Notre Dame can only hope that Spencer Shrader has as much success on the field next season as the Irish did in recruiting a kicker out of the transfer portal.
Notre Dame went 1-for-1 in kicker visits leading to commitments. Shrader, a former kicker at South Florida, announced Tuesday a commitment to graduate transfer to Notre Dame for the 2023 season. He visited campus over the weekend.
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Shrader will come to Notre Dame with a career 70% rate on field goals (28-of-40). He converted 95 of his 96 extra-point attempts for the Bulls. Shrader also performed kickoff duties with 116 of his 208 kickoffs (55.8%) going for touchbacks and an average of 60.0 yards.
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Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Mason leaned on a pair of graduate transfers as specialists this season: place-kicker Blake Grupe (Arkansas State) and punter Jon Sot (Harvard). Both will have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the Gator Bowl on Dec. 30.
Through 12 games, Grupe made 13 of his 18 field goals (72.2%) with a long of 47 yards and misses of 39, 42, 42, 44 and 45 yards. He was 2-of-3 from 30-39 and 6-of-10 from 40-49. Grupe made all 43 of his extra-point attempts.
The Irish have another scholarship kicker on the 2022 roster: sophomore Josh Bryan. He made his lone extra-point attempt as a freshman and didn’t play in the regular season this year.
Freshman walk-on Zac Yoakam did kickoffs for the Irish in 2022. He averaged 62.7 yards per kickoff in the regular season with 44 touchbacks on 70 kicks (62.9%). Yoakam was also the backup place-kicker behind Grupe.
Notre Dame's insistence on bringing Shrader on board likely reflects a lack of confidence in Bryan's ability to be a consistent place-kicker next season. Mason confirmed that Bryan wasn't limited by an injury.
"He had some ups and downs," Mason said of Bryan on Sunday. "I know the season didn't go exactly where he would want in traveling to games and being behind Yoakam and Grupe."
Though Shrader hasn't been lights out at USF, he doesn't lack experience. And he took an unlikely route to becoming USF's starting kicker.
Shrader, also a soccer and tennis player, played just one season of high school football at Lithia (Fla.) Newsome. Rather than enrolling in college immediately after graduation in 2018, Shrader pursued a professional soccer career in Brazil and Canada.
Eventually, Shrader enrolled at South Florida and walked on to the football team. As a freshman, he played in all 12 games primarily as a kickoff specialist but also split place-kicking duties Coby Weiss. Shrader even scored a 22-yard touchdown with a rush on a fake field goal.
Shrader earned a scholarship and split kicking duties as a sophomore with Jared Sackett. Shrader's true breakout season came as a junior in 2021. Before Shrader finished the season 11-of-13 on field goals (84.6%), he was named one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award for best kicker in college football.
Shrader made his career long, a 52-yarder, that season. His two misses came on attempts of 48 and 51 yards. He was 4-5 on field goals of 40-49 yards and 1-2 from 50-plus.
Shrader's accuracy dipped this past season for the 1-11 Bulls. He hit on 9-of-13 field goals (69.2%) with a long of 49 yards. He finished 3-4 from 30-39 yards, 2-4 from 40-49 yards and 0-1 from 50-plus.
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