Georgia Tech’s Birr Among Three Finalists for Groza Award

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech place kicker Aidan Birr (Kennedale, Texas/Kennedale H.S.) is one of three finalists for the 2025 Lou Groza Award. The Groza Award is presented annually to college football’s top place kicker.

Birr is only the second Groza Award finalist in Georgia Tech history and the first since Scott Sisson was a finalist in 1992, the inaugural year of the award.

Birr earned the recognition on the strength of a spectacular junior season that has seen him make 22-of-25 field goals and 42-of-42 extra points, good for 108 total points. He is tied for second nationally in field goals made, ranks second in kick scoring and fifth in overall scoring (9.8 ppg). His .880 field goal percentage also ranks among the top 25 nationally.

In addition to the gaudy numbers, Birr’s ability to deliver in the clutch has played a big role in No. 23/19 Georgia Tech (9-2, 6-2) winning nine of its first 11 games for only the 15^th time in its 133-season football history. Birr has kicked two game-winning field goals this season – a school-record 55-yarder as time expired in the Yellow Jackets’ 24-21 win over No. 12/11 Clemson on Sept. 13 and a 23-yarder with 11 seconds remaining in Tech’s 36-34 triumph at Boston College on Nov. 15 – and also drilled a 33-yarder with two seconds to go to send the Jackets to overtime in a 30-29 win at Wake Forest.

Making the game-winner versus Clemson and the game-tying kick at Wake Forest even more impressive is that both came in “Toro” situations, when the field goal unit takes the field with time winding down and without the benefit of a timeout.

Birr is joined on the list of Groza Award finalists by Hawai’i’s Kansei Matsuzawa and Oklahoma’s Tate Sandell. They will be honored at the 34^th-annual Lou Groza Collegiate Place Kicker Awards banquet on Dec. 8 in Palm Beach County, Fla., and the winner will be announced live during the Home Depot College Football Awards on Dec. 12 on ESPN.

Birr and the Yellow Jackets close the regular season on Friday versus archrival and No. 4-ranked Georgia. The 119^th edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate kicks off at 3:30 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the showdown will be televised live on ABC.

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

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