The highlight of College GameDay this season has easily been the field goal kicking contest put on by Pat McAfee. Not only is it great entertainment, but it’s also given multiple college students hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The rules of the field goal contest always vary week to week depending on how generous McAfee is feeling in the moment. We’ve seen students recruit soccer players to kick for them to split the purse. We’ve even seen him allow Kirk Herbstreit to throw the ball through the goalposts for one lucky student who had never kicked a ball before to win a $300,000 prize. But if we know one thing, it’s that it is indeed his own money that he is putting on the line week after week.
But at Vanderbilt, students seem committed to winning it on their own. In an awesome event with College GameDay coming to town on Saturday for the Top 20 matchup between #10 Vanderbilt and #17 Missouri, the team’s kickers held a practice to train students who are hoping to win the lottery to take part in the field goal kicking contest this week. According to a video from Vandy student Dylan Tovitz, almost 100 Commodores showed up to try out their skills.
A crowd of nearly 100 Vanderbilt students are currently out on alumni lawn practicing their @CollegeGameDay field goal-kicking with Brock Taylor and Nick Haberer 🎥
Was actually impressed with some of the student kicking skills: pic.twitter.com/7a9usl13zM
— Dylan Tovitz (@dtovitz) October 22, 2025
Starting kicker Brock Taylor would be a great person to learn from for those Vanderbilt students. He’s 6-6 so far this season on field goals with a long of 51 yards. Last season, Taylor was 18-21 on field goals with a long of 57 yards.
Hopefully one of these students who put in the time and effort to practice some kicks will pay off on Saturday morning with Pat McAfee and company looking on. And if the kick is indeed successful thanks to Vandy’s training, it may start a trend around the country where the special teams units get some additional love when GameDay comes to town.
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