Exclusive: Brock Taylor Feels He is One of the Best Kickers in the Country and His Coach Agrees – Sports Illustrated

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With just about all teams in college football, the attention and focus for each team is on the offense and defense of the roster and rightly so. In most cases, the difference makers on a roster are either on offense or defense. But in Vanderbilt’s case, the Commodores feel they have a difference maker on special teams.
Vanderbilt kicker Brock Taylor is one of the kickers in college football that can truly change the game with his leg. Taylor was accurate during the 2025 season with 13 made field goals on 14 attempts and 60 made extra points on 61 attempts.
Taylor’s accuracy cannot be denied. Despite the fact that his college career long for a field goal is just 51 yards, Taylor routinely practices from further out. During the spring, Taylor said he was repping field goal attempts from 60 to 65 yards out. If the opportunity arises in the fall for Taylor to kick past 51, head coach Clark Lea probably would not hesitate to send him out.
The distance has not always been that way. Taylor has had to work to get the accuracy and leg strength he has now, but he does feel that the results from the work he has put in makes him one of the best kickers in college football.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Taylor told Vandy On SI on whether he feels he is one of the best kickers not just in the SEC, but in the country. “I know and really do think that I’m one of the best kickers in college football, and I take pride in that. But I also know that all those dudes are just as talented.”
A season ago, Taylor ranked No. 6 amongst all college kickers in 2025 in field goal percentage at 92.9%. That is good enough for first among all SEC kickers. The next closest SEC kicker was Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell at 88.9%.
Taylor has the full support of the coaching staff behind him as well. Clark Lea told Vandy On SI that he feels that Taylor should be on the list of candidates up for preseason awards when they come out later this summer. Lea knows how crucial Taylor is to the success of Vanderbilt and also knows he is going to have to rely on him in big moments this fall.
“Brock is a guy that we expect to be a big part of team success. I think it’s worth pointing out that we feel like we got the best kicker in the league. He’s someone we want to make sure we keep front and center when it comes to those preseason awards,” Lea said.
While he feels he is one of the best kickers in the sport, Taylor seems to keep himself humble about it. As he has gotten to know other kickers over time, he has realized that every other kicker in college football is working hard just like him and is aware that there is always work to be done.
“One thing I’ve learned is that people in this position are always working. It’s similar to golf, where you really don’t know where the ceiling is for yourself and the people around you, so I’ve really enjoyed that work toward mastery of it,” Taylor told Vandy On SI. “At the end of the day, honing in on what makes us specialize in our strengths and trying to continue to get better every day is what I think has let me continue to lead in that position.”
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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