversions. He also averaged season lows of only 32.0 yards on 2 punts and 55.25 on four kickoffs. On a positive note, he matched his career high 24-yard run against the Eagles which resulted to a TD on the ensuing play.
At No. 25 Maryland, he scored 13 points on 3-of-3 FGs (22, 34, 48) and 4-of-4 PATs then had a touchback on one of his eight kickoffs to help the Noles upset the Terps, 37-3, receiving his fourth special teams player of the week award in the process.
[edit] Career Stats
| Punting | Field Goal | Extra Point | |||||||||||||
| Year | Pnts | Yds | Avg. | Pnt/G | Yds/G | Att | Made | Pct. | Att/G | Made/G | Att | Made | Pct | Att/G | Made/G |
| 2006 | 67 | 2736 | 40.84 | 5.2 | 210.5 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 2007 | 58 | 2514 | 43.34 | 4.5 | 193.4 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 2008 | |||||||||||||||
[edit] Achievements
[edit] 2008
- ACC Special Teams Player of the Week (vs. N.C. State, vs. Virginia Tech, vs. Clemson, vs. Maryland)
- All-ACC Preseason Team (Media)
- Blue Ribbon All-ACC preseason team
- Lou Groza Award Finalist
- The Sporting News' top punter in the ACC
[edit] 2007
- Miami Herald All-Florida first team
- Phil Steele honorable mention All-ACC
[edit] 2006
- Ray Guy Award Watch List
